Gratuitous Albanian singer photo
Pirro Cako Video Klip - "Ah moj dashuria ime" eng. Ah, my love!
Pirro Cako comes from Tirana but moved to Paris in early 90's. Both his parents were music artists (Gaqo and Luiza). His wife, Inva Mula (known also as Inva Mula-Tchako) is an internationally recognised soprano opera singer (e.g. if you've seen movie "The Fifth Element" with Bruce Willis, it was her singing voice of the Diva Plavalaguna (The Diva Dance song) and aria Donnizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor (the mad scene)). Pirro is also well known as a music composer. He returned to Albania in 2000 to win the 1st Prize in Kenga Magjike (eng. Magic Song Music Festival). Has released 2 albums so far "Heret a vone" and most recent one "Mos me krahaso".Yes, friends, we take a peek at Albanian royalty today.
Today we feature HRH Leka Anwar Zog Reza Baudouin Msiziwe Zogu, Crown Prince of Albania, aka Leka II. Quite a mouthful. He shares his father's name, Leka, and the Anwar is for Sadat of Egypt, Zog for his grandfather King Zog, Reza for the Shah of Iran, Baudouin for his godfather Baudouin I, King of Belgium. Msiziwe is an African honorific and he speaks fluent Zulu.[As with most of these posts, I take the bulk of the information from Wikipedia.]
His father, Leka I, or King Leka, loves him some munitions and has been called a Rambo.
Leka I, as a young man
Young Prince Leka's mother, Queen Susan, was an Australian grazier's daughter and a 9th cousin once removed of Queen Elizabeth II. She was taken under the wing of Queen Geraldine when it seemed obvious that Leka I was in love with her.
The Arms of Prince Leka IIThe Crown Prince was born in South Africa. "At the time of his birth, the South African government declared his maternity ward temporarily Albanian territory to ensure that Leka was born on Albanian soil."
Leka was recognized as the best foreign student at Sanhurst Military Academy, UK, and has also studied in Perugia, Italy. He "is fluent in Albanian, French, English, Zulu and Italian."
The Albanian Foreign Minister, Mr. Lulzim Basha, has brought Prince Leka into a career in the foreign service in 2007.
Prince Leka, like most of the young royals, is into numerous outdoor sports. He has five boxer dogs and lives in Tirana, Albania.
There is not much available on Leka II (that is not in Albanian--one of the Indo-European languages I have zero knowledge of). An interview from November 2004 may be read here. He told the interviewer:My goal in life is the building of the Albanian nation, so that one day we will be asked to join the larger European family.
A noble goal.
And I don't know how tall Prince Leka II is (his father is 6'9"), but he is tall. We present graphic evidence:
--the BB
10 comments:
I don't know, i think he looks like a mutant David Bowie. But all white guys look the same to me. Except for you, you're beautiful.
There is some David Bowie there, you're right. He's unusual. A very interesting background. Dad's a bit nuts, I think. Leka II's multi-culturalism should put him in good stead for diplomatic work. None of the usual tabloid articles on him (at least in English).
Watch out for the man crushes on old white guys, Mick.
He looks a lot like his gun-toting dad, doesn't he? I shouldn't say this, but his papa has the look of a Nazi. May the Lord forgive me for speaking ill of the dead.
The prince seems to have good intentions for his country.
At first, I thought the blond woman in the next to last picture was Dolly Parton, but I see that her puppies are not wagging.
ROFLMAO, Grandmère!
I have GOT to ask my friend Marcie if they met. Marcie was U.S. Ambassador to Albania for a couple of years until last year (she and her also-a-diplomat husband are in Baghdad now, heaven help them) so she must have met him. And she is tiny, tiny, as in under 5 feet. Can you imagine the photo?
Grandmère, I seem to remember that the Albanian royalty (not the young prince but that scary-looking father of his or someone else) had some unsavory connections, but OCICBW. Their return to Albania is very recent since it was a closed country for so long. I think Albania had to grant the tall prince some sort of amnesty -- ah, there we go; I just searched and the trusty BBC, God love them and God save the Queen, tells the tale. Now Paul, see what you've done? What am I doing researching Albanian royalty on a Friday night?
And where do you FIND all these princes? Is there a master list of dishy princedom somewhere?
Jane, dear, where there's Google there's a way.
Yes, Leka I is definitely a character with lots of sleazy connections with shady arms dealers, etc. There were all sorts of hijinks and negotiations. He was a bit of an embarrassment when relations between countries he was in got dicey with the communist government of Albania. Post-Communism they let him back. I did not really pursue all the sordid details though I saw some of them while reading about his son. I spared y'all photos of him in more recent years (the passage of time has not been kind in the looks department).
I look forward to reports back if your friend met the young prince.
Eventually I may run out of them. But I can then turn to the princesses. I almost did Crown Prince Victoria of Sweden today; have lots of pix of her. She seems incredibly ebullient, and she has a very handsome bf.
It is a change from everyone else's Friday cat blogging (no offense to the lovely Maya Pavlova or the endless felines of Istanbul).
Heh. Maya P. is sitting here and not in the mood for cat blogging anyway. But I was just stopping by to say that the musician is much more dishy than the prince.
And you may have suspected there was something to my including a musician with the prince this time around. Of course, I do not post princes simply for the dishy factor, though some of them have been highly qualified in that regard.
Actually, the music came up when I googled "Leka II" so that is how it happened.
I started with royal houses of Europe today, Albania seemed like it would yield someone I'd never heard of (and it did), and Bob's your uncle. It seems that Prince Leka II is a nice chap, brilliant, and decent. I wish him all the best.
Jane, you have been keeping horrid hours lately, I do hope you are getting enough sleep. (((Jane)))
Thank you, dear. I have been keeping dreadful hours and have not had a full night of sleep the last three nights (more like 4, 5, 6 hours) due to my work load. (With little bitty breaks to visit bloggy people to keep myself sane.) Happily, tonight is a full-on sleep night and tomorrow is Saturday. Whee! In fact, I was done with my day an hour ago but I've been visiting the blogosphere. We had a great performance of the Vagina Monologues tonight and it was fun. Off to bed I go. Hurrah! Sleep!
Well, I think that the prince has improved with age! The first picture of him standing in front of his childhood picture is very sweet. He gets better looking in the picture under his arms. BTW, you would think his arms would include a boxer doggie.
Mimi, shame on you for calling attention to the blonde's puppies. If I had been drinking my tea, I would have choked!
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