Invited to Podfestë, Jonida Maliqi spoke about the viral moment of tension between her and Elvana Gjata at the Festival last year. If you missed it, last year Jonida Maliqi was part of the jury and Elvana Gjata competed with the song "Carnival". At the moment of voting, Jonida ranked Elvana's song second and made a snicker that did not escape people. You can find the possible motives for this situation here .
A year later, Jonida was faced with Olti Curri's question: "How many times have Elvana's fans attacked you?" about what happened. And Jonida replied:
"They attacked me at the beginning, before Shkodra Elektronika, when Arilena Ara won. At that time, I was coming from the 2018 Festival and in 2019 I had to give the trophy and I had to give it to Arilena. Then, they invite me to the post-festival, where I express myself as an artist. And people confuse this, absurd scenarios are usually created, not only by the public, but also by the media, that have to do with the personal side. The personal side has nothing to do with it. And it was just because I said 'Arilena's song, according to my musical tastes, is the winning song'."
And rightly so, Olti says, "Well, you've gone against Elvana twice, artistically."
"Artistically, maybe yes, but personally, we need to clarify once and for all, I have known Elvana since a very young age. She doesn't need my praise at all because if she is where she is, it is thanks to her attributes. She is an artist that I have always appreciated, but if I don't like the song, it has nothing to do with who this singer is, it has only to do with the musical material."
In the end, Jonida "wished her much success" and said that she thought Elvana "would continue for a few more decades" in the music market. Someone who sees it will probably say that Jonida's comments were passive-aggressive again, but you didn't hear anything from us.
