Vagabondi is one of Albania’s most popular singers today. In order to become an artist he risked his life, and got his family arrested in the process. His story is a throwback to Albania’s dark times – and Yugoslavia’s most popular band.

„They have many stray dogs here“, the boat builder from New Zealand says as he sees a German shepherd make her way through the terrace of n’Dritero, a cafe named after Albanian writer Dritëro Agolli on Rruga Ibrahim Rugova in Tirana.

„This is not a stray“, I tell him. „Look at how well kept she is. And she wears a kerchief for a collar. Someone is taking care of her“.

The dog approaches me and briefly sniffs at my pants, and wags her tail. I pet her.

A dark haired man at the other side of the terrace waves at us.

It is long after sun down and he is wearing dark glasses.

„Lucia“, he calls out, and the dog goes to him.

„This is my dog, Lucia“, the stranger says proudly.

„It’s a very friendly dog“, the guy from New Zealand says. Years in Spain have shaved down his accent.

They’re here almost every day, the owner says. And: „I never keep her on a leash“.

This is how I meet Vagabondi, one of Albania’s most popular hip-hoppers of today.

His song „Goca Si Ty“ was trending on TikTok all through the summer.

„I had no idea. Friends told me“, Vaga, as his fans call him, says. „I’m not on TikTok.“

A Tale of Art and Defiance

As we start chatting about Lucia and over a couple of Nikšićkos and rakis, as they call them down here, a tale unfolds of Albania’s dark times, of art and defiance, and an unlikely inspiration.

Born in the port town of Durrës, just west of Tirana, Vaga discovered music as a teenager in the 1970s.

It wasn’t just any music that convinced him that he, too, wanted to be a singer, he says.

„Whenever my parents left for work, at 6:15 and 6:30 AM respectively, I would turn on Yugoslav radio“, Vaga recalls.

„They just had the better music“.

That was something you were very much not supposed to do in Enver Hoxha’s Albania.

The communist ruler had isolated his country over the decades, turning Albanian society into the most paranoid of all Eastern bloc societies.

Unlike in neighboring Yugoslavia, listening to foreign radio or watching foreign TV was punished harshly, if one was found out.

Like all teenagers, young Vaga didn’t think too much about it when he turned up the radio every morning.

It went full volume, whenever one band was on air.

„Gosh, I loved Bijelo Dugme“, Vaga says. „I knew every one of their songs. And of course, I sang along“.

He was not alone in that. In spite of the regime’s restrictions, Bijelo Dugme was a popular band in Albania – owed perhaps also to the fact that they performed one song in Albanian: Kosovska.

With few people the band was as popular as with the singer who was to become Vagabondi.

„I didn’t understand a word, but that didn’t matter. I didn’t care what they sang. I loved how they sang it“, Vaga says, and there is a wide smile on his face.

It was during one of these moments that he decided he, too, wanted to be a singer.

„And I knew that nothing was going to keep me from doing that.“

A Harsh Albanian Reality

One of their neighbors tried, in a way.

„He heard me sing one day, and recognized that this was foreign music. He knew that that could get my dad up to ten years in prison. So he told him.“

His dad snuck back one day after he had left for work, Vaga recalls, „and he beat the crap out of me“.

To this date, he has not forgiven his father for what he did. „He beat me til I was bleeding. Couldn’t he have just talked to me?“

That experience made him more careful. It didn’t make him stop.

The year was 1978.

Vaga was 15 years old.

Bijelo Dugme had reached the height of its popularity the previous summer with the concert at Hajdučka česma in Beograd, attended by up to 100.000 people – the biggest event in the history of YU-rock until a concert at Beograd’s hipodrom in 2005, attended by 250.000.

The band that drew a crowd that size was – Bijelo Dugme, albeit on a revival tour.

„I Never Gave Up on My Dream“

„Of course I continued listening. I just kept the volume down“.

Over the years, Yugoslav radio didn’t just bring him new songs from Bijelo Dugme, it also let him discover his other favorite, Deep Purple.

n’Dritero’s loudspeakers project „Lipe Cvatu“ on the sidewalk of Rruga Ibrahim Rugova.

It must be around midnight.

Traffic is still relatively dense.

A minivan is driving by for the the third or fourth time, advertising a strip club in blue neon lights on the sides and the back of the car.

Oddly enough, it is not a Mercedes.

Lucia is lying on the sidewalk, right next to where Vaga and I are now sitting.

It is now cool enough for her to do that.

The temperature has fallen below 30 degrees Celsius.

