Edin Dervišhalidović 

(born 12 September 1962), known professionally as Dino Merlin, is a

Bosnian singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer.[1][2]
Nicknamed "The Wizard", he is considered one of the most prominent and commercially successful
artists ever to emerge from former Yugoslavia.[3] Born in Sarajevo, he was the founder and leader of
'Merlin', which eventually became one of the best selling rock-bands of Southeast Europe.[4][5]
Dino is recognised for his later solo work during which he established himself as one of the best-
selling regional artists of all time. During his career, he has produced over a dozen chart-topping
albums,[6] held several record-breaking tours,[7] won many awards including the Sixth April Award of
Sarajevo,[8] and has authored the first national anthem of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is widely
known for his distinctive voice, stage performances and poetic lyrics.

Contents

 1Early life
 2Music career
o 2.1Early years
o 2.2First album, period of struggle
o 2.3Solo career
o 2.4Breaking records, major success
o 2.5Current success, Billboard recognition
 3Personal life
 4Philanthropy and Social Responsibility Projects
 5Discography
o 5.1Albums
 5.1.1With Merlin
 5.1.2Solo career
 5.1.3DVDs
 5.1.4Blu-rays
o 5.2Singles
 6Tours
 7References
 8External links

Early life[edit]
Edin Dervišhalidović was born on 12 September 1962, in the historic neighbourhood
of Alifakovac in Sarajevo, Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was a republic
of Yugoslavia.[9] The Dervišhalidović family traces its origins to Novi Pazar in Serbia. Dino's father
Abid was a carpenter who came to Sarajevo as a teenager. His mother, Fatima (née Činjarević),
born and raised in Sarajevo, was a Muslim cleric.[10] His parents divorced when he was 7 years old
and he was subsequently raised by his mother.[11]
Dino attended the historic Moris Moco Salom elementary school where he was very active as a
child, captaining its soccer, basketball and table tennis teams. The school and its historic
surroundings - Emperor's Mosque, President Tito's residence Konak [bs] and Hotel Nacional, all
influenced his later art.[9]
On his mother's insistence, and contrary to his own wishes of attending music school, Dino enrolled
into the Sarajevo Technical High School. After school hours, he performed in a music duo with his
childhood friend and keyboard player Mirsad Lutvica with whom he later established the band
"Merlin".

Music career[edit]
Early years[edit]
Although Dino's mother was against the idea of her son being a musician, she did help Dino buy his
first guitar when he was 12 years old.[12] After learning his first chords, Dino began writing his own
melodies and lyrics. He penned his first song at 14 years old. Dino was mostly selftaught although
he did take a couple lessons from an older neighbour called Mirsad. Mirsad's younger brother,
Mensur Lutvica, played the keyboard and attended the same school as Dino. They soon became
best friends and eventually became the founding members of the later band 'Merlin'. Mensur began
accompanying Dino while performing on the streets of Sarajevo.
Dino was heavily influenced by the Yugoslavian musicians Bijelo Dugme, Zdravko Čolić, Kemal
Monteno, Toma Zdravković, among others.[13] He entered several music competitions covering the
songs of the aforementioned artists. He would later even become close friends with Goran Bregovic,
the founder and primary songwriter of Bijelo Dugme.
After enrolling in university, Dino formed a band, with Mensur on keyboards, Amir "Tula" Bjelanović
on guitar, Džafer Saračević on drums and Enver "Mili" Milišićon bass guitar. Each of the five put a
paper with their idea for a band name in a hat; the name "Merlin" was the first to be pulled out of the
hat, which they named the band.[14]

First album, period of struggle[edit]

