Šaban Šaulić

Šaban Šaulić (Serbian Cyrillic: Шабан Шаулић; 6 September 1951 – 17 February 2019) was a Serbian pop folk singer. His debut EP 'Dajte mi utjehu' was released in 1969 when he was eighteen years old. Noted for his refined baritone vocals and career spanning over five decades, Šaulić was referred to as 'The King of Folk'. He was also a judge on the televised singing competition Zvezde Granda between 2013 and 2016. Šaulić died in a traffic collision on 17 February 2019, at Bielefeld, Germany. Šaulić was born on September 6, 1951 in Šabac, Serbia, (Yugoslavia), to mother of Bosnian background. His father died while Šaulić was in Australia on tour for the New Year's Eve holiday. He couldn't attend his father's funeral the next day, and has often said he will never be able to come to terms with this fact. He married his wife, Gordana (born 1958), in 1974. During the brief separation from his spouse in 1985 Šaulić wrote a song dedicated to his wife. Together they would go on to have three children, one son named Mihajlo, and two daughters, Sanela and Ilda. Ilda has since followed in her father's footsteps and pursued a singing career. In the early hours of 17 February 2019, Šaulić was being driven home from a concert held the night previously in Germany with his friend and a driver. At approximately 06:50am on Sunday morning, on the A2 autobahn between Bielefeld and Gütersloh, a drunk and unlicensed driver collided with the Seat Ibiza that Šaulić was being driven in causing serious injury to the driver, Šaulić and the third passenger. All three were taken to hospital, where Šaulić passed away. News of Šaulić's death was met with widespread shock and sorrow from the Balkan music scene, with many of his colleagues taking to social media to mourn the loss of the man many had crowned the "King of Traditional Folk Music" ("Kralj Narodne Muzike").