Dren Abazi & Zig Zag Orchestra

Dren Abazi & Zig Zag Orchestra is a band from Kosovo led by the singer, songwriter and producer Dren Abazi. Their music joins Balkan brass, jazz, klezmer and rock, and they call it multicultural, trans-ethnic music. Dren Abazi was born in Pristina on 13 February 1985, and that is why the band is on Muzika-Balkan: he and the orchestra come from the Kosovo capital, and the band is popular in Kosovo, in Albania and across the Balkans.

Abazi started very young, as a guitarist in several local rock bands in Pristina, and his discography opens with the album Welcome to Prishtina by Sansara (2003). He founded Zig Zag Orchestra in 2008, and from 2009 the band played concerts and festivals around Europe. Early songs such as "Jorgjica", "I dehur jam", "Dasma" and "Euphoria" were followed by "Iku me eren".

The breakthrough came in 2011 with "Ti dhe unë", which Abazi wrote and sang as a duet with the Albanian singer Anjeza Shahini. It quickly became a hit in Albania and was chosen song of the year by the Albanian national television Top Channel. The first album, Afterparty (2012), won the national KULT prize in Tirana for the best Albanian album of the year. Its song "Natën" was used in 2014 in the soundtrack of the Hollywood comedy Let's Be Cops.

In 2015 the band played the Sunset Festival in Paris and, in June, the Fête de la Musique at République in Paris. The singles kept coming: "Si era" and "Mes yjesh" (2013), "Mbreti Natës" and "Sa larg" (2014), "Du" (2015), "Lamtumire" (2016) and "Kur je me mu" (2017). The second album, Mes yjesh, came out in 2017.

Later songs include "Deja vu" (2018), "Zjarr e akull" (2020), "Hana" (2021), "Ne syte e tu" and "Nuk të harroj" (2022) and "Ndoshta" (2023). The playlist gathers the band's official videos and live recordings, from a 2008 concert at the ODA Theatre in Pristina to the newest singles.