And now for the exotic

Today we start out with some music courtesy of the Alba Music Video Blog:

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

His father was described by the Telegraph (in his mother's obituary) as "Leka, son of King Zog I, ... a 6ft 9in tall, six-gun-toting giant who has never shaken off the aura of his country's bandit culture." It was also noted that "he was once arrested on suspicion of arms smuggling in Thailand."
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 II

The 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