LINK TV
(Spain/Balkans) This is no made-up moniker; the Macedonian Rom Esma has truly earned the title Queen of the Gypsies. Her career started in 1957, when at the age of 14 she won a singing competition for Radio Skopje. It was here that she met her future husband, the band leader Stevo Teodosievski, with whose support she gained fame performing the very song she sings in this concert. (You may also remember hearing it in the soundtrack of the movie “Borat.”) Esma is more than a singer, though. She is also considered a humanitarian, having fostered 47 children. Although her voice now has a rasp that shows her years, she can still pack quite a vocal punch, and her stage shows are dynamic — and if they are little bit kitsch, they are endearingly so.