Eugent Bushpepa (; born 2 July 1984), also known by his alternative name Gent Bushpepa, is an Albanian singer, songwriter and composer. Regarded as one of the most popular

modern rock Modern rock is an umbrella term used to describe rock music that is found on college and commercial rock radio stations. Some radio stations use this term to distinguish themselves from classic rock, which is based in 1960s–1980s rock music. ...

musicians in the Albanian-speaking world, he is noted for his

vocal range Vocal range is the range of pitches that a human voice can phonate. A common application is within the context of singing, where it is used as a defining characteristic for classifying singing voices into voice types. It is also a topic of stud ...

, vocal power, high-energy live performances, and is also recognised as an accomplished guitarist. Bushpepa and his band were the supporting acts on the

concert tours A concert tour (or simply tour) is a series of concerts by an artist or group of artists in different cities, countries or locations. Often, concert tours are named to differentiate different tours by the same artist and to associate a specific ...

Deep Purple Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock, although their musical style has varied throughout their career. Originally for ...

in 2007,

Duff McKagan Michael Andrew "Duff" McKagan (born February 5, 1964) is an American musician. He was the bassist of hard rock band Guns N' Roses for twelve years, with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. McKagan rejoined the b ...

(

Guns N' Roses Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1985 as a merger of local bands L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose. When they signed to Geffen Records in 1986, the band's "classic" line-up consisted of vocalist Axl R ...

) in 2011 and

Overkill Overkill may refer to: * Overkill (term), the use of excessive force or action to achieve a goal * Surplus killing, when a predator kills more prey than it can eat * Overexploitation, depletion of a natural resource through overharvesting ** Over ...

in 2014. On 18 August 2013, he performed a full concert with

Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal Ronald Jay Blumenthal (born September 25, 1969), better known by his stage name Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal or simply Bumblefoot, is an American guitarist, songwriter, and producer. He adopted his nickname from the Bumblefoot (infection), bacterial inf ...

. Bushpepa is the sole author of his song which was reworked for the Eurovision by Jim Lowe, a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

-winning British record producer and audio engineer. In 2017, Bushpepa won the 56th edition of

Festivali i Këngës (; ), commonly known as and also referred to as simply FiK or Fest, is an annual music competition in Albania organised by the national broadcaster (RTSH). Broadcast every year since its inauguration in 1962, the festival has determined th ...

with the song "

Mall Mall commonly refers to a: * Shopping mall * Strip mall * Pedestrian zone * Esplanade Mall or MALL may also refer to: Places Shopping complexes * The Mall (Bromley), London, United Kingdom * The Mall (Patna), Bihar, India * The Mall (Sofia) ...

" and went on to represent Albania in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2018 The Eurovision Song Contest 2018 was the 63rd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Lisbon, Portugal, following the country's victory at the with the song "" by Salvador Sobral. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (E ...

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

. He reached eleventh place in the grand final in a field of twenty-six and achieved the country's fourth highest placement to date.

Life and career

Eugent Bushpepa was born on 2 July 1984 into an

Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...

family of the

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

faith in the town of

Rrëshen Rrëshen ( sq-definite, Rrësheni) is a small town and a former municipality in Lezhë County, in northern Albania. At the 2015 local government reform, Rrëshen became a subdivision and the seat of the municipality Mirditë. It was the administr ...

, then part of the

People's Republic of Albania The People's Socialist Republic of Albania, () was the Marxist-Leninist state that existed in Albania from 10 January 1946 to the 29 April 1991. Originally founded as the People's Republic of Albania from 1946 to 1976, it was governed by the P ...

, present

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

. He started singing at the age of six while his guitar training began in the fifth grade of

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

. After finishing high school, he moved to

Bologna, Italy Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

, to study medicine where he completed his first academic year. Bushpepa's professional career began in 2006 and since then he has been active in the Albanian music scene. His national breakthrough came with the song "Maska e Madhështisë", released in 2007 at

Top Fest ''Top Fest'' was an Albanian music competition organised by Top Channel. It began airing in 2004 with its last edition being in 2015. The event was annually held in Tirana, Albania. The songs were usually performed in Albanian with artists from ...

