Adelina Ismajli
Adelina Ismajli (born 14 December 1979) is a Kosovo-Albanian singer, actress,moderator and former beauty pageant winner. Life and Career. Ismajli started singing at a very young age, becoming one of Kosovo's most influential singers during the 90s. Her music is very versatile which includes different genres such as pop, rock, electronic, folk, rap. She started competing in various children's festivals in the Albanian territories, such as the "Akordet e Kosovës", "Festivali i këngës për fëmijë në RTSH" and many others. During her teenage years, Adelina released many songs that spoke about children's rights  and the lives of teenagers. She was one of the first singers in Kosovo who managed to touch topics that others of her age couldn't. In 1997 in the clip of the song "Sajzeza" a collaboration with rock band Elita 5 she comes on stage with a provocative outfit, similar with considered scandalous at the time. In 1999 she published the song "Amaneti" where at first she appears dressed as an imam and then undresses and startes belly dancing. This performance got some backlashes by some Imams but it was still generally received well by the public. She was  criticized and judged a lot by the Albanian society for always being sexually provocative. She is accused of not knowing how to sing and that she has earned her fame only because she is beautiful and provocative. Nowdays she is seen as an icon of Albanian music. Her appearances have been imitated by younger Albanian female celebrities. The "signature" look of Adelina is her cut eyebrow which she got from a fight with her sister when she was little. She has fought through her music for the liberation of Albanian women from patriarchy. Some of her songs have strong feminist  messages such as "Shko n'RrS", "Po du dhe une me u knaq" "100%zeshkane", "Fuckers" etc. Adelina is a lover of Albanian folk. She has sung many Albanian folk songs, the most notable ones being duets with Sabri Fejzullahu. She has expressed her sympathy for Western and Middle Eastern music incorporating melodies from those countries in some of her songs. She has criticized the influence of turbofolk on albanian music by saying that it's unauthentic, vulgar and that it has ruined the Albanian culture. She is considered as the Albanian diva. Her sister,Zanfina Ismaili is also a singer. They  have made a song together named "Dy motra nje frajer" which talks about two sisters loving the same guy. They also have another sister named Ema. Her mother(Mona Ismaili)helped her create her career since she was a child. Adelina's father wasn't much present in her life after their parents divorced. In interviews Adelina has said that her mother was her biggest supporter and critic. Mona died of cancer in 2016. Adelina has claimed that now that her mother isn't there on stage with her she has lost her inspiration to make new music. Adelina supports LGBTQ community . She has dedicated a song to her gay bestfriend who died of suicide. The song is named "Shokut tim". Adelina Ismaili has declared herself a nationalist, saying that she comes from a family of Albanian nationalists persecuted and massacred by the Yugoslav state.In 1997 she was selected as Miss Kosova but since Kosovo wasn't recognized as a country she represented Albania in Miss Globe in Turkey where she was immediately disqualified after saying: "Hi! I am Adelina and I come from Kosovo Republic of Albania!" She recalls her early life memories of always hiding from the police when  recording videoclips, her mother coming home with bloody face during the 80s demonstrations in Prishtina, her professors getting beaten by the Serbian police. She has written some songs with nationalist motives and derogatory terms, attacking the Serbian regime of the 90s in Kosovo with songs such as "Uragan cohen krenaret", "Deri kur keshtu!", "Fuck the government", "Zahir Pajaziti" As a result she was a target of Serbian paramilitary which burned her house during the war. She has lost all her childhood photos and musical records because of that. She has been a supporter of Ibrahim Rugova and his political party  Lidhja demokratike e kosoves. She dedicated the song "Ushtrine time" to him, which became a hit in the Albanian-speaking lands. During the war she moved as a war refugee to North Macedonia. After the war she returned to Kosovo where she participated in many postwar humanitarian concerts. Today she has expressed her love and support for Vjosa Osmani where in an interview she has said: "I love Vjosa as a person and as a politician. To be honest she is a very strong woman for handling these Balkan homosapiens, these chauvinistic Albanian men. Women usually don't have it  On January 25, 2001 Adelina Ismaili published her VHS entitled "I.R.A" together with Sevdai Radogoshi, Besim Dina, Bujar Bobani, the director of this video was Shkumbin Kryeziu produced by