Sevdalinka interpreter Damir Imamović from Bosnia and Herzegovina is the winner of The Best of Europe award from the British music magazine "Songlines". This most important magazine in the field of world music genre from all over the world announced the winners of its awards and presented perhaps the biggest recognition to date to Damir for his work, but also the first recognition of this kind to arrive in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
After the nominations were announced in early April, it became clear that Damir's work was being noticed more than ever before. He was nominated in as many as two categories (for "Best Artist of Europe" and for "Best Artist") and thus became the only contestant this year with two nominations. Besides him in the category for the best European artist, the following were nominated: Portuguese diva Mariza, English troubadour Sam Lee and French vocal duo Cocanha. The award ceremony will be held at the end of the year in London.
Damir's great international success was not hindered even by the pandemic, so his album "Singer of Tales" (Wrasse, 2020) immediately after its release was at the top of the international charts, where it spent more than half a year. This was followed by awards for European Album of the Year from the Transglobal Music Chart, then the quarterly award for Best Traditional Music Album from the German Music Critics Association and inclusion in the UK's top ten albums of 2020.
Damir's seventh album in a row was produced by the famous music producer Joe Boyd (REM, Nick Drake, Pink Floyd) and Andrea Goertler (Saz'iso), and on the album Damir is accompanied by an exceptional musical team: violinist Ivana Đurić (Sevdah Takht Damir Imamović), master kemenchea Derja Turkan (Kudsi Erguner, Erkan Ogur) and double bassist Greg Cohen (Tom Veits, Laura Anderson, Masada, John Zorn).
The music award of the British magazine "Songlines" was established in 2009 and continues the tradition of the prestigious music award in the field of "World Music" awarded by the famous third program of the BBC. Since 2016, the prize has been awarded according to the continents from which the artists come. The winners of some of the prestigious "Songlines" awards so far have been: Mariza, Fanfare Čiokarlia, Goran Bregović, Derek Griper...
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