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Rock, Hip Pop Clash in Albania Poll
Tirana | 02 June 2009 | Albania’s main political parties, the Democrats of Prime Minister Sali Berisha and the Socialists of Tirana Mayor Edi Rama, clearly differ in their politics, but now it seems they also differ in their music.
At the opening of their respective political campaigns, the two parties have released their campaign soundtracks intended to rally supporters in the march to the June 28 parliamentary ballot.
While conservative Prime Minister Berisha is hedging his bets on a ballad by Bojken Lako, the former head of The Fish alternative rock band, with a song called “Albania is Chainging”, his arch rival Edi Rama has taken up the Westside Family hip pop trio, with a song called “Stand Up”.
Political campaign songs have a short history in Albania, but their wake seems unstoppable. The success of the first cooperation between Rama and Westside Family in the 2003 local elections for Tirana had everyone hooked.
The tune, “Tirona”, released at the time by the Tirana mayor and the hip pop artists, became a smash hit appealing largely to the youth vote.
Rama’s musical tactic was followed during the 2007 municipal elections by his rival from the Democratic Party Sokol Olldashi, with the song “Give Me Back My City”, though Olldashi did not try his talent at singing.
In the rock anthem “Albania is Changing”, prepared by the Democrats for the current campaign, although Berisha does not sing, the song starts with a line from one of his speeches. Source: Balkaninsight
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