Elhaida Dani confessed in an interview with Prime Minister Edi Rama in his "Flasim" podcast that growing up in a patriarchal family was not easy, although fortunately she experienced a radical change in her life when she discovered her passion for music.
"Meanwhile, from this patriarchal family that normally a girl, even with talent, should have had the suppression of the weight of the patriarchs or of the patriarch and his brother collaborators, it turns out that a father has emerged, who has done everything that the girl to be seen, to be admired by all the people of the world and to shine, seeing all the people of the world from above and below", asked Rama.
"It is one of the biggest changes in my life because I was born in a patriarchal family, as are most Albanian families today. And that's probably why I had such a suppressed character. I didn't speak up, I didn't open up, I didn't really express myself growing up because I didn't think my opinion could matter. And it is a problem that many girls have today in Albania. So, I had a radical change in my life at the age of 19 when I decided to go to Italy because my father, it's true patriarchal fanatic, these adjectives I can give, but when he realized that I had a talent for music, there he said "I can't change it". - said Elhaida.
Following the conversation, she added:
"If we're going to talk about me, the one person, among the only people I should always mention is my dad. [...] The moment he saw that I have something for which I want to "fight", he pushed me, gave me his character and told me I will follow you wherever you are. And I remember he accompanied me to every audition, from Shkodra to Tirana. He would wait hours and hours and hours in the car for me to finish auditions or for me to finish rehearsals and the economic situation was not good. He accompanied me to auditions in Europe, where I later met the people who invited me to do "The Voice of Italy" and by car. He started the car, an old Golf, and drove 15 hours a day, not eating because he would fall asleep then and have no energy. My father is a hero. Maybe for every girl.”
At the moment, Elhaida is in Albania because she is part of the cast of the show "Notre-Dame de Paris", the most successful show in Europe, where she plays the role of Esmeralda. The musical, with music by Riccardo Cocciante and based on the novel by Victor Hugo, comes to Albania for the first time.
