Kasem Hallulli (Tirana 1946 – Tiranë 2000)

Kasem Hallulli belongs to the renown Hallulli family. Mayor of Tirana during 1913-1914, Zyber Hallulli, was from the same family. His main merit was that he continued the great tradition of Tirana’s folk songs after the 1980s, following in the footsteps of his father, folk singer Myslym Hallulli. In those years, Kasem was active as a folk singer at weddings and concerts, as part of the orchestra directed by Ramazan Gurra, where he sang and played the lute. He fled to Austria at the end of the 1980s, and was able to continue his activity as performer of Tirana’s folk songs after the 1990s, when the dictatorship had already ended. He owned almost the entire active repertoire of Tirana folk songs, which he took care to interpret as originally as possible, referring to the singing models of his predecessors and to the popular tradition in general. He also became very popular with the song dedicated to the “17 Nëntori” sports club “O Tiron, Tirona“, composed by Mustafa Bodini.

His special way of singing, slowly, softly and full of musicality attracted the attention of the public and the media. His music colleague Ramazan Gurra describes him as follows:… he had a melodious voice, with a wide range that spanned the tenor and baritone register, clean and clear enunciation and excellent interpretation.

Fortunately, there are several albums with folk songs that he sang. One album was recorded in 1995 by the “FUGA” record company and the second album “Ç`i ra zjermi, ç`i dul tymi” by “Euro Star”. After his untimely death due to an accident in 2000, the record labels “Super Star” and “Super Sonic” released two more albums with selected songs of his. A part of his artistic heritage can be found at Radio Tirana (such as the songs “Po punon goca me grep“, “I kam hyp vaporit“, “Jelekun me are“), in the film archive of RTSH and online on the youtube.com channel. One of the few articles in honor of his figure is “Kasem Hallulli, the master of Tirona folk music“, written by journalist Andi Bica.

“SILLU SILLU, BOT E VJETER”, by Kasem Hallulli. – YouTube