„No matter what my parents said, and no matter what I pretended, I never gave up on being a singer“ Vaga says in his pronounced Detroit accent.

„I just knew it couldn’t be in this Albania“.

Censorship laws, Albania’s surveillance state and a largely conservative cultural policy stifled artistic freedom and expression.

Also, an ongoing economic crisis hit the country hard, and made life difficult for the vast majority of Albanians, exarcerbated by the regime’s strictly isolationist policy, even and perhaps especially towards fellow socialist or communist countries.

There was practically no way to emigrate legally.

After having done his time in Albania’s military, Vaga decided to escape.

Hijacking A Boat to Freedom

„A buddy and me, we snuck on a fishing boat at night“, he describes.

„We hid until the crew was on the high sea, out of reach of the Albanian coast guard“, he says.

„I was hiding in the freezing room. I don’t know how many pushups I did in order not to freeze to death.“

Come morning, they forced the small crew to take them to Italy.

„One of the crew was a schoolfriend of mine. I had to handcuff him“, Vaga says.

They landed in Bari, and Vagabondi headed off to the US.

His escape had dire consequences for his family and friends back home.

„They put my mum in handcuffs“, Vaga describes. „My mum! Bijelo Dugme got my mum arrested.“

His mother was then a well respected worker in Durrës‘ cigarette factory.

She was detained for a longer period of time.

Some of his friends were also rounded up and beaten by police.

This was a relatively benign outcome by Albanian standards.

Enver Hoxha had just died a few years earlier, and the regime was relaxing some of the most brutal laws.

If an Albanian citizen emigrated illegally, the entire family could be sent to prison or labor camps under his regime.

Fugitives themselves could be shot on sight, if they didn’t surrender at once.

The soldier who was supposed to guard the harbor Vaga and his friend escaped from and prevent anyone from doing just that, is rumored to have committed suicide out of fear of punishment the successful escape.

This can not be confirmed independently.

The year was 1988.

Bijelo Dugme had just released Ćiribiribela, their final and most popular album to date.

It contained Vaga’s favorite Bijelo Dugme song, Ako ima boga, and Yugoslavia’s all time hit, Đurđevdan.

Encountering a New Music Style

In Detroit, Vaga couldn’t pursue his artistic career as much as he wanted to.

He had to fence for himself, and he was luckier than many immigrants.

„I went from dishwasher to cook to restaurant owner“, he says.

It was at this time that he first got into a lot of contact with people from former Yugoslavia, namely Bosnian refugees from the war back home.

„They were fine people. We got along very well“, he says.

This time also put him in touch with a new style in music: Hip Hop.

It was this genre that he would end up choosing as his own as he pursued his dream.

It took a while until it took off.

„I write my own texts“, Varga says.

They often reflect the harsh reality of Albanian diaspora, and later on, the dreams and realities of Albania itself.

Over time, his songs got popular with the Albanian diaspora in the US and then finally in the old home country.

In 2007, Vaga won the prestiguous Netet e Klipit Shqiptar award given to the most popular Albanian music artists abroad.

He has moved back to Albania and enjoys a steady career as one of the country’s most popular hip hop artists with regular gigs here and in places with a larger Albanian diaspora or minority, such as Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Greece.

„I only got to Greece recently“, he says, „and getting to know Greeks and their hospitality completely changed my opinion. In one of my older songs there are few passages about the country and Greeks that are really insulting. Today, I regret that I wrote that. I didn’t know any better“.

Vaga also enjoys going to Serbia. „I like being there. I’m from Albania, so they are nice and fair to me. The Kosovo issue has never caused a problem for me.“

Bosnia he avoids. „The political situation there is ugly, I don’t really want to go there“, Vaga adds.

Even my tales of Bosnian food and hospitality do not seem to change his mind.

This is perhaps one of the reasons he has never met any of the idols of his youth.

„Željko, Tifa or Alen?“

„I still listen to Bijelo Dugme“, he says. „Just recently, when a friend an I were hanging out on the beach, we had Ako ima boga on powerplay“.

He still doesn’t understand the language. „It’s like it was when I was younger: I don’t care what they sing. I love how they sing it.“

„Only with Ako ima boga do I know what the title means because a friend translated it.“

I decide to ask him the question of all question for Bijelo Dugme fans.

„Željko, Tifa or Alen?“

Vaga thinks for a bit.

„I have to make a phone call“, he says.

He goes off and talks to someone for a bit.

When he returns he doesn’t bring up the question again.

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