Senidah


Senida Hajdarpašić, known by her stage name Senidah, is a Slovenian singer-songwriter. Born in Ljubljana, Slovenia, she rose to prominence as a lead singer of the Slovenian band MUFF. She is often dubbed "the Balkan Trap Diva" by media.
Senidah attracted regional fame with the release of her single "Slađana" in March 2018. The song was named "Hip-Hop/Rap Song of the Year" at 2019 Music Awards Ceremony. It was the lead single off her debut studio album Bez Tebe, released in March 2019 for the Belgrade-based label Bassivity Music. The album was followed by a string of commercially successful singles, including "Mišići", "Kamikaza" and "100%".

Career

Early beginnings

Senidah's singing talent was discovered by her sister, who would record her singing and post it on the internet.
In February 2011, Senidah released her debut R&B-influenced single "Pustinjom", but soon after joined electro soul-pop band MUFF as the lead singer. Their first single "Naj sije v očeh" was awarded the song of the year in Slovenia. In March of 2014, MUFF took part in the preselection contest for Slovenia's representative at the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest with "Let Me Be ", finishing as the runner-ups to Tinkara Kovač and "Round and Round". Their debut eponymous album, released in November, was then declared the album of the year.

2018–2019: Breakthrough, "Slađana" and ''Bez Tebe''

In March 2018, Senidah released her solo trap single "Slađana" in Serbian to lackluster success. However, after being discovered by Serbian rappers and producers Reksona and Coby from the Belgrade-based hip-hop label Bassivity Digital, she accepted their offer to re-upload the music video to their official YouTube channel. Soon, "Slađana" went viral and has accumulated more than fifty million views. Senidah successfully continued collaborating with Bassivity, through which she released her following single "Belo" in June. She was also featured on "4 strane sveta" by Coby as part of the soundtrack to Serbian movie Južni vetar. At the last day of the year she released two more singles, titled "Bez tebe" and "Nisi bio tu".
In January the following year, Senidah won the Hip-Hop/Rap Song of the Year Award with "Slađana" at the 2019 Music Awards Ceremony. In March, she released a single in English, titled "Ride", under Universal Serbia, which had been recorded a couple of years prior. Her debut album, Bez Tebe, was eventually released on 25 March, entirely in Serbian.

2019–present: "Mišići" and "100%"

On 21 April, Senidah performed at the Bassivity Showcase event in Belgrade Sports Hall, alongside Bassivity Digital collective. Senidah released "Mišići" and "Sve bih" featuring Atlas Erotika for FCKN A! in April and May, respectively. The former one saw great success, counting more than sixty million views on YouTube. That summer as a part of her tour, she also performed at Exit Gang and Sea Dance Festival. In July, she co-wrote Đogani's single "Dodiri". On 9 August, she released "202", again in English. In mid August, media started the rumour that Senidah was internally selected to represent Slovenia at Eurovision Song Contest 2020; however, the rumour turned out to be false.
On 15 August, a new single "Kamikaza" by Bosnian rappers Jala Brat and Buba Corelli was released, featuring Senidah. The single was great commercial success, charting on the Ö3 Austria Top 40. On 26 September, Austrian rapper RAF Camora posted a snippet of his upcoming collaboration with Senidah on his Instagram story. The song, titled "100%", was released on 28 November, alongside the music video that was shot in Barcelona, Spain. It peaked at number 3 in Austria and debuted at 28 on the Official German Charts on 6 December, becoming the first song in Serbo-Croatian to achieve that.
As of January 2020, Senidah is the first musician from the region to reach 700,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. On 27 January 2020, she performed "Mišići" live at 2020 Music Awards Ceremony, as well as presented Oliver Mandić with the Career Achievement Award. Later in the night she won two awards herself, the Trap Song of the Year Award for "Mišići", presented to her by Jelena Karleuša, and a special Golden MAC for Authenticity Award that was awarded to her by the organizers' choice.
Despite the fact she denied it at the Music Awards Ceremony a month before, Telegraf reported in late February that Senidah collaborated with Bosnian musician Dino Merlin on a song. According to the media, Merlin wrote the song and they shot a music video in Istanbul. However, Senidah denied the rumours once again on Instagram Live. On 1 March, Senidah released the music video for "Samo uživaj", shot at Faculty of Pharmacy at University of Belgrade. On 12 May, she released the music video for "Ko je", directed and produced by the singer herself. The video was shot at the streets of Ljubljana, deserted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Three days later, she released her new single "Piješ".

Artistry

Influences

When asked about who would be her American counterpart, Senidah named Alicia Keys "because of her emotion" and Mary J. Blige "because of her aggression", as well as Chris Brown "because of his stage presence".
Senidah expressed her love of sevdah, adding that she loves her stage name because it reminds her of the word, as well as her fascination with Bosnian sevdah musician Božo Vrećo. She also named Dino Merlin her influence, pointing out that he "gave her a lot both as a musician and a soul she can feel".

Personal life

Senidah was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Her parents are from Bijelo Polje, Montenegro and she lives between Ljubljana and Belgrade.
When she was a guest in a show Nešto Drugačije and was answering fans' questions, she was asked about her sexuality to which she replied:
I love people. I don't look at who they are or what they are. It is only important that I find you okay and that's it. I love good people. Uncorrupted people.
The response sparked debates about the singer's possible bisexuality. In an interview with the Serbian edition of Hello! she said that rumours about her sexuality do not bother her and that "she's in a relationship with music".

Discography