Emina Sandal

Emina Sandal — Biography

Serbian singer-songwriter and actress Emina Sandal (born Emina Jahović) was born on 15 January 1982 in Novi Pazar, then part of Yugoslavia, to a Bosniak family; her father was a cardiologist and her mother a paediatrician, and she lost her father at eleven. She began classical guitar as a child at the Mokranjac music school and later studied management in Belgrade. She broke through in 2002 with the album Tačka, released on Dino Merlin's label, and has since put out six studio albums including Radije ranije, Vila, Metamorfoza, Dalje and Svitanje; she twice competed in national Eurovision preselections, for Bosnia and Herzegovina and for Serbia, and co-wrote Montenegro's first song to reach a Eurovision final, in 2014. In Turkey she is known for playing Lale in the 2010-2014 series Lale Devri and for judging on X Factor Adria and Rising Star Türkiye. Her brother, Mirsad Türkcan, was the first Turkish player in the NBA. She married Turkish pop star Mustafa Sandal in 2008 and divorced him in 2018; their alimony and compensation lawsuits made headlines in 2025-2026, with T24 reporting she won a compensation case against him.