“Le Point”: Dua Lipa, the diplomatic pop weapon that makes Kosovo shine
Express newspaper
05/08/2025 10:15
The French magazine “Le Point” has dedicated a text to singer Dua Lipa and her connection to her birthplace, Kosovo.
According to “Le Point”, the phenomenon Dua Lipa continues to leave its mark on the world stage. And because she honors the countries that shaped her identity, they give back. Kosovo recently honored her by granting her citizenship.
On July 31, 2025, the President of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani, signed a decree formalizing this recognition. The ceremony was held the next day, August 1, in Pristina, where the head of state officially declared Dua Lipa a citizen of Kosovo.
Symbolic gesture
This highly symbolic gesture seals a long and strong relationship between the artist and her family’s country of origin. “One of the most emblematic cultural figures in the history of our country,” the president declared on her X account, highlighting the singer’s great influence on Kosovo’s international image.
A sentiment shared by 39-year-old Kosovar musician Genc Salihu in an interview with Le Monde: “Our population is young, ambitious, confident and increasingly progressive. Dua is the general prosecutor of this emancipatory war. She is our greatest source of pride.”
This is the London-born artist’s third citizenship, following that of the United Kingdom and Albania, which she obtained in 2022, in recognition of her role in promoting Albanian culture worldwide. The addition of Kosovar citizenship thus reinforces a deep and enduring connection to the land from which she comes.
An example for young people
Born in London in 1995, Dua Lipa embodies a generation of children of exile marked by the wars in the former Yugoslavia. Her parents, originally from Pristina, fled Kosovo in the early 90s and rebuilt their lives in the United Kingdom, where their three children were born.
In 2006, Dua experienced the thrill of independence, which was declared two years later. But at the age of 15, convinced that the small Balkan republic did not offer the same prospects for a musical career as London, she convinced her parents to let her return alone to pursue her studies in singing and theatre. However, she maintains a deep connection to Kosovo, which would remain central to her identity and artistic journey.
“Kingdom of Kosovo”
Kosovo remains one of the poorest countries in Europe and the Western Balkans. Recognized by 103 UN member states, including France, since 2008, several countries, including Serbia, Russia and Spain, still refuse to recognize its independence.
Diplomatically, Kosovo is still struggling to establish itself on the international stage. However, its cultural influence continues to grow, fueled by diaspora figures such as Dua Lipa and Rita Ora. This soft power, where culture precedes politics, gives the country unprecedented visibility beyond its borders. It must be said that Dua Lipa’s fame is enough to change the scale: with 88.1 million followers on Instagram and 65 million monthly listeners on Spotify, the pop star attracts far more people than there are residents in Kosovo: 1.87 million.
Her stance on her ties to Albania and Kosovo has sometimes caused controversy. In 2020, she caused a stir by sharing a so-called “Greater Albania” map on social media, which her critics perceived as nationalistic. She defended the gesture as a cultural celebration, revealing in the process her connection to both Kosovo — which shares a language and culture with Albania but has declared its own independence — and Albania, to which she also claims roots.
Since her debut, Dua Lipa has used her fame to highlight Kosovar culture. In 2018, she co-founded the Sunny Hill Festival with her father, Dukagjin Lipa, which in just a few years has become one of the leading music events in the Balkans. Every summer, it attracts major international artists such as Shawn Mendes and Fatboy Slim, as well as thousands of festival-goers from across the region.
In a country still on the fringes of European tourist and diplomatic circles, this success is seen as a dynamic showcase for young Kosovars. Like Hallyu, the “Korean Wave” that brought South Korea to prominence thanks to K-pop and TV series, Dua Lipa’s career illustrates how a pop star can become a country’s cultural ambassador and put it on the global map.