At the beginning of her career, she used Usnija Jašarova (Serbian Cyrillic: Уснија Јашарова) as a stage name in order not to be confused with Esma Redžepova, another Romani singer from Macedonia.

Her prolific repertoire mainly includes folk songs from Southern Serbia and Macedonia, sung in Serbian and in Romani, but also in Turkish.

At the start of her career, Usnija Redžepova put an emphasis on her Turkish heritage to minimise her Romani roots, although she never hid them as many Roma artists did at that time to avoid racism.

Although she made come true her father's old dream to study Arabic at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Philology, she had to sing in cafés to get enough money to live.

[4] The first EP was recorded in duet with another folk singer, Ivanka Jovanovska, while the second only contained songs by Usnija.

Together with Vaska Ilieva and Anđelka Govedarović, two other folk singers, Usnija was sent to Australia in 1969 to perform for the Yugoslav diaspora.

[4] Although Redžepova was worried about having to play and sing in an academic setting, she joined the National Theatre in Belgrade to perform Koštana.

Although she had to give up her studies, she had the opportunity to visit some Arabic countries, including Sudan where she performed for Yugoslav workers.

President Josip Broz Tito is said to have been an admirer and she performed for him and Fidel Castro when he was on a visit in the Brionian Islands.

The cultural organisation responsible for her tours abroad, "Beogradska estrada", also permitted her to perform in Western countries.

After the breakup of Yugoslavia, Usnija Redžepova considered putting an end to her career because she was devastated by the death of her country.

[7] Her funeral took place at the Bajrakli Mosque in central Belgrade on 4 October and she was buried in Skopje at the Butel cemetery.