Once upon a time there was a mother whose name was Esrefa and a father whose name was Salko. They lived in Travnik, in a small and beautiful place surrounded by high mountains and woods, in a country where the winter is so cold, that bears leave their shelters and run into villages to find some warm shelter, and where in the summer birds sing so beautifully, meeting the warm sun, that one thinks that that charm of the summer is ever-lasting. That country is called Bosnia and Hercegovina.

Esrefa and Salko were expecting a baby. The baby was eager to come to the world and thus he came suddenly, earlier, much earlier than he had been expected. The baby was born on 8th March 1950. As he came, his mother was alone at home. Due to good old habits of ours, when a new-baby comes, the house has to be cleaned and as mother was alone at that moment, she made herself to work. In a while the wooden floor near a small crab was shrubbed, the dust was gone, the room was filled with fresh air, and even the supper was on the stove, because the father was expected to be home any minute then after his hard day´s work.

The baby was called Seid. Much, much later he would become an another name - his nickname - Vajta, the name by which he is known to everyone.

When crying, Vajta was a very loud baby. Everybody at home thought he would become an opera singer. They just couldn´t figure out whom he took after because in their modest family there were not any opera singers. He was so loud that noone could be sleeping if he wasn´t in good mood and if he didn´t allow him do that. His aunt Sefika, who was only a couple of years older than him, was terribly afraid of him. First of all - he was crying as mad - and secondly - he was so hairy. Recently she had been told a fairy tale on a werewolf, and the creature in a crab was the spit picture of a werewolf - what if... Thus, she didn´t dare to come near the crab, and was obeying him carefully from the safe distance, she had put her chair near the window - yes - on the safe distance - so that she could have enough time to escape if...

As he was small, he had many play-mates - he had two sisters and two brothers. After him there came to the world Senada, Mirsad-Bistra, Senad-Puki and Seherzada-Djudja. As he was the eldest - he was the boss and the family gang leader. But, he couldn´t always play with his sisters and brothers. As the eldest child he had to take care of the younger ones. He was "mostly in charge" for his brother Puki. Being afraid of his mother´s punishment if anything caused to happen to Puki while he was playing footbal with his friends, Vajta solved the problem easily - in order to be sure that Puki hasn´t gone away, and in order to keep him in eye, Vajta thought Puki to put his hands firmly around his neck, and to stick to him, and in that way Vajta was running across the improvised football field, playing football with a cloth ball, and Puki was the privileged spectator from the first raw.

At that time teachers from Vajta´s primary school called Dusan Kosutic (in Travnik) were not especially proud of a dilligent schoolboy. At that time Vajta was the big kids-tribe chief as well - and it wasn´t easy to keep the title. Having to do so much for his tribe outside - and not wanting to lose his chief´s position and fame, he just couldn´t waste his time sitting in the dully classroom…

The neighbours, having seen that Vajta and his warriors had visited their orchyards and corn-fields were not so happy either. But at least - no tribe member was caught, and the proofs of their visit were hidden on the safe place - noone could find them! And that was a real success! Even nowadays his brave warriors Bozana - Beki and Fazlija call him chief. And it was then when he became his nickname Vajta. Well - there was a film by Raoul Walsh with Gary Cooper playing the role of Captain Wyatt - and as Captain Wyatt was a fascinating kind of a chief, the tribe-chief had got a new name - Wyatt - or - Vajta (Vayta) - what is easier for pronounciation in Vajta´s native language.

His father departed soon and Vajta overtook father´s role as he was 13. With his father´s death his childhood died as well. He was sent to a place called Trnopolje near Prijedor to be working for the craftsman Mustafa, who was producing plaster items. Vajta wasn´t happy there, his small hands were aching from hard work, and he was badly missing his family... Having left his boss, he came crying to Prijedor to his aunt Sefika, begging her to save him from hard work and to help him get back home.

Having returned from the tour, he continued working hard in the factory. Singing songs of The Troggs, The Monkeys, The Spencer Davis Group, dreaming of buying some plates, listening all the night long Radio Luxemburg (at that time during the day one couldn´t receive any foreign radio programme), Vajta could hardly wait for Fridays and Saturdays to come, eager to be singing on stages covered with smoke. One day he became an idea - yes - he would go abroad - yes - to Innsbruck - to his uncles Camil and Adem. He was told by his uncles that there were wonderful records-shops there, supplied with new world pop-hits. Thus - the decision was passed - yes - he would be working in Innsbruck to support his family - and he would try to save a little bit of money for himself, to buy records of his idols. With all those records he would be again the Chief Number One in Travnik. All girls would be crazy for him. And - said - done. Weaponed with enthusiasmus and strong will, eager to face the great expectations he made himself on his way to Austria.It was easy to get a job there - he got a job at the Foundry Schmiedel in Hall in Tirol. Working dilligently in a factory-hall where it was very hot, thinking that such a job is just a passing-by phase in his life, he passed his melter´s exam. It was in 1971 that his cardboard suitcase was full up to the top with the best records, and a lot of saved money for his family was in his pocket; the time for him to return home was ripe. His heart was pounding wildly - he couldn´t wait to get off the bus in Travnik, happy to see his family, his friends and his native town again.

