Elai

Elai is a Swedish-Albanian rapper, singer, songwriter and producer, born Lirim Ibishi on 4 March 1999 in Gothenburg, Sweden. He is on Muzika-Balkan because his family is from Kosovo: his parents are Albanians from Mitrovica, from the Iliridë quarter of the town, once known as Tavnik. He comes from Mölndal in the Gothenburg area, and he still lives in Sweden. He raps and sings mostly in Albanian and Swedish.

His first single, "Day Ones", came out in April 2018, and "Money" in January 2019 brought him a bigger audience. A long run of singles followed, among them "Kusha", "Latina", "Zlatan" and "Babo", and in January 2020 the EP Ensam. "Kuku", "Nokia", "Paranormal" and "Lale" each passed a million views on YouTube within days in 2021.

"Paranormal" and "Lale" both reached the top 10 of the Albanian Top 100 in October 2021, and "Lale" also made it to number 88 in the Swiss charts. "Nokia" climbed to number 32 in the Albanian chart. In the same year he was a credited songwriter on "Një herë e mirë" by the Albanian rapper Noizy. He belongs to O.T.R. (On Top of the Rest), the collective founded by Noizy, and the two recorded "Maradona" together in 2022.

In 2022 Elai was nominated for Producer of the Year at the Grammis, the Swedish music awards. The EP Shotgun followed that year, with "Njesoj" and "Lovely", and he joined the French rapper Jul on "Europa" and "Chocolata". In 2023 came "Teta", "Krenari", "California", "Benzema", "Merzia" with Elgit Doda and "Tiki Taka" with Ashafar and RAF Camora. His most watched song is "Joti", with about 70 million views on YouTube.

He has also featured on "Amigo" on the Italian rapper Baby Gang's album Innocente and on "Balerina" with Mc Kresha and Lyrical Son. His EP Vera (2025) carried "Portofino", "Kvalifiku" and "Tjetrin". The playlist gathers his official videos from his own channel, from the first single to the newest.