Dua Lipa was granted Albanian citizenship for promoting the country through her songs and notoriety.
Born in London in 1995 to Kosovan-Albanian parents, the celebrity returned to the region briefly as an adolescent.
The Albanian president, Bajram Begaj, stated that Lipa had made the nation “proud with her international career and dedication to significant social concerns.”
Accepting citizenship was “an unimaginable enormous thrill,” according to the New Rules singer.
After posing for photographs with President Begaj in the Tirana City Hall, Lipa took the oath of citizenship, provided her fingerprints, and signed an application for an identity card and passport.
Lipa’s parents departed Kosovo in 1992, as tensions that would ultimately lead to the 1998-99 conflict began to emerge.
Seit Lipa, the grandfather of the singer, was the director of the Institute for the History of Kosovo when it was targeted for closure by Serbian law in 1992, a move that a United Nations special rapporteur described as an indication of escalating human rights crimes.
Lipa’s family settled in Camden and reared her with an understanding of her culture; Albanian remained her first language even after she fell in love with Western pop idols such as Pink and Nelly Furtado.
However, her parents always meant to return home, which they did after Lipa graduated from elementary school at age 11.
This year, she told NPR, “It took me an extremely long time to get my footing there.” “Anything’s unusual to enter that at age 11, but I wouldn’t change it for the world since it helped me become the person I am today.
Eventually, the singer chose to return to London to pursue a singing career, staying with a family friend until she was 16 years old.
“I suppose [my parents] were terrified,” she told. “However, I was constantly calling them: ‘Okay, I’ve awoken. I’m in school now. Okay, I’ve returned home.’
“It must have been an emotional roller coaster for them. It was the greatest time of my life.”
Since achieving recognition with songs like New Rules, Be The One, Don’t Start Now, and Levitating, the singer has made it a priority to respect her history.
In 2018, she co-founded the Sunny Hill Festival with her father to raise funds for the Sunny Hill Foundation, which assists disadvantaged and indigent individuals.
This week, she will conclude her world tour in Tirana, Albania, with a performance commemorating the 110th anniversary of Albania’s independence from the Ottoman Empire.
In 2020, however, her advocacy for Albania provoked criticism as she shared a map that appeared to portray Albania, Kosovo, and sections of other Balkan countries as one nation, with a message implying that Albanians are native to the region.
The contentious artwork is associated with ultranationalists that advocate for the expansion of Albania’s borders.
The pop artist swiftly responded to criticism by stating that her article “was never intended to provoke hatred.”
She added in a statement, “It saddens and angers me that my message has been deliberately misunderstood by some groups and individuals who advocate ethnic separatism, which I vehemently oppose.”
“We all have the right to be proud of our ethnicity and origin. I simply want to see my country on a map and be able to speak with pride and excitement about my Albanian roots and my mother country.”