Labia all the songs of the Album "Sjam Sex bomb" In 2003 she had a physical altercation with singer Leonora Jakupi where Adelina got arrested. She made a diss song against her named "Lumja une per ty". Recently Adelina has stated that Leonora attacked her mother so she intervened to protect her mother. She doesn't hate or feel jealous of any young girl especially towards one who has sung in  Koshare. In 2007, her boyfriend Triumf Riza was killed by Enver Sekiraqa's gang and the media blamed and alluded that Adelina was the cause, although this fact has been denied by the relatives of the deceased. This event still haunts her today. She has refused to be present in these last trials against Sekiraqa, probably because of the threats she was facing. She dedicated a song to her boyfriend named "Trimit Tim". Adelina moved to Switzerland to start a new life after consulting with a therapist. The therapist advised her to move abroad otherwise she "would lose her mind"(as  she said in an interview) by living longer in Kosovo. In Switzerland she met Vali, her current husband who is also ethnically Albanian with whom she has a son, Uliks.She recalls her life in Switzerland as the best period of her life. She felt relaxed and free from the constant judgement of the media,paparazzi. Vali is also her manager. Her husband convinced her to move Kosovo later. When she returned she published two remakes of her old songs "Amaneti", "Qikat", the last one in collaboration with the singer Rina Balaj. Some of her quotes. "I was not born  a Diva. I was named one" "From the age of 6 I lived being watched by the cameras. I never experienced my crushes and small love stories like my girlfriends did. My romantic relationships existed only as headlines for the newspapers to sell. With Vali I found my true love and it is eternal." "In my neighborhood there were at least 4 gypsies who worked as shoe cleaners on the street and sang more beautifully than half of the Balkan pop scene. That did not make them singers. Someone who has no general knowledge on music and no message in  their songs should not be considered an artist. Otherwise there would be no schools." "I was, am and remain a Rugovist" "My love for Vali can not be compared to any success in Show Business" "Those who curse and offend are not remembered, but those who create and donate are" "The wrath of negative people is like the tears of a whore, noisy, powerful but short" "Dangerous secrets must be revealed, in order for them to be improved and not to happen again" "Those who once would threw stones and wood at provocation, today are able to expose their genitals  as well" "The mission of art is to address problems and phenomena that occur in the society, not to sing to ourselves" "Should the artist submit to the dictatorship and censorship of crazy powers, which then call the brave crazy or hide his successes?" "You did not vote for the artist, you do not pay his taxes, he does not leave you without electricity, bread and water, he does not leave you without land and house and he does not put you in prison. The artist owes you nothing, he has given you his talent and you use it with  little money for your enjoyment. This pleasure is sometimes also the outbursts of individual or collective psychoses. They curse, curse, vent, but maybe because we do not get anything, we do not get tired of words" "Women emancipation had to happen since the time of our grandmothers. Only in Albanian you can hear the sentence: "A person and a woman are coming"" "I grew up in a time when grenades made lights for me to write lyrics. I heard more the screams of my music professors getting beaten by the Serbian militia than music in my basement, improvised school in  Prishtina. My parents did not teach me with which rich man should I sleep for a dress, or with which producer for a show. I come from a generation that grew up abused by Serbian savages. So do not mistake me with any world star to whom the whole Los Angeles pleads to make a sound out of their mouth. I have so much more than them, I have a life of pain that I turned into success and happiness." "To you, who for 18 years now have killed every dream and every hope, even to you, who have not  had balls to protect your children..To you, who have produced illiterates with diplomas, begging children, living corpses in the corridors of hospitals, brothels in every motel, debts in every morsel, to you whose souls still smell like shit ... I am telling you I do not give up, you can not kill my dreams (from the publishing of "Fol Niher")" Discography. Ismajli's records, including four chart-topping albums ("100% zeshkane", "S'jam sex bombë", "Prej fillimit" and "Mbretëreshë e robëreshë") were instant successes and became best sellers in Albania, in the Albanian-speaking regions of the former Yugoslavia, and in  the Albanian diaspora. (Ft. Zanfina Ismajli)