Elhaida Dani

Elhaida Dani was born on 17 February 1993 in Shkodër, north Albania to a Muslim family. She studied piano from the age of 6. She started appearing on national television in 2008, after participating in Kënga Magjike with her song "Fjala e fundit" (The last word).

In 2009, she auditioned for the Albanian version of Star Academy and won the show. She then continued singing at various music competitions around the Balkans. In 2011 she participated in Sunčane Skale, held in Montenegro with "Si asnjëherë" (Like never before). and won the youth category of the show. Later that year, she won two competitions in Bulgaria and Romania. She also participated at the 50th edition of Festivali i Këngës with "Mijëra vjet" (Thousands of years).

In early 2012, she worked with Threedots Music Albania, a popular music label and wrote "S'je më" (You're not the same anymore), and won Albania's biggest music show, Top Fest. After returning to Albania, the first song she sang was "Ya nabi salam alayka" of Maher Zain in the Medrese Haxhi Sheh Shamia of Shkodra. There she wore a headscarf.

She chose to join Riccardo Cocciante's team, and the world-renowned songwriter became her coach. She advanced to the battles and knockouts and reached the finals in May 2013. She sang Lara Fabian's version of "Adagio" and "When Love Calls Your Name", the unreleased song that Riccardo Cocciante wrote for her with Roxanne Seeman, and won the show with over 70% of the public vote.

In 2014, Dani revealed that she was going to participate at the 53rd edition of Festivali i Këngës, with the hope to represent Albania at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest. Her song "Diell" (Sun) was among the 28 participating entries. The competition was held from 26 to 28 December in Tirana. She was the favourite to win the show. On 28 December 2014, Elhaida won the contest with a total of 82 points.

In 2016, she has been called by Riccardo Cocciante and Luc Plamondon to play the role of Esmeralda in the world renown musical (Winner of several world Guinness) Notre Dame de Paris.

And since 2016 she is touring worldwide (France, Lebanon, Russia, Taiwan, Canada).

#BIRTHDAY: Elhaida Dani from Albania is 26 today

BIRTHDAY: Elhaida Dani from Albania is 26 today Just occasionally a song passes me by completely. It's not a bad song, or a silly song. It might just be unfortunate enough to be in a contest with more memorable songs. I'll stop digging a hole for myself now. But I was there in 2015 when…