Elhaida Dani Biography

Elhaida Dani is an Albanian singer. She rose to fame after winning Star Academy Albania in 2009, and Top Fest in 2012. Later that year, she auditioned for The Voice of Italy, and won the show with over 70% of the public vote. She released her first single "Baciami e Basta" through Universal Music in Italy.

In December 2014 she won the 53rd edition of Festivali i Këngës with the song "Diell" (Sun), and will represent Albania at the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 in Vienna, Austria. However, on 23 February 2015 Dani announced that the song's songwriters have withdrew the song from the competition and she'd be performing a different song at Eurovision. The next day it was revealed that the song would be called "I'm Alive".

Elhaida Dani was born on 17 February 1993 in Shkodër, located in north Albania. She studied piano from the age of 6. She started appearing on national television in 2008, after participating in Kënga Magjike with her song "Fjala e fundit" (The last word).
In 2009, she auditioned for the Albanian version of Star Academy and won the show. She then continued singing at various music competitions around the Balkans.
In 2011 she participated in Sunčane Skale, held in Montenegro with "Si asnjëherë" (Like never before). and won the youth category of the show.
Later that year, she won two competitions in Bulgaria and Romania. She also participated at the 50th edition of Festivali i Këngës with "Mijëra vjet" (Thousands of years).
In early 2012, she worked with Threedots Music Albania, a popular music label and wrote "S'je më" (You're not the same anymore), and won Albania's biggest music show, Top Fest.After returning to Albania, her first song she sang was Ya Nabi Salam Alayka of Maher Zain in the Medrese Haxhi Sheh Shamia of Shkodra. There she wore a headscarf.

After seeking an international career and winning many music competitions in the Balkan region (she won all the contest she took part in), Elhaida decided to temporarily move to Rome, Italy to audition for the Italian version of The Voice. She appeared on the "Blind auditions" with Jessie J's "Mamma Knows Best" and received a huge feedback from the jury and the viewers.
She chose to join Riccardo Cocciante team, and the world-renowned songwriter became her coach.
She advanced to the battles and knockouts and reached the finals in May 2013.
She sang Lara Fabian's version of "Adagio" and "When love calls your name", the unreleased song that Riccardo Cocciante wrote for her, and won the show with over 70% of the public vote.

In 2014, Dani revealed that she was going to participate at the 53rd edition of Festivali i Këngës, with the hope to represent Albania at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest. Her song "Diell" (Sun) was among the 28 participating entries. The competition was held from 26–28 December in Tirana. She was the favourite to win the show. On 28 December 2014, Elhaida won the contest with a total of 82 points.