A Sarajevo native, Bregović started out with the bands Kodeksi and Jutro, but rose to prominence as the main creative mind and lead guitarist of Bijelo Dugme, widely considered one of the most popular and influential recording acts ever to exist in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

During his five-decade long career, Bregović has composed for critically acclaimed singers, including Sezen Aksu, Kayah, Iggy Pop, Šaban Bajramović, George Dalaras and Cesária Évora.

Born in Sarajevo, PR Bosnia-Herzegovina, FPR Yugoslavia to a Croatian father Franjo Bregović and Serbian mother Borka Perišić,[4][5] Goran grew up with two younger siblings — sister Dajana and brother Predrag.

Goran's maternal grandfather fought in the Royal Serbian Army at the Salonica front during World War I and as a reward received land in Slavonia where he soon moved his family.

Spotting him at a Beštije gig in 1969, Željko Bebek invited eighteen-year-old Bregović to play bass guitar in his band Kodeksi, which Goran gladly accepted.

At the same time, Milić Vukašinović left for London, so Bregović formed a band with Nuno Arnautalić called Jutro (Morning), which Redžić soon joined as well.

Just as with Jutro previously, he continued as Bijelo Dugme's undisputed leader and decision-maker as well as its public face in the Yugoslav print and electronic media once the band started taking off commercially.

Over the band's fifteen-year run, in addition to their enormous popularity at home, led by Bregović, Bijelo Dugme made several attempts at expanding their prominence outside of Yugoslavia.

Bijelo Dugme had somewhat better luck with touring abroad, which almost entirely took place in the Eastern Bloc countries as part of their respective cultural exchange programs with SFR Yugoslavia.

Later that year, following the tour's culmination at a triumphant open-air concert at Hajdučka Česma in Belgrade, Bregović went to serve his mandatory Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) stint.

[11] Some six months later, during summer 1982, Bijelo Dugme went on an impromptu tour of the People's Republic of Bulgaria, playing 41 shows throughout the country from 15 July until 31 August 1982.

[11] In summer 1985, following a decade of continuous rejection for tours of the Soviet Union by the cultural attaché of the Soviet embassy in Yugoslavia, Bijelo Dugme was finally approved and booked to play in Moscow on 28 July 1985, on the same bill with fellow Yugoslav rock act Bajaga i Instruktori, at a huge open-air concert at Gorky Park as part of the 12th World Festival of Youth and Students.

[12] However, once in Moscow, due to overcrowding at Gorky Park and resulting safety concerns, the event was interrupted around 10 p.m. after the Bajaga i Instruktori set before Bijelo Dugme even had a chance to take the stage.

[12] Two days later on 30 July 1985, instead at the marquee Gorky Park in central Moscow, Bijelo Dugme got to play the Dynamo Arena on the city outskirts at an unpopular noon-hour time slot.

He also tried his hand at music production, producing Idoli's 1980 seven-inch single "Maljčiki" / "Retko te viđam sa devojkama" and co-producing, alongside Kornelije Kovač, Zdravko Čolić's fourth studio album Malo pojačaj radio in 1981.

[14] Due to not having its own production facilities and distribution network, the new label entered into a co-releasing agreement with Diskoton thus essentially functioning as the legal entity that holds the licensing rights to the works of Bijelo Dugme and Zdravko Čolić.

A number of works created by Bregović can be heard on the soundtrack to the 2006 film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, most notably "Đurđevdan".

The large orchestra includes also string quartet: Ivana Mateijć (first violin), Bojana Jovanović-Jotić (second violin), Saša Mirković (viola), and Tatjana Jovanović-Mirković, as well as sextet of male voices: Dejan Pesić (first tenor), Milan Panić and Ranko Jović (second tenors), Aleksandar Novaković (baritone), Dušan Ljubinković and Siniša Dutina (basses).

In 2013, as part of his Asia-Pacific tour (including Australia, New Zealand, and Hong Kong), Bregović performed with a string quartet, a male choir, Bulgarian singers and half of a brass band.

[19] With Bijelo Dugme's mid-1970s breakout commercial success and Bregović's increased public profile in Yugoslavia, details of his lifestyle and romantic relationships also became fodder for the country's press.

Throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, various Yugoslav print media outlets documented his high-profile relationship with Serbian model Ljiljana Tica who reportedly inspired his song "Bitanga i princeza" off Bijelo Dugme's eponymous 1979 album.

[2] The wedding ceremony held in Paris featured film director Emir Kusturica as the groom's best man and longtime Bijelo Dugme backing vocal Amila Sulejmanović as the bride's maid of honour.

[22] On 12 June 2008, fifty-eight-year-old Bregović sustained a spinal injury in Belgrade, breaking vertebrae by falling four meters from a cherry tree in the garden of his Senjak house.

"[23] Following surgery, he made a quick recovery and, within a month on 8 and 9 July, held two big concerts in New York City, proving for more than two hours each night his performance skills had not suffered from the accident.

In 1971, twenty-one-year-old Bregović—a student at the University of Sarajevo's Faculty of Philosophy—got accepted into the Yugoslav Communist League (SKJ), the only party in SFR Yugoslavia's political system.

[26] Throughout the mid-to-late 1970s, by now a famous rock musician in SFR Yugoslavia, Bregović often publicly expressed personal support for the communist ideology while underscoring importance of being active in the party.

On 2 April 1999—a week into the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia—alongside Greek performers George Dalaras, Stavros Kouyioumtzis, and Alkistis Protopsalti as well as a number of others from different parts of the Balkans, Bregović played at an anti-war open-air concert at Thessaloniki's Aristotelous Square.

"[29] Bregović owns real estate all over the world,[30] but divides most of his time between Belgrade where he does most of his musical recording work and Paris where his spouse lives with their three daughters.

He reportedly owns properties in Paris, Istanbul, Belgrade, Zagreb, on Mount Jahorina, and Perast, many of which are used for commercial purposes such as touristic rentals, studio recording, and filming locations.