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Redžepova was born on 8 August 1943 in Skopje, 20 Ivo Lola Ribar street.[8] At that time, Skopje was occupied by the Kingdom of Bulgaria, allied to Nazi Germany,[9] although the region was returned to Yugoslavia just two years later. She was the second youngest of six children in a Romani family. Her paternal grandfather was a Catholic Roma and her grandmother an Iraqi Jew, while her mother was a Muslim Roma from a village close to Skopje.[10]

Her father Ibrahim,[11] who had lost a leg during a German bombing in Skopje in 1941,[12] worked variously as a porter, circus strongman and shoeshiner.[13] He sang and played drums and sometimes performed at weddings.[8] Some of Esma's siblings accompanied him. Esma's mother was a seamstress.[12]