She was born as Zilha Bajraktarević in Doboj, and she took the stage name Silvana after the then-popular actress Silvana Mangano, whose film “Bitter Rice” she particularly loved.
At the age of 16 she went to live with her aunt in Sarajevo, where she began singing in cafés, and her image and work marked an entire musical era in the Balkans.
Silvana was one of the most popular singers in this region, and one of the biggest hits that launched her into stardom was the song “Šta će mi život” by Toma Zdravković, which she performed in the TV series “Ljubav na seoski način.” The record of the same name, released by Zagreb’s “Jugoton,” sold an incredible 300,000 copies at the time.
In 1961, she married the well-known Yugoslav tennis player Radmilo Armenulić, with whom she had a daughter, Gordana, in 1964. Silvana and Radmilo married without their parents’ knowledge, and only after she officially became his wife did Radmilo introduce Silvana to his parents, because he feared they would not approve of his love for a café singer. However, they reproached him only for hiding the relationship from them and for not inviting them to the wedding.
The famous singer died on October 10, 1976, in a traffic accident on the Belgrade–Niš highway, near the village of Kolari, at the age of 37. Along with her, her sister Mirjana (Mirsada) Bajraktarević and Rade Jašarević, the head of the Folk Orchestra of Radio-Television Belgrade, who was driving the car, also lost their lives.
Her tragic death attracted great public attention, especially because of the many mysterious circumstances surrounding it.
According to the reconstruction of the accident, on a straight stretch of road the Ford Granada was traveling at about 150 kilometers per hour, when it suddenly began to move into the left, oncoming lane, and a collision followed. The truck driver saw the headlights approaching quickly from a distance but thought the vehicles would pass each other. Realizing that a collision was imminent, he started braking, but it was too late.
The right side of the Ford Granada slammed into the truck with such force that it completely tore off the front right wheel, the half-axle, and became wedged underneath it.
