It has been performed and recorded by many popular folk singers from North Macedonia, the former Yugoslavia and the whole Balkan region.
versions by Esma Redžepova, Goran Bregović, Delfini, Azra, Laza Ristovski, Toše Proeski and numerous others).
It is a story about an Ottoman Turkish man playing and singing a serenade with tambura to a young olive-skinned (kalesh) Macedonian girl named Angja (Анѓа).
The oral tradition in North Macedonia says that the song was based on true historical events in the region of Mariovo: After failing to seduce her with his power and fortune, the furious man wanted to abduct her and to force her into islamization.
Inspired by this story the Macedonian writer Stale Popov wrote the book Kaleš Angja in 1958.