Fuad Backovic

Fuad Backovic (born 12 April 1982), better known by his stage name Deen, is a Bosnian pop recording artist, reality star and fashion designer. Backovic was born into a Muslim Bosniak family in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, then SFR Yugoslavia. When Backovic was two years old, his father Zaim, who worked as a representative of a construction company in Libya, relocated to the Middle Eastern country for six years. Backovic has stated his love for music stems from his mother Sabina, an amateur singer who gave up the prospect of a career in music to get a degree in Economics and later on, to raise a family. The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1996, stands out as the most difficult moments in his life. He spent most of the war with his mother, brother, grandparents and other family members in the basement of the family home in the Kosevo neighborhood of Sarajevo, while his father was in the battlefield, a soldier in the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Following the war, his father became a politician, serving as the Minister of Economy of Bosnia and Herzegovina and a member of the Bosnian parliament. At the age of 12, Fuad took his first musical steps by recording his first song in 1994. The song was recorded in a musical studio called Studio Number 1 owned by PBSBiH. Gradually his local success grew and obtained the attention of Sarajevo record labels. By 1997, he took the opportunity to become the lead singer of the Bosnian boy band 7Up. Backovic decided to leave 7Up and become a solo artist, releasing his first studio album "Ja sam vjetar zaljubljeni" in 2002. In 2004, Deen represented Bosnia and Herzegovina at the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest in Istanbul, with the song "In The Disco". Deen finished in ninth place with 91 points automatically earning Bosnia and Herzegovina the honour of participating in the final of the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest. Fuad represented Bosnia and Herzegovina for the second time at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016, this time in Sweden's capital Stockholm. He was joined by Dalal Midhat-Talakic, Ana Rucner and rapper Jala Brat. They performed the song "Ljubav je" in the second half of the first semi-final, but failed to qualify for the final, making it the first time since the introduction of the semis in 2004 that Bosnia has failed to qualify.