Bosnian songwriter, producer, arranger, and conductor, born in Sarajevo, 28 Jan 1939 Yugoslavia, died in Sarajevo, 04 Dec 2016 Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In 1962 Esad Arnautalić was a music editor at Radio Sarajevo when he initiated the establishment of the Music Production and Radio Television Sarajevo Orchestra , which would operate within that production. In the same year with his brother
Ismet Arnautalić, he started the pop band
Indexi. A little later, the group became the most popular Sarajevo band and one of the most popular Yugoslav pop-rock groups.
Following Zagrebfest and Belgrade Spring, in 1967, Esad Arnautalić, at the personal insistence and approval of his superiors at RTV Sarajevo, started the the popular Vaš Šlager Sezone (Your Best Season) song festival / music competition.
In the early 1970s, he started another festival (First Applause), which was held in Banja Luka. He went on to write songs for and and work with many Yugoslav artists of the 1970s as well as conducting the Eurovision orchestra on behalf of Yugoslavia on two occasions.
In the 1980s he mainly worked as conductor and composer in theater, film and television.
In the 1990s he was a conductor and producer and started the Mood Music project with the Radiotelevision Sarajevo Orchestra . They performed and recorded well-known opera arias, folk and domestic pop hits.