Lepa Brena is considered to be a symbol of the former Yugoslavia, due to the fact that she was one of the last popular acts to emerge before the breakup of the country.

[7][8] Born into a Muslim family[9][10][11] in the outskirts of Tuzla, PR Bosnia and Herzegovina, she grew up in Brčko as the youngest child of Abid Jahić (c. 1928 – 22 October 2010) and Ifeta (née Smajlović; 15 April 1934 – 21 November 2014) alongside her sister Faketa and brother Faruk.

Her first performance for an audience was in the fifth grade at a local festival, singing a Kemal Monteno song named "Sviraj mi o njoj".

[19][20][21] The same year Lepa Brena and Slatki Greh appeared in the first part of Yugoslav classic comedy film A Tight Spot with popular comedian Nikola Simić and actress Ružica Sokić, which raised their status and brought them almost instant fame.

Their appearance on Jugovizija caused controversy, since the competition was traditionally dominated exclusively by pop artists, and Lepa Brena belonged to a drastically different music genre, which was folk-pop, or also called novokomponovana muzika.

Lepa Brena established a cooperation with Serbian folk star Miroslav Ilić and recorded a collaborative extended play Jedan dan života (One Day of Life, 1985), which featured four songs, including a romantic duet called "Jedan dan života", and the song "Živela Jugoslavija" (Long Live Yugoslavia), which was received with a mixed response.

The latter song was in line with Brena's only official political stance: an uncompromising support of a united Yugoslavia, with her becoming a symbol of this view.

Brena's manager Raka Đokić came up with the idea that her seventh studio album should be followed by a film in which she would play the lead role.

Many then-popular Yugoslav actors co-starred in the film, including Dragomir "Gidra" Bojanić, Milutin "Mima" Karadžić, Velimir "Bata" Živojinović, Milan Štrljić, etc.

[22] Based on the success of the original, Hajde da se volimo: Još jednom (Let's Love Each Other: Again) got produced and premiered in 1989.

The music video for the pop song "Čuvala me mama" (Mum Protected Me) was filmed on the Croatian island Lopud.

Boli me uvo za sve also had multiple hit songs including "Čik pogodi" (Take a Guess), "Biće belaja" (There Will Be Trouble), "Tamba lamba", and the title track.

[25] On 24 July 1990, Brena landed with a helicopter at Vasil Levski National Stadium in Sofia, Bulgaria, and held a concert with an audience of 122 000 people.

In December 1993, after two-year hiatus, Brena premiered her first solo album Ja nemam drugi dom (I Have No Other Home), and held a famous "concert in the rain" on 13 June 1994 at Belgrade's Tašmajdan Sports Centre which was attended by 35 000 people.

In the mid-90s she had many popular songs; The music video for "Ti si moj greh" had an ancient Egyptian theme, with Brena dressed as a pharaoh.

After eight years of absence from the music business, Lepa Brena returned with Uđi slobodno... (Feel Free to Enter..., 2008)[28] and Začarani krug (Vicious Circle, 2011).

On 19 December 2013, Brena, along with Dragana Mirković, Severina, Jelena Rozga, Haris Džinović, Aca Lukas and Jelena Karleuša, was a guest at a humanitarian concert by Goran Bregović at the Zetra Olympic Hall in the Bosnian capital city Sarajevo for the Roma in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

[35] Lepa Brena and Steven Seagal were the stars of Belgrade 2016 New Year party, an event held at Nikola Pašić Square in front of the Serbian National Assembly, and attended by 60 000 people.

During the first European leg of her world tour, her album Zar je važno dal se peva ili pjeva was released on 1 March 2018, and it became a major hit in the Balkans.

After four legs of her World Tour, she announced a break because she wanted to be in Serbia, when her stepson Filip Živojinović and his wife Aleksandra Prijović get a baby.

[39] In 2024, she announced her Bosnia and Herzegovina tour Imam pesmu da vam pevam (I Have a Song to Sing to You), where she is looking forward traveling her home country.

On 6 March 2019, Brena became a step-grandmother after Filip's wife Aleksandra Prijović gave birth to their first child together, son Aleksandar.

In 2010, Brena and her husband purchased a five-bedroom villa with an in-ground heated pool on one of Miami's islands at a cost of $1.6 million.

[citation needed] In October 2010, her father, Abid Jahić, was severely injured when a bus hit him as he walked in the town of Brčko.

[56] During the late 1980s and early 1990s, ethnic tensions which started rising in Yugoslavia and eventually led to country's breakup, made Lepa Brena become one of main tabloid targets at the time.

In that sense, being a Yugoslav icon, Lepa Brena never publicly spoke about her religious beliefs beyond stating that she had grown up being Sunni Muslim.

The reason behind the protests were pictures allegedly shot in 1993 during the Bosnian War in which she appears wearing the uniform of the Army of Republika Srpska in the besieged town of Brčko, where she grew up.

In the pictures, taken and published by one Serbian magazine, she appears giving support to Bosnian Serb soldiers, which were at that time involved in intense fighting against Croatian and Bosniak forces in Posavina front.

Brena then denied all of the allegations explaining that the uniform was a costume she used for the music video of her song "Tamba lamba" in Hajde da se volimo: Udajemo Lepu Brenu.