Omar Naber (born 7 July 1981) is a Slovenian singer/songwriter who has been actively involved in music since the age of 16. He composes, arranges and produces his own material as well as playing guitar, bass guitar and piano. He was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia. His father was from Jordan, while his mother is Slovenian.
Career
In late 2004 he won a national TV Talent show, ‘Bitka Talentov’, the Slovenian version of ‘Pop Idol’. This granted him entry to the pre-selection contest ‘EMA’ to choose the Slovenian entrant at Eurovision. Omar won this and represented his country at The Eurovision Song Contest 2005 in Kiev with the self-composed song ‘Stop’.
His debut album, ‘Omar’ was released in the summer of 2005 and spawned several hit singles, including the best-selling song of the year in Slovenia.
In 2005 he was most frequently played author in Slovenia.
Throughout 2006, Omar consolidated his position in his homeland with numerous live performances across the country with his band and several TV appearances. He then returned to the studio to work on his 2nd album, ‘Kareem’ which was released in 2007.
Omar was invited to participate in the annual EMA contests of 2009, 2011 and 2014 finishing 2nd, 3rd & 3rd respectively. Over the years he has been a regular contributor on TV & Radio across the Slovenian media.
Being very much a ‘live’ performer, Omar has played many gigs in Slovenia both as solo acoustic and with his band. He has also performed in other countries such as Croatia, Bosnia, Austria, Luxembourg, Portugal, Ukraine, Russia, the UK and Ireland.
In 2012, his song, ‘Remember Me’ was included on the soundtrack to the cult movie ‘C.O.O.L.I.O.’
His music may be best described as melodic pop/pop-rock with the emphasis on a strong vocal delivery. His 3rd album, ‘Na Glavo’ has just been released for the domestic market in Slovenia and the equivalent English language version is ready to go.
He divides much of his time between Ljubljana and more regularly London where he has been building contacts and performing gigs, even participating as a licensed busker on London Underground.
He intends to concentrate his efforts in the coming years on maintaining his position with his loyal fan-base in Slovenia but also seeks to perform across many other territories, particularly the UK, in an effort to get his music known to a wider audience.
His album Na glavo was released in 2014, along with its English version No Helmet.
He won the latest national selection and became the representative for Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the song “On My Way”.
