His name was Toshe Proeski. Until about 10 minutes ago, I knew virtually nothing about him.

Apparently, he was a pretty big deal.

Proeski died Monday in Macedonia after the car he was riding in slammed into the back of a truck. That’s the news I read this morning on the AP wire.

Later in that story I learned the Macedonian parliament canceled its session that day as the government declared a day of mourning. That’s what made me do some more searching. After all, it’s hard to even fathom a person big enough in our country to declare a day of mourning or even cancel a session of Congress.

Turns out he’s basically the Elvis of the Balkans, according to the great Wikipedia. He took classes in New York from a guy who taught Pavarotti. Despite being a massively successful pop star, he was finishing music school specializing in solo performance. You don’t hear Fergie doing that.

Perhaps the most interesting nugget is from that Wikipedia page in the links section. Check it out at the bottom. There’s a link to video from his burial ceremony. Not a lot of those on YouTube.