Draft:Arbër Salihu

• Comment: Referencing Youtube and iMDB should be highly discouraged, especially when it doesn't appear as if this artist meets Wikipedia's notability guidelines for music from the article's body. It could also use a cleanup of puffery about the subject. Utopes _{(talk / cont)} 00:56, 10 November 2023 (UTC)

• Comment: Needs more references. See also WP:YOUTUBE. Mattdaviesfsic (talk) 21:02, 7 January 2023 (UTC)

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Arbër Salihu (born 21 April 1991), also known by his stage name as La Fazani, is a Kosovan singer, songwriter, composer, artist and musician. Salihu is known for releasing original music as a solo artist,. as well as with the duo Oborri, publishing songs mostly in Albanian language in Kosovo and Albania. In 2023, he won the first prize in the historical first edition of Festivali i Këngës në RTK , which is the annual song competition organized by the Kosovo national broadcaster Radio Televizioni i Kosovës. He is also an award-winning composer for film and theatre, composing children’s music for the educational platform “Planeti i Fëmijëve” . His classical piece “Variations on Luleborë” has been published in “Anthology of young Kosovar composers” in 2020. He debuted his "La Fazani" act in 2022, incorporating elements of hip-hop, rock & roll, Albanian folk and African rhythms to serve as a backbone for his vibrant lyrical narratives, often depicting animated social realities of life in Kosovo. He plays frequently with a 5-piece live band which includes some of the most prominent names in Kosovo's music scene.

Arber Salihu as La Fazani.

Biography

Arbër Salihu was born in Gjakova, because circumstances from Kosovo War made it risky for Albanians to give birth in Pristina in the early 1990s . He has lived most of his life in Pristina, but also has stints living in the UK, Netherlands, Italy and Vietnam. Salihu taught himself guitar when he was 12 years old, and first released music with the band Cute Babulja, fronted by his brother Genc Salihu, in 2014 . He graduated in economics in Utrecht University in the Netherlands in 2012, before returning to Kosovo to focus on his music. He has been involved in prominent artistic projects in Pristina, including Baushtellë: Balkan Temple and Termokiss. In 2022 he finished his third year of music composition studies in University of Business and Technology in Pristina.

Oborri

In 2014, together with Tomor Kuçi, Salihu formed the duo Oborri. They have released four music videos and their self-titled debut album in 2017. Arif Pehlivani from Kosovo 2.0 described their music as "the best soundtrack if Lars von Trier decided to make an animated film based on any of Marquez’s magical stories" . They performed live in many Balkans countries, including Kosovo, Macedonia, Albania and Serbia . Together with Edona Vatoci, they performed in the tribute concert of legendary Kosovan band Gjurmë in the Palace of Congresses in Tirana, Albania

La Fazani

After a few years living in Vietnam , Salihu returned to Kosovo in 2019 to start his solo career as La Fazani. In a TV interview, he said chose a name as an effort to create an alter-ego as means of detaching his music from his personal self, with Fazani standing for peacock in Albanian. He released his debut single Jupiteri in January 2022, before releasing Hajde me shuplakë in May and Fluturoj in September 2022. He announced that La Fazani's debut album is due to be released in January 2024. He now regularly performs in Kosovo and Albania with his band, which consists some of the most prominent Kosovan musicians including Drin Tashi, Fatlind Ferati, Art Lokaj, and Nesim Maxhuni. He performed on the main stage of Sunny Hill Festival in 2022 In October 2023 he became the winner of the historical first edition of Festivali i Këngës në RTK , which is the annual song competition organized by the Kosovo national broadcaster Radio Televizioni i Kosovës.

Other projects

Salihu has been active in providing original music for various film and theatre projects in Kosovo. He has collaborated with Ilir Hasanaj on two films, providing original music for "Me dasht', me dasht', me dasht' (To want, to need, to love)" (2015), and "As I Was Looking Above, I Could See Myself Underneath" (2022). He has worked with Qendra Multimedia and Artpolis as a musician for the shows "Five Seasons of the Enemy of the People", "Spring Awakening" and "Artemide's Huntresses". In 2016, he participated in the album Kosoveira by Luis Panicheli, merging Brazilian Capoeira music with Albanian folk music, contributing the original song Fija e tejdukshme (Invisible String).