In the world history that was the time of hippy movement and all outfits retreated before free hippy-generation outfit. At that time Vajta, together with his best friend, jewels craftsman Fejso decided to make a movement in history of Bosnia. By the way - Vajta´s unfullfilled dream was to study arts, and bad life conditions prevented him doing so. To study art was Fejso´s dream as well. He didn´t fulfill his dream either, because of his father - it was him who wanted to make a "decent man" of him, and studying art was not a fulfillment of parents wishes and dreams. Thus, Vajta and Fejso, both tallented and creative, were producing and selling costume jewelry. For Vajta it meant to cross the time span between two weekends and dances and to make for living. They both also created their own outfit, and because of their cool image they were Number-Ones in the hippy community. All those who had high opinion of themselves just couldn´t miss an opportunity to come to Travnik, to see and meet Vajta and Fejso in the street and to say "Hello" to them. As his love for musik overpowered his love for design, Vajta sold his complete costume-jewelry-table-cloth-shop, including all items and tools, to Dedan, who has still got his Dedan´s Jewels Corporation in Vrsar (Croatia).

It were Vedad Hadziavdic and Gabor Lendjel, at that time famous musicians from Sarajevo and Subotica respectively, who came to Travnik to offer Vajta to start singing in the rock-band Teska industrija (Heavy industry).

The beginning in Sarajevo was hard - it was a difficult, but sweet life there - walking around - loitering in wet, from salt damaged winter boots who never appear to get dried touched by Sarajevo´s ever-lasting slush - never-ending Sarajevo´s chill aching and penetrating into bones - sleeping as a stowaway at student internates - visiting of exhibitions and theatres - playing and exercising in small humid rooms in town suburbs, waiting for the moment when the landlady leaves the house for the market, in order to be able to play and sing in full power - reading the world literature, trying to fill in all the knowledge that was missed - long discussions with the band-members what is right and what is wrong with electricity being cut off several times because of non-paid bills - modest celebrations after successfully passed university exams of band members - and finally - outburst - and success.

Vajta considers the year 1973 as the beginning of his professional musical career. The first single-record U.F.O. / Karavan (1975), recorded with the band Teska industrija (The Heavy Industry) was a great success. Vajta and the rock-band were not any more anonymous - they suddenly became easily recognized faces in the street. Interviews, TV-shows, tours. After a year Vajta left the band and started his career as a pop-singer. Soon after that - in 1981 he represented the Former Yugoslavia at the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin with his song Leila (Layla).

He started to cooperate with the best composers and texters of the former Yugoslavia - among the others - Ranko Boban, Dusko Trifunovic, Kornelije-Bata Kovac, Rus Agacevic, Narcis Vucina. He took place on many festivals (see: Festivals), won many prizes, silver, gold and platinum records are to follow, as well as full concert halls - Tivoli in Ljubljana, Sava Centar and Dom sindikata in Belgrade, Vatrosav Lisinski in Zagreb, Skopje, Pristina; tours in Europe, Canada, America, Australia. Vajta sold over 4 million sound supporters before the beginning of the war (before 1992 - compare - in the Former Yugoslavia there were some 20 million inhabitants!)(see: discography).

Apart for the music, Vajta used to act in many tv-shows for children. One of his favorite shows for children was Nedeljni zabavnik (Sunday´s Kaleidoscope), directed by the Englishman Peter Byford, running in the eighties. The show was awarded in Bratislava (Chechoslovakia) as the best European TV-show for children. He also acted in a theater as well as in a movie. (see: tv-shows, theatre, film)

Since the beginning of the war in Bosnia (1992) Vajta has dedicated himself to help war victims, giving aid-concerts all over the world. He considers that the war time is not the right time to make own profits, so he stagnated building his career. In 1996 he recorded an MC Od Kulina-bana do Vajtinih dana (From Kulin-Ban´s Time to Vajta´s Time) dedicated to Bosnia, with one of the most sensitive ballads called Bosanska (A Song on Bosnia).

In March 2001 he recorded two songs Na te mislim (I´ve Been Thinking of You) and Od Sarajeva do Banja-Luke (From Sarajevo to Banja-Luka) in Kopenhagen for an aid project The Small Prince. The whole income has been given to the Project Supporting Orphem Children on the Balkans, a project supported by the Unicef Supply Division Copenhagen.

Since 1994 Vajta has been living with his small family in Hamburg, Germany, giving concerts all over the world. If you would like to hear him singing in your town, just contact him!