After completing his first semester at university, Dino soon dropped out in order to pursue a music
career. However, he did not have enough money to enter a recording studio. During this time he
married his high-school sweetheart Amela, and soon found himself working two shifts a day at a
metal factory in the suburbs of Sarajevo in order to support his newly formed marriage. Dino ended
up working in the factory for a couple of years before earning enough money to consider making an
album.[15] It was during the long nights at the assembly lane that he started writing most of the songs
which would later be present in his first LP.
In 1984, Dino entered a local studio in Sarajevo owned by producer Brano Likić. All of the songs
recorded were written by Dino while the fees of the recording were paid from Dino's personal funds.
During this time, Dino was rejected by every major record label in Sarajevo. At the same time, Dino's
private funds were only enough for about 6 songs with the norm of the day being 10 songs for a
proper album. During the recording session of the final song, a local A&R agent Muradif Brkić
entered the studio where Dino and Brano were mixing a song, which later turned out be Kokuzna
Vremena. After listening to the track a couple of times, Muradif offered Dino a contract with his
record label "Sarajevodisk" on the spot and agreed to finance the remainder of the song recordings.
Eventually, Merlin was able to release its first album in 1985 with the leading single Kokuzna
vremena - the same song which gave Dino and his band a lifeline into the music industry.[16]
With the band, he has recorded 5 studio albums: Kokuzna vremena in 1985, Teško meni sa
tobom in 1986, Merlin in 1987, Nešto lijepo treba da se desi in 1989, and Peta strana svijeta in
1990.

Solo career[edit]
Dino in 2008

Dervišhalidović began his solo career under the name Dino Merlin in 1991, and recorded six studio
albums: Moja bogda sna in 1993, Fotografija in 1995, Sredinom in 2000, Burek in 2004, Ispočetka in
2008, Hotel Nacional.
During the war, several members of the band "Merlin" were killed in the attacks, including their long-
time manager Kemal Bisic with whom Dino was particularly close. Dino suffered a period of
depression during which he contemplated abandoning music altogether.[17]
As Dino was the sole songwriter for the band, and produced most of their work, it was no surprise
that he went on a solo career. Not long after the band dissolved, Merlin was invited by the state
government of Bosnia to write its first ever national anthem "Jedna si jedina". The song acted as the
state's national anthem until the late 1990s.[18] In 1993 he wrote the song and eventually participated
in Bosnia's first Eurovision Song Contests, in Millstreet in 1993.[19] Dino authored the song "Sva bol
svijeta" (trans. "All the grief in the world"). The song was about the hardships the people in his home
country were enduring during the war and called for peace. He again participated in the Eurovision
Song Contests in Jerusalem in 1999 (singing Putnici with Béatrice, a French singer) and
in 2011 with Love in Rewind.[19] Dino Merlin has also taken part in other big European festivals, such
as Copenhagen in 1996 and Turkovision in 1997.[20]

Breaking records, major success[edit]

In 2000, aged 38, Dino wrote and released his most successful album to date - the famous
"Sredinom" (trans. Middle). The album was the top-selling album in Bosnia and Herzegovina and
was sold in all of the former Yugoslav republics.[21]
The album eventually turned into a classic and became the highest selling album of the region in the
last 30 years. Some estimates put the album sales at about 2,000,000 - a record breaking success
considering that the whole population of Yugoslavia was about 20,000,000 people.[22]
The subsequent tour promoting his Sredinom album included over 200 concerts, with a spectacular
record-breaking performance at the Koševo Olympic Stadium in Sarajevo, in front of an audience of
about 80,000.[22] This was the largest crowd ever to assemble on the national stadium in Bosnia's
history.[22] Dino subsequently performed 3 more times at this stadium and is the only artist ever to
have filled this venue to capacity on 4 occasions.

