Music of Kosovo
Brass bands and čoček, Bulgarian women's choirs and asymmetrical dance metres, Bosnian sevdalinka, Albanian iso-polyphony, Serbian gusle epics.
Sung and searched in Albanian. The YouTube button above can run your search in that language.
Roots and traditions
Folk music
In the past, epic poetry in Kosovo and northern Albania was sung on a lahuta (a one-string fiddle) and then a more tuneful çiftelia was used which has two strings-one for the melody and one for drone. Cultural anthropology researches revealed the antiquity of this tradition and how was it developed in parallel with other traditional music in the Balkans, while various archaeologists discovered finds dating back to the 5th Century B.C. such as stone paintings depicting musicians with instruments, notably the portrait of "Pani" holding an aerophone similar to flute.
Popular music
Rock music
While rock music in Kosovo has always been Western oriented, Yugoslavian influence became also evident to a minor extent but it was short-lived. One of the first popular Albanian rock bands was called Blue Star which formed in 1964 in Pristina and later it was renamed to Modestët. In the beginning of the 1970s, the rock music scene in Mitrovica, Kosovo (then Yugoslavia) comprised both Albanian and Serbian bands, though each had their own separate audience and performed in their own languages. However, there was a band called MAK which had both Albanian and Serbian musicians, and another bi-ethnic band was FAN also based in Mitrovica, but their collaboration was short-lived as well. Pristina was the most important city for Albanian rock music during the 1980s. In the mainstream circles Gjurmët (founded 1981) were among favorites. Their combination of rock with "muzikë qytetare" laid the foundation of Albanian rock. Other known bands that formed during this period were Ilirët, 403, Telex, Seleksioni 039, Minatori and Menkis.
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What Kosovo is listening to in 2026
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Live radio
Radio from Kosovo
Music only, no news or talk. Stations that play the local tradition come first, then the most listened. They play in the corner of the page.
Station directory by Radio Browser Streams come from each station's own server.