Invited to "The Dalina Show" on Andale Media, Egli Tako has reacted for the first time to the huge uproar that was created when, at one of her concerts in Drenica, Kosovo, people in the audience unanimously shouted the well-known insult against Serbia and it seemed that Egli supported the moment.
Asked by Dalina to clarify, Egli replied:
"I'm so glad you asked this question. Among all the words that have been said about me, among all the things that have been discussed, I may have reacted once or twice so far in the total of these 200 thousand times and I had no intention of making a reaction on social networks, but since you are asking me a question, I am glad because I also had the desire within myself to clarify this conversation once and for all."
To begin with, she somewhat "justified" her action with the argument that she was not the first artist to do this on stage:
"What I have done on that stage, I want to start by saying that it has been done by over 20 other artists from Albania and Kosovo, and it is worth emphasizing, from Albania and Kosovo before me. To be honest, I do not consider myself to be a chick with so much influence that I challenge names like Noizy, like Finem, like artists who have hits with 200 million clicks on YouTube and are paid 20-25 thousand euros at concerts. However, thank you very much to all those people who have heard of mine, not other names."
Further, she explained that she had planned to sing Adem Jashari's song in advance, but in no way anticipating what would happen next:
"It happened in this way, since I was in Drenica, so I had a concert in Drenica, within my repertoire I felt like singing the famous Drenica song. I felt it, I knew I would be in Drenica and if you look at my phone I have a video before I left. I was rehearsing in Tirana, to sing the song because I wasn't at my vocal best. If I didn't feel like it, I just wanted to sing that song and I knew I would sing it no matter what."
Egli then explained the moment of covering herself with the Albanian flag as a way to cover up the "inappropriate" clothing underneath:
"The moment I took the flag, since I was wearing a crop top with stones, a concert outfit, to give the song a little of the weight and importance it has and not to appear with a slightly exposed cleavage, I took the Albanian flag and covered myself, but it's not for nothing that they say 'get up because I killed you, get down because I killed you', and whatever you do, whoever is going to comment, will comment on it and you'll burst into tears."
This was the moment Egli says people started chanting the famous phrase:
"I put up the flag and started singing the song. The moment I was putting up the flag, the crowd below started chanting 'Serbia, Serbia' and that other part that we all know now, let's not pretend we grew up in Paris."
She further explained that it felt very natural to be part of that moment:
"And they just kept saying it, and for a moment, it felt natural to join them. At the end of the day, I may not be from Kosovo, I may not have suffered their war, but I come from a family that gave its life for our national liberation war here in our country. The people and people of my family, from whom I got my name, have died. I come from a grandfather who raised me from a piece of meat until I was 18, talking to me about this war, being a partisan. I felt like I was part of what they were saying, at the end of the day, of course we can have very good diplomatic relations with Serbia, but of course I never love Serbia. That thing happened to our country, Kosovo for me is the same as Albania."
Egli ultimately emphasized that she did not initiate the action, although she does not regret why what happened happened:
"I didn't initiate this. That wasn't the case. The crowd had started and at one point I said 'OK, at the end of the day, what's the harm?' and I just said 'Serbia, Serbia...' and then the rest of the time I didn't say another word."
Watch the premiere interview below:
