Culture Week, Kosovan Stars

It is Culture week in Mitrovica south and last night there was a free concert in the city centre featuring a competent backing band and a rotating list of local female singers, as well as a somewhat disturbing display by the local karate club.

One of the singers was Rona Nishliu, who I have been seeing on local tv a lot recently. A pretty daggy video (you can see on YouTube here - watch for some terrible dance moves and worse outfits) has been playing, I've seen her sing 'live' on a show reminiscent of Countdown, seen her in a kind of game show, and popping up on things that look like variety shows.

So you can imagine that after this much exposure I had it in my head this chick was a bit of a celebrity, so it was fun to see her up close and personal singing her hits and some rather cheesy cover versions of american songs both solo and with the other singers at the concert. It was almost Kosovo's answer to the Young Divas.
Anyway, it turns out this girl is some kind of over achiever, go-getter, and the more Kosovo can get of them, the better!

"Rona Nishliu was born in Mitrovica and attended high school in Pristina, both in Kosovo. In the top 1 percent of the student body at the American University in Kosovo, Nishliu is also a well-known singer in the Kosovo, Albania and Macedonia regions and was one of five finalists among seven thousand participants in an Albanian Pop Idol show. She is the host of a daily radio show for one of Kosovo’s most popular radio stations, Bluesky Radio. She participates in various volunteer activities, including initiating and organizing Kosovo Remembers, a concert to support the Bush-Clinton Hurricane Katrina Fund. She also works with movie and documentary companies and collaborates with international artists visiting Kosovo." rit.edu