4. In the same competition, he also teamed up with a rock band called Sunrise, performing their song ''Engjëll'', and then he went on to play in major

music festival A music festival is a festival, community event with music, performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock music, rock, blues, folk music, folk, jazz, classical music), nation ...

s and worked on new music. Although Eugent made his professional stage debut in

Kënga Magjike Kënga Magjike (; ) is an annual music competition organised by the Albanian television broadcaster Televizioni Klan. The music competition has been broadcasting annually since its inauguration in 1999 with the exception of 2020 and 2023. The f ...

at the age of fourteen, his music career was jump-started upon his return to Albania in 2006 where he was set to pursue a

medical degree A medical degree is a professional degree admitted to those who have passed coursework in the fields of medicine and/or surgery from an accredited medical school. Obtaining a degree in medicine allows for the recipient to continue on into special ...

dentistry Dentistry, also known as dental medicine and oral medicine, is the branch of medicine focused on the Human tooth, teeth, gums, and Human mouth, mouth. It consists of the study, diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases, dis ...

and started to perform live shows in various night clubs and pubs alongside studies. Writing and performing his own material, Bushpepa had also made various live covers and appeared in over 2000 live shows since his beginnings. He was asked to become the supporting act for

for a concert in Tirana on their Loaded band tour on 1 June 2011. During a traditional beer festival in

Korçë Korçë (; sq-definite, Korça) is the List of cities and towns in Albania, eighth most populous city of Albania and the seat of Korçë County and Korçë Municipality. The total population of the city is 51,152 and 75,994 of Korçë municipal ...

on 18 August 2013, Bushpepa performed with

, the guitarist of

. In 2014, he joined the band Darkology as their tour vocalist., replacing Kelly Sundown Carpenter in their Killfest tour with Overkill, Prong, and Enforcer who performed in various cities in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands. In early to mid 2017, Bushpepa had signed on as an adviser in

The Voice of Albania ''The Voice of Albania'' is an Albanian television reality singing competition created by John de Mol Jr. and is part of ''The Voice'' franchise. It began airing on Top Channel on October 21, 2011. Top Channel ended the show, because they be ...

, assisting Besa's team, whereas on 24 December 2017, he won the 56th edition of

, the longest-running annual televised music competition in Albania since 1962, and thus represented Albania at the

, Portugal with his song "

In December 2017,

Radio Televizioni Shqiptar Radio Televizioni Shqiptar (; ; formerly TVSH , now mostly referred to as RTSH ) is the national public broadcasting company of Albania. Founded in 1938, it operates several radio and television channels, over a domestic transmitter network as we ...

(RTSH) announced him as the Albanian representative for the

, Portugal, after he won the 56th edition of

with his song "

". The Eurovision version was reworked by Bushpepa and Jim Lowe, a Grammy Award-winning audio engineer, and was released through Universal Music on 16 April. Bushpepa's promotional tour in London and Tel Aviv were postponed due to visa delays, but he resumed the tour in Amsterdam and Madrid that advanced with great success. Albania was drawn to compete third at the first-semi final in which Bushpepa performed "Mall" third in a field of nineteen participants and qualified for the Grand Final being among the top ten most-voted acts. In the final, the song was performed twelfth in a field of twenty-six and ranked seventh with the juries and eleventh with a combined televote score. In 2023, Bushpepa started a podcast called "Garage Lock", a collaboration with fellow rock vocalist Renis Gjoka.

Discography

Bushpepa has released no album to date; though he deems himself as a "non-commercial artist" and stated that he is working on his debut album following requests from his fans.

Singles

As lead artist

Awards

, - , rowspan="1", 2008 , rowspan="1", "Ëndërr reale" , Best Male Singer , , - , rowspan="1", 2009 , rowspan="1", "Stinë dreqi" , Vodafone Club Award , , - , rowspan="1", 2011 , rowspan="1", "Rebel pa hije" , Best Male Singer , , - , rowspan="1", 2015 , rowspan="1", "Pranë finishit" , Honorific Award , , - , rowspan="1", 2017 , rowspan="1", "

" , Festivali i 56 i Këngës , , - , 2018 , rowspan="1", "

" , Eurovision Song Contest , 11th Place

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bushpepa, Eugent 1984 births 21st-century Albanian male singers Albanian composers Albanian guitarists Albanian operatic tenors Albanian rock singers Albanian Roman Catholics Albanian songwriters Festivali i Këngës winners Living people People from Rrëshen Eurovision Song Contest entrants