Portrait of the singer Liljana Kondakçi!

Liljana Kondakçi, an outstanding singer of the golden generation of Albanian music from the 70s-80s. She was also active as an actress in several Albanian films! She holds the title “Merited Artist”

Born in Tirana on October 12, 1950. It was the beginning of the 2000s when she had been almost completely lost from artistic screens for a long time and suddenly appeared in the news of the Black Chronicle (2010). The outstanding singer of the golden generation of the 70s-80s, had not been present on the stages of Albanian Festivals since the distant year 1988, at the age of 36.

Since then she has had only a few sporadic appearances on the screen to awaken the nostalgia of the generations that had made them dream not only of her voice but also of her incredibly sensual charm. Since then, she had withdrawn into her private life and was only referred to as ‘was’. Liliana, however, appeared from time to time exactly where she had never missed the rigid judgment of a conservative society, like the Albanian society of those years. As was often the case with rare art VIPs of the time, her private life was always a subject of interest. An interest that was always in direct proportion to the fame of the ‘marked’, but that rarely had anything to do with the truth.

She was only 14 years old, when the girl with long black hair, a very sensual portrait, but dressed only in a “basma” dress, would climb the stage of the most important festival of the time, that of the end of the year on radio and television. It was 1967, the fifth festival and she attracted attention with a song sung ‘live’, composed by Ferdinand Deda. “The village with lights will flourish”, despite having a schematic text, typical of the time, quickly turned into a motif whistled by the youth, while the young singer would thus mark the start of an uninterrupted participation in all subsequent festivals. For 22 years in a row, Liliana would be one of the most popular singers of “Albanian Light Music”, leaving a name in the highly original way of interpreting popular songs. Throughout this period, Liliana was employed in the Tirana Estrada as a singer and for a shorter period of time, she also worked in Albanian Radio and Television as a music editor.

The festival activity was the period when only ‘live’ was sung on the stage of the December festivals and its competitors were singers such as Vaçe Zela, Gaqo Çako, Tonin Tershana, Avni Mula, and others, who were the absolute ‘Bigs’ of music Albanian. And yet in this environment, Liliana was able to triumph quite a few times. At the 7th festival with the song “Boy partisan” Liljana received the 2nd prize. In the 9th festival, with the song “Midnight” by Sh.Kushta together with V. Zela, she wins the first prize and with the wish of the great Vace, the winning song at the end of the third night is sung by Liliana. Even further, in the 10th festival with Krajka’s song, “Its not easy for me" wins the 2nd prize. In the 11th edition of the Song Festivals, Peqit's song "Mosaic of sounds, mosaic of colors" is presented. At the 14th festival again with Krajkas, she gets the 2nd prize with the song “My friend”.

In the 15th festival with the song “New Village” she received the 3rd prize. In the 17th edition together with E Qazimi and G Cako, with the song formulated by Dizdari “I Picked a bay leaf” Liljana received the first prize. Also, at the 18th festival again, Liljana in a trio with A Zonja and Z. Sina with Prodan’s song “Feast has today Albania” wins the first prize.

At the 19th festival, Liljana sings 3 songs, where two of Liljana’s well-known hits, such as Lalo’s “When we are both together ” and Gjon’s song “Take the step baby”, are also from this festival. In the 20th edition, it is presented with three songs and all three songs are evaluated with prizes; the first prize with the song “Generational Pride” by F. Ibrahim and the third prize songs “I add joy to people” by Lalos and “Our Dawns” by F. Shehu.

In the 21st edition, she sings the two songs of the second prizes, “Our beautiful language” by Prodani and “We are born in the spring” by Krajka. At the 22nd festival, Liljana sings the successful first-prize song “Vajze moj lule moj” by L Zhegu and the second-prize song “Always young with you” by A Simon.

Besides the December festivals, Liljana has successfully performed in all other activities organized in Albania for nearly 30 years, where we can mention some hits such as “Red Jacket” winning the first prize in the First “Festival of the Soldier”, then in “Music Polls” very successful songs such as “Pilgrimage”, “Little Bird”, “Nder, bese dhe trimeri”.

