Ambasadori

The band is most notable for their 1975 hit single "Zemljo moja" [sh], as well as for representing Yugoslavia at the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest with "Ne mogu skriti svoju bol"—both times with Ismeta Dervoz [bs] on vocals.

They soon brought in guitarist Slobodan "Vuja" Vujović [bs], a Fojnica-born and Sarajevo-raised hobbyist musician who had simultaneously been pursuing mechanical engineering studies at the University of Sarajevo.

In-between his university obligations, Vujović often hung around Dom Milicije (Police House) that provided free on-site instruments for the musically-inclined youth, which is where Ivanović and Stefanović met him and got him to join their group.

Though he had already been singing with the local band Mladi i lijepi, the fresh high school graduate saw Ambasadori as more established, auditioning for them at Dom JNA by performing Wilson Pickett's "Deborah".

By 1970, seeing their business opportunities limited by the strange setup within the band and further discouraged by the band's founders Ivanović and Stefanović enrolling in the Sarajevo Music Academy that took up a lot of their time and focus, Vujović and Čolić decided to step out and form a new group, Novi Ambasadori (New Ambassadors), bringing in drummer Perica Stojanović [bs], organist Vlado Pravdić, saxophonist Andrej "Lale" Stefanović, and bassist Zlatko Hold.

The band appeared at the 1971 Vaš šlager sezone [sh] annual schlager competition in Sarajevo where they finished in 7th place with "Plačem za tvojim usnama", a song that songwriter Zdenko Runjić claimed to have composed and officially signed his name under despite it being a blatant rip-off of The Tremeloes' "Suddenly You Love Me" (itself a cover of Riccardo Del Turco's "Uno tranquillo").

In 1975, Ambasadori scored a sizable hit with their entry at the Vaš šlager sezone [bs] festival—Kemal Monteno-written patriotic schlager song "Zemljo moja" [sh], inspired by and dedicated to Yugoslav gastarbeiters leaving their homeland in search of expanded employment opportunities throughout Western Europe.

Finishing fourth among the sixteen competitors, they additionally won the festival's interpretation award while the main prize went to Zdravko Čolić, their former singer who had recently gone solo, and his song "Zvao sam je Emili".

By bringing in teenage Gospić, whose only prior musical experience had been signing in a band called Plima with her brother Zoran, Ambasadori leader Vujović continued the practice of acquiring young and inexperienced vocalists.

Composed by Vujović with lyrics by Slobodan Đurasović, the cheeky song turned out to be an unexpected Yugoslavia-wide hit despite failing to get much attention from the festival jury that awarded the top prize to Indexi's "U jednim plavim očima".

Ambasadori rehearsing at Nederlands Congresgebouw in The Hague ahead of their 1976 Eurovision performance.