Dafina Zeqiri

Dafina Zeqiri is a singer and songwriter who sings mainly in Albanian, best known for R&B, soul and urban pop. She was born in Varberg, Sweden, to an Albanian family from Kosovo and grew up in Malmö; Wikipedia describes her as a "Swedish-born Kosovar singer". She moved to Kosovo as a teenager to make music there. Her mother, Melihate Zeqiri, was a singer in the 1980s and inspired her to sing.

She started at ten, at a children's festival in Sweden, with an English song she had written herself. In 2007 she won the Polifest competition with "Rrallë e përmallë", and in 2008 her song "Adios" won the audience award at the BOOM Awards. That year she released her first album, Knock Down, and took the "Magjia e Parë" prize at Kënga Magjike with "Bateritë". In 2009 "Dua që ta di" was named best R&B song at Top Fest 6.

Her second album, Just Me, followed in 2011, and she worked with artists such as Capital T and 2po2 on "Shumë Naltë". In 2016 the video for "Liri" won the best production award at Netët e Klipit Shqiptar, and the same year she moved to Manhattan for a time. 2017 was a peak: "Told Ya" went to number one in Albania, "Ti e din" to two and "Four Season", whose video featured French Montana, to three, and in November she released the EP King.

In 2020 she reached the Albanian top five again with "Një herë në jetë" with Cricket, "Aman" with Ledri Vula and Lumi B, and "Zili Zili", and with "Mos shko" featuring Yll Limani. Her album Dafinë moj came out in 2021, the year she was nominated for the Swedish government's music export prize, and in 2024 she released The Absolute Vol. 1.

She has often been called a "diva of Albanian music", and she names Aaliyah as her main influence. She has also recorded with Gjiko, Majk, Kida and Mozzik, and she speaks openly about mental health and her own experience of depression.