Teuta Kurti

Teuta Kurti is a singer from Kosovo, born on 23 September 1986 in Mitrovica. She sings pop and Albanian city songs (këngë qytetare), and she is one of the singers of her generation who came up through the big Albanian song festivals of the 2000s while also training as a classical singer.

She has said that her first appearance in front of an audience came when she was fifteen. She went to the secondary music school in Pristina and then graduated in solo singing from the Academy of Arts of the University of Pristina. She has also sung in the choir of the Kosovo Philharmonic, a role she put on hold after becoming a mother.

Her first Festivali i Këngës, the long-running song festival of the Albanian broadcaster RTSH, came in December 2004. She sang "Flakareshë", composed by Armend Rexhepagiq, together with Vesa Luma and Rona Nishliu, and the trio went through to the final. In December 2007 she returned on her own with "Qyteti i dashurisë", qualified from the first semi-final and finished 14th in the final. Two years later she sang "Mall i pashuar", written by Faton Dolaku and Pleurat Kurti, which placed 19th, and in the same festival she also performed it as a duet with Malda Susuri.

Her album Si mbretëreshë gathers the songs of those years, among them "E lirë", "Shihemi", "Qyteti i dashurisë", "Pika pika", "Sytë e ikjes" and her version of "Flakareshë".

In December 2015 Teuta Kurti took part in the 54th Festivali i Këngës with "Në sytë e mi", written by Sokol Marsi. The song went through the semi-finals and finished eighth in the final on 27 December 2015. Speaking before that festival, she called Rona Nishliu a friend, praised her Eurovision performance of "Suus", and said she hoped Kosovo would soon be able to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest itself.