Omar Naber

Omar Kareem Naber (born 7 July 1981) is a Slovenian singer, songwriter and guitar player. He first represented Slovenia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 in Kyiv with the song "Stop" and for a second time at the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 in Kyiv with the song "On My Way", but failed to qualify to the final on both occasions.

Omar Naber
Naber in 2017
Background information
Birth nameOmar Kareem Naber
Born (1981-07-07) 7 July 1981
Ljubljana, SR Slovenia,
SFR Yugoslavia
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Singer
  • songwriter
  • musician
Instruments
  • Vocals
  • guitar
Years active1999–present
Labels
Websiteomarnaber.com

Early life

Naber was born on 7 July 1981 in Ljubljana, SR Slovenia, then still part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. His father, Samir Naber originates from Jordan, and is a dentist by profession working in Ljubljana. His mother, Alenka Naber, is a Slovenian and works as a piano teacher.[1] Like his parents, he was raised Christian. He finished high school diploma as a dental technician and even did six months internship, but soon realized that this is not what he really wants to do in his life. He is actively involved in music since the age of 16, when he joined Veter (Wind), a mixed choir of Ljubljana high schools. The main inspiration for him becoming a musician was because of Green Day.

Career

1999–2001: Early years

In 1999 he founded a rock band, with some member changes over the years, but the band is still playing today. He had over 800 gigs with his band in total and another hundred at charity events.

In 2001 he took second place at the local song contest ‘Kdo bo osvojil Triglav’ (who will come on the top of Triglav) and immediately signed a contract with Slovenian label Nika Records.

After he signed a contract he performed as back vocalist for various Slovenian artists in studio sessions and live performances. He appeared in different albums for D.D.V., for Saša Vrtnar (‘Persona Non Grata’), for Rok'n'band (‘Elvis je živ’) etc.

2004: Battle of the talents

In late 2004 Naber won Bitka talentov, the Slovenian version of the Battle of the talents and became nationwide recognized. This year he also recorded his first song and video "Vse kar si želiš" (Anything you want), released as single and on his Omar album next year.

2005: First Eurovision performance

As a winner of this battle, he performed and won at the EMA 2005 Slovenian national entry for Eurovision. He participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 with song "Stop" (in Slovene), a song he had composed himself. He failed to qualify to the final however, finishing in 12th place with 69 points. [2]

His first album Omar was also released in 2005. He spent 2006 touring Slovenia, as well as internationally, and eventually went back to the studio to record his second album with his band Kareem. This second album, named Kareem, was released in 2007.[3]

In 2011, Naber was sentenced to serve seven months in prison for sexually assaulting a woman in a Ljubljana club.[4][5][6][7]

2014: Third album

In 2014, he first released his third album Na glavo in Slovenia, along with its English version No Helmet a couple of months later in England.[8][9]

2017: Second Eurovision performance

He won the latest national selection and became the second time the national representative for Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the song "On My Way".[10] However again he failed to Qualify for the final finishing 17th (Second to last) with 36 points in the first semi-final.

Discography

Albums
Title Details
Omar
  • Released: 2005 (Slovenia)
  • Label: Nika Records
  • Format: Digital download, CD
Omar
(Serbian release)
  • Released: 2006 (Serbia)
  • Label: Automatik Records
  • Format: Digital download, CD
Kareem
  • Released: 2007 (Slovenia)
  • Label: Nika Records
  • Format: Digital download, CD
Na Glavo
  • Released: 6 March 2014 (Slovenia)
  • Label: Nika Records
  • Format: Digital download, CD
No Helmet
  • Released: 28 September 2014 (United Kingdom)
  • Label: Nika Records
  • Format: Digital download, CD

Singles
Title Year Peak chart positions Album
SLO
"Vse, kar si želiš" 2005 — Omar
"Stop" —
"Omar, ti teslo" —
"Polje tvojih sanj" —
"Skrivaj sanjava" —
"Ves tvoj svet" —
"Krasen dan" —
"Poseben dan" 2007 — Kareem
"Vse, kar imam" —
"Vladarjev um" —
"Sanjam" 2008 — Na glavo
"I Still Carry On" 2009 —
"Proti soncu" 2010 —
"Preden greš" —
"Let me go" 2011 — No Helmet
"Bistvo skrito je očem" — Na glavo
"Mute & Loud" 2012 — No Helmet
"Parfum" — Na glavo
"Sedem dni" —
"Žamet" 2014 — Na glavo
"Sladek strup (I Won't Give Up)" — No Helmet
"Hej, ti! (Play!)" 2015 — Non-album singles
"Zgodba brez napake" 2016 —
"Hallelujah" —
"Take Me Far" —
"Poseben dan '16" —
"Basket Case" 2017 —
"Aleppo" —
"Placebo" —
"Ne zapusti me" —
"On My Way" 12
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.

Failed Eurovision attempts

He entered the national selection for Slovenia three more times and one more time for Switzerland, not proceeding to the main contest:

  • Slovenia – Slovenian national entry with "I Still Carry On"
  • Slovenia – Slovenian national entry with "Bistvo skrito je očem"
  • Slovenia – Slovenian national entry with "I Won't Give Up"
  • Switzerland – Swiss national entry with "Take Me Far"
gollark: Oh, has ABR broken?
gollark: ++delete <@!261243340752814085>
gollark: Also, why would you ever want things to work that way æææa.
gollark: What I meant to mean was that I could not think of any situation in which it would make sense to promote to an `unsigned int`, since presumably anything smaller will just fit in `int`.
gollark: Sorry, a race condition in sampling meant it was using the helloboi message generator briefly.

References
  1. "Omar Naber: Headed to the sun" [Omar Naber: Odpravil se je proti soncu] (in Slovenian). govori.se. Retrieved 15 June 2016.
  2. "Exclusive interview with Omar Naber". ESCToday. Retrieved 10 June 2010.
  3. "Kareem; Omar Naber's second album from 2007". Discogs. Retrieved 10 June 2010.
  4. Ropac, Iva. "Potrjena obsodba Omarja Naberja za spolno nasilje nad študentko". Delo. Retrieved 23 March 2017.
  5. "Potrjena obsodba Omarja Naberja za spolno nasilje nad študentko". Dnevnik. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
  6. "Omar Naber obsojen nasilništva". MMC RTV Slovenia. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
  7. Spiro, Amy. "A Mini Eurovision in Tel Aviv". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  8. "Na glavo: Omar Naber (original Slovenian album)". Amazon.com. Retrieved 6 March 2014.
  9. "No Helmet: Omar Naber (English version)". Amazon.com. Retrieved 28 September 2014.
  10. "Omar Naber on his way to Kyiv again!". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
Awards and achievements
Preceded by
Platin
with "Stay Forever"		 Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest
2005		 Succeeded by
Anžej Dežan
with "Mr Nobody"
Preceded by
ManuElla
with "Blue and Red"		 Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest
2017		 Succeeded by
Lea Sirk
with "Hvala, ne!"

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