The English and Albanian singer and songwriter Dua Lipa has been granted Albanian citizenship by the Albanian President Bajram Begaj. The singer has received the honor of promoting the country through her music and fame.
“Happy to give the one and only Dua Lipa the decree of Albanian citizenship.
She has made us proud with her global career and engagement in important social causes”, said Albanian President Bajram Begaj.
The Future Nostalgia singer humbly said that it was “an indescribable great joy” to accept citizenship.
Albanian citizenship was granted to Lipa days ahead of Albania’s 110th anniversary of independence from the Ottoman Empire.
After taking snapshots with President Begaj at Tirana City Hall, Lipa took an oath of citizenship, gave her fingerprints, and signed an application form for an identity card and passport.
The star was born in London in 1995 to Albanian parents who migrated from Kosovar. Briefly, the family returned to their hometown.
Dua Lipa’s parents left Kosovo in about 1992, as the situation began to unsettle, which eventually led to the 1998-9 war beginning to surface.
The pop star’s grandfather, Seit Lipa, was head of the Institute for the History of Kosovo when it was targeted for closure by Serbian law in 1992. It was a move that a special rapporteur for the United Nations later called a sign of burgeoning human rights violations.
The Lipa family settled in Camden and raised Lipa with an awareness of her Albanian culture.
Albanian remained her singer’s first language.
Although they settled in the new place Dua Lipa’s parents had always intended to return home – which they did after Lipa left primary school at the age of 11.
Lipa started singing when she was just 5 years old, and at 14 she started to post her songs on Youtube. Young Dua was in love with Western pop stars like Pink and Nelly Furtado.
The rising star’s debut album was released in 2017, and in 2019 she won the Grammy award for best new artist.
After subsequent fame that she got with hits like New Rules, Be The One, Don’t Start Now, and Levitating, the pop star made a point of honoring her heritage.
In 2016, the Sunny Hill Foundation was co-founded by Dua Lipa along with her father to raise money for people struggling in Albania. Two years later, she founded the Sunny Hill Festival with her father to raise charity for the Sunny Hill Foundation.
Nevertheless, her support for Albania unwantedly sparked a backlash in 2020 after she posted a map that showed Albania, Kosovo, and parts of neighboring Balkan countries as one nation, with a caption indicating that Albanians are indigenous to the area. The image was found controversial and was objected to by various activists.
The singer quietly replied to the criticism saying, “was never meant to incite any hate”.
Dua Lipa is all set to perform in Tirana, Albania, this Monday. She will wrap up her world tour in the Albanian capital, Tirana, marking the 110th anniversary of the country’s independence from the Ottoman Empire.