Current success, Billboard recognition[edit]

After a 6-year hiatus, Dino returned to the stage with his eleventh album Hotel Nacional.[23] It was
released in June 2014 and was featured in the top 10 on the Billboard World Albums list immediately
upon release due to unprecedented online sales in the region.[24][25] This is the only album from the
Slavic-speaking Europe ever to be charted on the prestigious Billboard list. The album featured a
star-studded line up of Yoad Nevo, Richard Niles, Husnu Senlendirici, and many other producers
that have worked for globally renowned music acts such as Sugababes, Morcheeba, Lisa
Ekdahl, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and many others.[23] The Hotel Nacional World Tour has had a box office
success of 700,000 people that have attended concerts across 4 continents. It is the largest tour
ever to have been produced by an artist from Southeast Europe.[26]

Personal life[edit]
Dino resides in his hometown of Sarajevo, in the same house and street where he was born and
raised, in the historic neighbourhood of Alifakovac. He has two children. His daughter, Naida, earned
her bachelor's degree from Buckingham University and master's degree at Oxford University.[27] His
son, Hamza, graduated from the Boğaziçi University in Istanbul and earned his master's degree
at University of Westminster in London.[28]
Dino is an avid chess player, skier, art collector and book reader. He also owns a record label and
concept store in the centre of Sarajevo, in the old city centre of Baščaršija.

Philanthropy and Social Responsibility Projects[edit]

Although Dino likes to keep his humanitarian activities private and out of public sight, it is known that
he is an active donor of scholarships to underprivileged children in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is a
long-time member of the Hastor Foundation, the biggest organisation of its kind devoted to
distributing scholarships to primary and high-school students in the country.[29] Dino acts as a
sponsor to over dozen students every year and has been a member of this programme since 2008.[29]
Dino worked for 5 years pro bono as the honorary and de facto president of the assembly of AMUS -
the main association of music artists of Bosnia.[30] He has been one of the founding members of this
organisation in 2013.[31] In early 2018 he resigned from his position as president due to the lack of
available time at his disposal to run the association.[30]
During his career he has played numerous charity concerts. During the great floods, which have
affected the region, Dino's team was heavily involved in humanitarian works - distributing water,
food, blankets and other provisions to the most endangered parts of Bosnia and Serbia.[32][33]
In 2013, Dino was awarded the International Humanitarian Award in Urfa, Turkey.[34]

Discography[edit]
Albums[edit]
With Merlin[edit]

 Kokuzna vremena (1985)
 Teško meni sa tobom (a još teže bez tebe) (1986)
 Merlin (1987)
 Nešto lijepo treba da se desi (1989)
 Peta strana svijeta (1990)
Solo career[edit]

 Moja bogda sna (1993)

 Fotografija (1995)
 Sredinom (2000)
 Burek (2004)
 Ispočetka (2008)
 Hotel Nacional (2014)
DVDs[edit]

 Live Koševo 2004 (2005)

 Koševo 19. Juli (2009)
 Beograd 2011 (2016)
 Hotel Nacional - Koševo 2015 (2016)
Blu-rays[edit]

 Arena Zagreb (2018)
 Arena Pula (2020)
Singles[edit]
 1989: "Kad zamirišu jorgovani" (with Vesna Zmijanac)
 1997: "Zaspao je mjesec"
 1999: "Putnici" (with Béatrice Poulot)
 1999: "Smijehom strah pokrijem"
 2000: "I have no cannons that roar" (with Yusuf Islam)
 2001: "Tako prazan" (with Adi Lukovac)
 2002: "Pustite me" (with Osman Hadžić)
 2007: "Otkrit ću ti tajnu"
 2008: "Med" (with Emina Jahović)
 2011: "Love in Rewind"
 2011: "Undo"
 2014: "Ruža" (with Husnu Senlendirici)
 2020: "Mi"
 2020: "Dođi" (with Senidah)

Tours[edit]
 Kokuzna vremena Yugoslavian tour (1985–1986)
 Teško meni sa tobom Yugoslavian tour (1986–1987)
 Nešto lijepo treba da se desi European tour (1988–1989)
 Fotografija Balkan tour (1997–1998)
 Sredinom World Tour (2000–2003)
 Burek World tour (2004–2007)
 Ispočetka World Tour (2008–11)
 Hotel Nacional World Tour (2014–2019)