Due to her efforts in promoting Albania through her music and stardom, pop artist Dua Lipa has been given citizenship. The celebrity’s parents are Kosovan and Albanian, and she was born there in 1995. As a teenager, she visited the area again.
Lipa made Albania “proud with her global career and commitment to major humanitarian concerns,” according to Bajram Begaj, president of Albania.
Accepting citizenship, according to the New Rules singer, was “an unimaginable wonderful thrill.”
At Tirana City Hall, Lipa took the oath of citizenship, provided her fingerprints, and signed an application for an identity card and passport after posing for pictures with President Begaj.
Around 1992, when the tensions that would eventually spark the 1998–1999 war started to rise, Lipa’s parents departed Kosovo.
When the Institute for the History of Kosovo was slated for closure by Serbian law in 1992, the singer’s grandfather, Seit Lipa, was in charge. A special rapporteur for the UN later cited this action as evidence of escalating human rights abuses.
After settling in Camden, Lipa’s family instilled cultural awareness in her, and she continued to speak Albanian as her first language even as she developed romantic relationships with Western pop stars like Pink and Nelly Furtado.
However, her parents had always planned to come back, which they did once Lipa graduated from elementary school at the age of 11.
She admitted to NPR earlier this year that “it took me a pretty long time to find my feet there.” It’s interesting to enter that at the age of 11, but I don’t think I’d trade it for anything because it shaped who I am today.
The singer ultimately decided to move back to London to pursue her dreams of becoming a singer, staying with a family friend until she was 16 years old.
In 2016, she told BBC News,
“I guess it was worrisome for [my parents].” “But I kept calling them and said, ‘Ok, I’ve woken up. Okay, I’m in class. I’m back at home now, OK.
“It must have been an emotional rollercoaster for them. It was the most wonderful time of my life for me.
The singer has made a point of honoring her heritage ever since she rose to fame with hits like New Rules, Be The One, Don’t Start Now, and Levitating.
She and her father established the Sunny Hill Festival in 2018 to raise funds for the Sunny Hill Foundation, which aids those who are weak and in need.
Dua Lipa will conclude her global tour this week in Tirana, the capital of Albania, with a performance commemorating the 110th anniversary of the nation’s independence from the Ottoman Empire.
Her support for Albania, however, drew criticism in 2020 after she shared a map that appeared to unite Albania, Kosovo, and some of the neighboring Balkan nations, along with a caption that implied Albanians were native to the region.
The divisive image is connected to ultra-nationalists who favor enlarging Albania’s borders.
The pop star responded to criticism right away by claiming that her post “was never meant to incite any hate.”
Dua Lipa released a statement saying, “I am saddened and outraged that my post has been purposefully misinterpreted by some groups and individuals who promote ethnic separatism, something I completely reject.
“We all have a right to be proud of our heritage and racial identity. I merely desire to see my nation represented on a map and to be able to speak proudly of my Albanian heritage and my motherland.
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