Even in “Performs Festival”, Liljana has been awarded with prizes every year, where we can mention songs like “Beautiful Spring comes”, “It`s snowing my girl”, “Ways of life”, or other songs like “I Love You” in a duet with G. Leka or the song “On your knees”” with A. Gjebrea, then in the “Spring Festivals” with the songs “When the swallows come”, “Spring of our life”, “I miss”, “My Dear Land”

One of Liljana’s successes is the duet with Luan Zhegu, creating one of the most popular duets in Albania, where we can mention the songs: “When a movie shot”, “Don’t even give me the necklace”, “Spring of love”, ” I love you” “Ways of life” etc. She also created a duet with another singer, the great lady of the songs Ema Qazimi, where we can mention: “I picked a bay leaf”, which will remain a song for generations, “Hymn of life”, “Song for Emin Duraku”, etc.

Liljana has also appeared in several Albanian films, from which we can highlight: “Trip in Spring” where she plays the main role of a singer named Valbona, and from this film two other hits of Liljana’s came out, such as “Trip in Spring” itself in a duet with A. Mula and another song “I’m from all Albania”.

She also performs in the film “There is life in the forest snow” in the role of the engineer’s wife. She is also known for the interpretation of many soundtracks of Albanian films such as: “Trip in spring”, “When a film shot”, “A small delay”, “Blerte’s engagement”, “When the masks fall”, ” Dream of a chair”.

For several years in her youth, Liljana also worked at RTSH as a music editor, while after that, for nearly 20 years, Liljana was part of Tirana’s Variety Show.

PARTICIPATION IN FESTIVALS (1967-1999)
1999 – “Arberi” in the Magic Song 1999
1988 – “When a love awaits you” at the 27th Fest. in RTSH
1987 – “Play my guitar” at the 26th Festival in RTSH
1986 – “The White Lullaby” sung at the 25th RTSH Festival
1985 – “Song of my heart” at the 24th Festival in RTSH
1984 – “The days we live” at the 23rd Festival in RTSH
1984 – “Tonight we have a party” at the 23rd RTSH Festival
1983 – “My girl, my flower” at the 22nd RTSH Festival
1983 – “Always young with you” also at the 22nd RTSH Festival
1982 – “Our beautiful language” at the 21st Festival in RTSH
1982 – “We are born in the spring” also at Fest. 21st in RTSH
1981 – “Generational Pride” at the 20th Festival in RTSH
1981 – “I add joy to the people” also at the 20th Fest. in RTSH
1981 – “Our Dawns” also the 20th Festival in RTSH
1980 – “For our new life” at the 19th Festival in RTSH
1980 – “When we are both together” also in Fest. 19th in RTSH
1980 – “Take the step baby” also at the 19th Festival in RTSH
1979 – “Albania is celebrating today” at the 18th Festival in RTSH
1979 – “Cuca Malesore” also at the 18th Festival in RTSH
1978 – “Festival Castle” at the 17th RTSH Festival
1977 – “I had your father as a friend” at the 16th Fest. in RTSH
1977 – “Beautiful Albania” also at the 16th Festival in RTSH
1976 – “Obelisk of history” at the 15th Festival in RTSH
1976 – “People talks” also at the 15th Festival in RTSH
1976 – “New Village” also at the 15th RTSH Festival
1975 – “My friend” at the 14th Festival in RTSH
1975 – “Comparativists of Kemishtaj” also at the 14th RTSH Festival
1974 – “Song of the Poet” at the 13th Festival in RTSH
1972 – “Mosaic of sounds, mosaic of colors” at the 11th Festival in RTSH
1971 – “I don’t have it easy” at the 10th Festival at RTSH
1970 – “Midnight” at the 9th Festival in RTSH
1970 – ” A boy partisan” at the 9th Festival in RTSH
1969 – “Me and my friends” at the 8th Festival in RTSH
1968 – “Violinists” at the 7th Festival in RTSH
1967 – ” The Joy of a new life” at the 6th RTSH Festival

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Albanian Cinematography in activity since 2013
Reference: Selection of online news from various Albanian newspapers and portals.

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