British pop singer of Albanian origin Dua Lipa slammed a full-page advertisement published in the New York times last month, which accused her and both sisters Gigi and Bella Hadid of being anti-semetic, for advocating Palestinians who were recently targeted by the recent Israeli attacks.
Lipa rejected the accusations and confirmed her stance, as she tweeted, “This is the price you pay for defending Palestinian human rights against an Israeli government whose actions both Human Rights Watch and the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem accuse of persecution and discrimination.”
During the Israeli offensive she shared via her Instagram stories a tweet from US Senator Bernie Sanders who blamed the actions of Israeli extremists for triggering another violent conflict between Israel and Palestine.
The famous pop singer and songwriter Lipa was born in London in 1995 to immigrant Albanian parents Anesa and Dukagjin Lipa from Pristina, now in Kosovo. She is the eldest to a brother and a sister. Her name is of Albanian origin which means “love” chosen upon the suggestion of her grandmother.
Lipa started singing at the age of five, and was musically influenced by her father, who was the lead singer and guitarist of the Kosovan rock band Oda. Lipa grew up in West Hampstead, London. When she auditioned to enter the school choir, the teacher told her that "she could not sing.”
She moved with her family, which has Muslim heritage, to Pristina after Kosovo declared independence in 2008. There, she learned more about the Albanian language and considered a musical career. By the age of 14, she started to cover songs of famous singers and post them on YouTube and SoundCloud, such as "If I Ain't Got You" (2004) by Alicia Keys and "Beautiful" (2002) by Christina Aguilera, which earned her initial fame.
Then, she moved back to London at age 15.
Lipa became a model for Topshop, and signed with a modelling agency, which landed her a role as a "singer" in an ITV advertisement for The X Factor in 2013, covering the song "Lost in Music" (1979).
She released her self-titled debut studio album on 2 June 2017. Her single "New Rules" became her best-selling single to date, after it was her first number one in the UK, and the first by a female solo artist to reach the top in the UK since Adele's "Hello" in 2015. The song also charted in the top ten of other countries, including number two in Australia, number six in the US, and number seven in Canada.
In 2019, she won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, and her Silk City-collaboration "Electricity" won the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording. Her 2019 single "Don't Start Now" peaked at number two in the UK and US, and number four on the US Hot 100 year-end chart. Possessing a mezzo-soprano vocal range, Lipa’s music is primarily pop, and has also been described as disco, house and R&B.
In an interview with the Guardian, in which the singer talks about her roots, work ethic and her view of music “as an escape”, she said, “(Pop) has to be fun. You’ve got to enjoy it. You can’t get upset about every little thing.”
Together with her father Dukagjin, she co-created the Sunny Hill Foundation in 2016 to raise funds to help people in Kosovo experiencing financial difficulties.
Lipa has also been the cover girl in several magazines such as Elle, British Vogue, British GQ, among others.
In February 2019, the first wax figure of Lipa was unveiled at the Madame Tussauds London, inspired by her appearance during her performance at Glastonbury Festival 2017.
Another incident in which she stirred controversy was when she tweeted a map of “Greater Albania” often associated with supporters of extreme Albanian nationalism. The map she posted included Albania, Kosovo and parts of neighboring Balkan countries and a definition of the word "autochthonous" to suggest Albanians belonged there.
Both supporters and critic reacted to the tweet, after which she issued a statement announcing that she rejected ethnic separatism and her post "was never meant to incite any hate".
