Fields above the Kosovar village of Bërnica e Poshtme offer a spectacular view of the surrounding village. The blue sky is dotted with the silhouettes of mountains encircling Pristina, the capital of Kosovo. The horizon is punctuated by slender silver minarets and houses with red roofs. As day turns to night, this scenic backdrop becomes dark, while the stages light up and the bass starts to thump.
This is the Sunny Hill Festival, a four-day pop music festival organized by international star Dua Lipa and her father, Dukagjin Lipa. The crowd here resembles a scene from a TikTok “For You” page: fashion tees and wide pants are plentiful, with many attendees under 18. Vesa and Urta, both 17, live in Pristina and are attending the festival for the first and second time, respectively. “The nightlife here is crazy,” they enthuse. “We love the atmosphere and the energy.”
Having declared independence from Serbia in 2008, Kosovo is the newest country in Europe and it’s not just for one reason: its average citizen age is 29.5 years, possibly helped by the fact that Kosovar youth until recently could not benefit from freedom of movement within the EU. With a population of 1.8 million, Kosovo is less than a quarter the size of New York City, and its landmass is only 3% of Germany’s—making the small Balkan country’s impact on international pop music even more remarkable.
Dua Lipa and Rita Ora, two of the top global pop singers, are of Kosovar-Albanian origin, born to parents who fled the war-torn region in the 1990s. Lipa and Ora both sing in English, but Albanian-speaking artists from Kosovo have also achieved great success in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, India, Australia, and the USA—a vibrant internal scene born from post-war resilience and creativity in Kosovo.
“With limited recreational activities available, the youth have channeled their energy into music and art,” explains Gent Osmani, whose company Fole Publishing distributes and markets music videos for Albanian and Kosovar stars.
One such star, Dhurata Dora, has over 860 million views on YouTube with her debut hit “Zemër,” a 2019 collaboration with Algerian rapper Soolking, which charted in Belgium, Switzerland, and France. Dora’s 2021 collaboration with Congolese-French singer GIMS, “Only You,” was certified gold in France and platinum in Switzerland, and her performance with Voice of Albania star Yll Limani was a standout in the Albanian language at Sunny Hill this year.
Singing lyrics mainly focused on love and betrayal, Kosovar pop stars often collaborate with artists from Albania or the diaspora, creating regular YouTube videos filled with summer visuals and brightly colored dresses. These include everything from typical Balkan melodies (such as “Malli” by Albrim Llapqeva) to hip-hop tracks (like “I Kom Pa” by Buta and Noizy) to catchy pop melodies, including Era Istrefi’s “Bonbon,” which has been viewed nearly a billion times on YouTube.
Traditional Balkan instruments frequently appear, such as the gajde, a wooden and sheep-skin bagpipe, whose droning sound is used for a hypnotic effect in DJ Gimi-O, Ricky Rich, and Dardani’s [Remix Shqiptar].
The distinctive pop and rock scenes of Kosovo date back to when it was still part of Yugoslavia. At that time, “Kosovar Albanians had far more freedom, mobility, and access to the outside world than Albanians from Albania,” says Robert A Saunders, an American academic researching identity in post-Soviet countries. “And certainly for a generation born in violence, raised by parents who had lived through the war, Kosovars have an intergenerational impact of being a mistreated minority. If you look at American hip-hop and its themes, it would be really influenced by a Kosovar-Albanian population.”
As Kosovar pop music continues to spread across the globe, the question is how much of its success still benefits the small country from which it originates.
According to Dukagjin Lipa, the economic impact of the Sunny Hill Festival in Pristina is around 20 million euros in a week. Many hotels in the city are booked during the festival. However, with ticket prices at 200 euros per head—just under half of the average monthly salary in Kosovo—the festival is out of reach for many locals. About 45% of those who attended the festival this year traveled from abroad.
On January 1st of this year, holders of Kosovar passports gained the right to travel visa-free within the EU. However, visa liberalization will also facilitate the free movement of ideas and international collaboration, in music and beyond.
