Arija

Arija is a Macedonian pop band formed in 1997 by friends who had started playing together in high school. The line-up has changed over the years, with Zdravko Angelov, Nikola Avtovski, Blagoja Perunovski and drummer Stavre Stavrev among its long-standing members.

The band made its name at festivals. At Cvetnici '98 it sang "Koj ja ima živ da ne bide", and at Cvetnici '99 "Ludo srce". Arija also played the Valandovo festival in 1998 and again in 1999, with "Ti si nešto posebno" and "Sonce moe". In 1999 the band performed regularly on the Sitel show Eden plus dva, hosted by Dragan Vučić.

Its first drummer, Goran Trajkov, stayed about a year; Martin Vučić took over in 1999 and left in 2002 for a solo career, when Stavre Stavrev joined. The debut album, Pola na pola, came out in 2000, led by "Vo dnoto na dušata", and "Na minuta ili dve" was the band's first pop single.

Through the 2000s Arija kept releasing singles, among them "Samo Gospod e svedok", "Nema drugo vreme", "Loš den", "Prikazna bez kraj", "Sega koga sum sam", "Veruvaj vo ljubovta" and "Deset na eden". A compilation, Arija - The Best Of, followed in January 2011, and in September 2011 the band returned with the single "Ako sum lud".