Blla Blla Blla

Blla Blla Blla, often written Blla Blla Blla..., is an Albanian-Macedonian rock band from Skopje. It was formed in 1988 by the singer Idriz Ameti with Ermal Skupi (Mehmeti), Nikola Bočvarov and Blagojče Penov, and most of its songs are in Albanian. The band calls its style "Oversky Ballkanishe Re-form"; others have filed it under punk, avant-garde, progressive and Balkan rock, and the Tirana Times once called it an ethno-jazz-rock band.

They started out as a punk group playing clubs in Skopje and Prishtina. Recordings they made in 1990, among them "Cirkus", "Tetka Žane" and "Mbretëresha Teuta", were released in 2000 on Underground Macedonia, a split album with No Name Nation. Their first album of their own, Blla Blla Blla..., brought "Hej vasho", "Bleta", "Wolf & Dogs" and "Reggae për iriçin".

The arrival of a violin changed their sound. Ermal Skupi played violin in the band for a time, and when he left he was replaced by Krenar Ismaili on vocals and violin. The second album, Oversky Ballkanishe Re-form, came out in 2005 with "Ke kujdes", "Si ndjehesh ti", "Shpresë", "Lugat" and "Aircondition", and a reworked "Wolf & Dogs (Space Edition)". At one point the line-up was Ameti and Skupi with Vlatko Janevski on bass and Dimitar Petrov on percussion; later members include Dejan Evrushoski.

Lamtumirë followed in 2011, with the title song, "Torba", "Sha lla lla", "Mustafa Kairo" and "Shkurtabiçi". Blla Blla Blla played the first Balkan Streets festival in Kumanovo in 2009 and were on the Balkan Streets programme again in 2011, part of a series of South-East European music festivals.

The fourth album, Brum për medioferr ("Dough for media hell"), came out in 2017 and was presented on vinyl at a concert at the Pyramid of Tirana. Its songs include "Më puth", "Bad People", "Fato", "7.000.000.000" and "Dua në shtëpi të jetoj". The band has released its music on the labels Bagi Music and Lithium.