It had been a blessed couple of years for the pop star Dua Lipa. Her sophomore album ‘Future Nostalgia’ boosted her career growth, where she infused the pop and disco era. The album climbed to the No.3 position on Billboard 200 in 2021. The album was the No.1 in the U.K. The British singer also earned quite well touring the album amidst the pandemic grossing $40 million in the U.S. and Canada.
Though Lipa is from the United Kingdom, her roots are strong in Albania. Her parents were immigrants to the country from Kosovo. On November 27th, 2022, the ‘New Rules’ singer was granted citizenship of Albania. The President of Albania, Bajram Begaj conferred citizenship on her for “spreading international awareness of Albania”.
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Dua Lipa Will Be “An Albanian With Papers Too”
To mark the 110th anniversary of independence from the Ottoman Empire, Albanian President Bajram Begaj granted citizenship to Dua Lipa for making the Albanians proud and known throughout the globe. In a tweet, he wrote, “Happy to give one and only Dua Lipa the decree of Albanian citizenship. She made us proud with her global career and engagement in important social causes”.
Happy to give the one and only @DUALIPA the decree of Albanian citizenship. She has made us proud with her global career and engagement in important social causes. pic.twitter.com/B9qYbrfywA
— Bajram Begaj (@BajramBegajAL) November 27, 2022
The ‘Levitating’ artist was born in London in 1995 to immigrant parents, Anesa and Dukagjin Lipa, who migrated to the UK. She and her father co-founded Sunny Hill Foundation. This philanthropic endeavor was to raise money for the suffering people in Albania. They also organized Sunny Hill Festival to raise money for their NGO and encourage the youths in the country to pursue creative arts.
🇦🇱👐🏼 Thank you President Bajram Begaj and Mayor @erionveliaj for this honour ~ got my Albanian citizenship!! ~ faleminderit, po ndihem shume krenare 🇦🇱❤️👐🏼 pic.twitter.com/bfZzqukKAe
— DUA LIPA (@DUALIPA) November 27, 2022
She took to her social media to share this enthralling news. Lipa captioned her post, “🇦🇱👐🏼 Thank you President Bajram Begaj and Mayor @erionveliaj for this honour ~ got my Albanian citizenship!! ~ faleminderit, po ndihem shume krenare 🇦🇱❤️👐🏼”. The last sentence translates to “Thank you, I’m feeling very proud”.
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There Has Been Contention Between Serbs And Ethnic Albanians In Kosovo
After two decades, the tension between ethnic Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo is flaring up. To provide the geographical location, Kosovo is a small country landlocked in the Balkans with neighboring countries like Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Albania. Kosovo was a part of Yugoslavia in the pre-cold war period. After the disintegration of the USSR, in 1992, it separated from Yugoslavia and declared itself an autonomous country.
So, the Serbs consider Kosovo the origin of their nation. However, in the country, 1.8 million people reside there, 92% are Albanians, and only 6% are Serbian. The Kosovo War was fought between February 1998 to June 1999. But, NATO intervened with its bombing campaign in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia when ethnic cleansing was taking place in Serbia against Kosovar Albanians.
But, Kosovo declared its independence in 2008. The situation has started getting tense again in the north of Kosovo where Pristina’s authorities and Serbs are at loggerheads. In August 2022, the Kosovo authorities had to shut down two borders i.e., Bernjak and Jarinje due to escalating tensions from the Serbs, who shot policemen. Neither Serbia nor Albania is letting go of the country with international communities and countries trying to mediate.
au•toch•tho•nous adjective
(of an inhabitant of a place) indigenous rather than descended from migrants or colonists pic.twitter.com/OD9bNmLcZ4— DUA LIPA (@DUALIPA) July 19, 2020
Dua Lipa 2020 shared a tweet writing, “au•toch•tho•nous adjective (of an inhabitant of a place) indigenous rather than descended from migrants or colonists”. She tweeted this with a “Greater Albania” flag, which had a red and black eagle with the politician Xhemalli and war leader Isa Boletini. The extremist nationalists believe that Greater Albania should include Kosovo, Serbia, Greece, and North Macedonia, using this flag.
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