Bledar Sejko (born February 19, 1971) is an Albanian

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

, composer, and

singer Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or witho ...

who represented Albania in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2013 The Eurovision Song Contest 2013 was the 58th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Malmö, Sweden, following the country's victory at the with the song "Euphoria" by Loreen. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union ...

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal popula ...

with his song "

Identitet "Identitet" (; ) is a song by Albanian singers Adrian Lulgjuraj and Bledar Sejko. It was first released on 12 March 2013 as a music video release which were uploaded on the official YouTube channel of the Eurovision Song Contest, and then, it we ...

", which he performed with Adrian Lulgjuraj. According to Sejko, the song includes combined motives from

Northern Albania Northern Albania ( sq, Shqipëria Veriore) is one of the three NUTS-2 Regions of Albania. This ethnographical territory is sometimes referred to as ''Ghegeria'' ( sq, Gegëria) which also includes parts of the Albanian-inhabited territories of ...

and Chameria. He also appeared in the 2011 edition of the contest, performing alongside Aurela Gaçe in her song

Feel the Passion "Feel the Passion" is a song by Albanian singer Aurela Gaçe. It was issued as a CD single on 15 April 2011 by EMI. The English-language pop and rock song was composed by Shpëtim Saraçi and written by Sokol Marsi. An accompanying music vid ...

. Sejko's first group, which included Redon Makashi and Elton Deda was one of the first pop groups of Albania created in

clandestinity Secrecy is the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups who do not have the "need to know", perhaps while sharing it with other individuals. That which is kept hidden is known as the secret. Secrecy is often controvers ...

in the late 1980s: Communist Albania did not allow pop music to be recorded, performed or broadcast. Sejko's nickname has always been ''Qepa'' ( en, Onion). He taught guitar to Makashi and has always been known as a great performer of the instrument in Albania. He created Megahertz, the first rock band in Albania. Sejko's last participation to the Festivali i Këngës before "Identitet" had been in 1992 with his group Thunder Way. Their song, "Legjenda e Heroit" ( en, The Hero’s Legend), had come last in that festival.

References

1971 births Living people Musicians from Tirana Albanian rock singers Festivali i Këngës winners Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 2013 Eurovision Song Contest entrants for Albania {{Eurovision-stub