Albania’s president Bajram Begaj grants Dua Lipa, born of Albanian mother and father, citizenship Sunday.

@BajramBegajAL/Screenshot by NPR

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@BajramBegajAL/Screenshot by NPR

Albania’s president Bajram Begaj grants Dua Lipa, born of Albanian mother and father, citizenship Sunday.

@BajramBegajAL/Screenshot by NPR

Albania’s president granted citizenship to pop star Dua Lipa on Sunday for selling the nation by means of her worldwide fame.

President Bajram Begaj mentioned he was pleased to acknowledge Lipa, the daughter of Albanian immigrants, for her musical skills and contribution to spreading worldwide consciousness of Albania.

“Happy to give the one and only Dua Lipa the decree of Albanian citizenship,” he mentioned. “She has made us proud with her global career and engagement in important social causes.”

“It is an indescribable great joy with such acceptance, love and everything,” Lipa informed the Associated Press. “I will be an Albanian with papers too.”

Lipa was born in London in 1995 to immigrant mother and father from Kosovo, making her first language Albanian. Her mother and father had at all times wished to return to Kosovo, she told NPR in April, and when she was 11, all of them moved again.

“It took me a really long time to find my feet there,” she mentioned. “It’s interesting going into that at 11 years old, but I think I wouldn’t change it for the world because it really helped me become who I am.”

Lipa and her father co-founded the Sunny Hill Foundation in 2016 to boost cash for folks with monetary difficulties in Albania. They organized the annual Sunny Hill Festival to boost cash for the inspiration and help youths in artistic arts.

Her help for Albania sparked backlash in 2020 after the pop sensation took to Twitter and posted a photo of a “Greater Albania” flag. The controversial flag is associated with ultra-nationalists that consider Albania’s borders needs to be expanded to incorporate components of Kosovo, Serbia, Greece and North Macedonia.

She captioned the photograph, “au•toch•tho•nous adjective (of an inhabitant of a place) indigenous rather than descended from migrants or colonists.”

Lipa mentioned the publish was misinterpreted to advertise ethnic separatism, which she mentioned she “completely rejects.”

“We all deserve to be proud of our ethnicity and where we are from,” she wrote in a statement. “I simply want my country to be represented on a map and to be able to speak with pride and joy about my Albanian roots and my mother country.”

The grant of citizenship comes simply forward of Albania’s 110^th anniversary of independence from the Ottoman Empire.