Alida Hisku
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Alida Hisku (born 20 June 1957) is an
Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...
singer who was especially popular in the 1970s. Since 1990, she has lived in
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
.


Life

Hisku was born on 20 June 1957 in
Tirana Tirana ( , ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in Albania, largest city of Albania. It is located in the centre of the country, enclosed by mountains and hills, with Dajti rising to the east and a slight valley to the northwest ov ...
, then the capital of the Communist
People's Republic of Albania The People's Socialist Republic of Albania, () was the Marxist-Leninist state that existed in Albania from 10 January 1946 to the 29 April 1991. Originally founded as the People's Republic of Albania from 1946 to 1976, it was governed by the P ...
. As the daughter of the opera singer Fiqrete Hisku, she began singing at a very young age, like her older sister and younger brother. As a child, Alida Hisku won several singing competitions. She studied in the "Jordan Misja" Artistic Lyceum in Tirana. At the age of 13, she debuted in the National Song Festival () organized by the Albanian National Television (
RTSh Radio Televizioni Shqiptar (; ; formerly TVSH , now mostly referred to as RTSH ) is the national public broadcasting company of Albania. Founded in 1938, it operates several radio and television channels, over a domestic transmitter network as we ...
), then one of the few and the most prestigious. She ranked second with the song "Portret" (Portrait) composed by Agim Krajka, which made her known throughout the country. Her major success came in the competitions of 1974, with the song "Vajzat e fshatit tim" (Girls from my village), and 1975, with the song "Buka e duarve tona" (Bread from our own hands), where she ranked first and won in both cases. She won other prizes during the competitions of 1976, 1979, 1980 and 1981, collecting a total of five second places, making her one of the top Albanian singers of the time. During this period, she toured various European countries with Albanian artistic tour groups. Her singing career was halted in 1982, when she was arrested by the
Sigurimi The Directorate of State Security (, DSSh), commonly called the ''Sigurimi'', was the National security, state security, Intelligence (information gathering), intelligence and secret police service of the People's Socialist Republic of Albania. I ...
with the pretence of committing "agitation and propaganda against the government", while being a member of the
Party of Labour of Albania The Party of Labour of Albania (PLA), also referred to as the Albanian Workers' Party (AWP), was the ruling and sole legal party of Albania during the communist period (1945–1991). It was founded on 8 November 1941 as the Communist Party of ...
, the Central Committee of the BRPSh, and studying in the political V.I. Lenin Higher Party Institution. The compromising evidence was a brief comment in her personal diary, mentioning the harsh living conditions of the
cooperatives A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democr ...
workers in the provinces. The diary was read, stolen, and handed over to the authorities. The long interrogation period and the risk of persecution and retaliation towards family and friends of a suspected political "enemy" led to her divorce from her husband, with Hisku obtaining custody of their two sons later through difficulties. Nevertheless, she was not imprisoned. With the beginning of the
fall of communism in Albania The fall of communism in Albania, the last such event in Europe outside the Soviet Union, started in December 1990 with student demonstrations in the capital, Tirana, although protests started in January that year in other cities like Shkod ...
, in 1990, she fled with her two children to Germany, where she applied for
political asylum The right of asylum, sometimes called right of political asylum (''asylum'' ), is a juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereignty, sovereign authority, such as a second country or ...
. She remarried in Germany, and gave birth to a daughter. In 2005, after 15 years, she returned for the first time to the Albanian singing scene on a show of an Albanian TV station where she sang a few songs and was voted the best singer of the 1970s. The following year, her new album ''Kthimi'' (The comeback) came out.Muzika Shqiptare - Këngëtarja Alida Hisku i rikthehet këngës e skenës pas 2 dekadash [The singer Alida Hisku returns to singing after two decades (in Albanian)
/ref> In 2009, she published an autobiography entitled ''Die Hofnärrin des Diktators – Von der Propaganda missbraucht, vom Publikum geliebt, von den Mächtigen verboten'' (The dictator's fool - abused by the propaganda, loved by the audience, forbidden by the powerful).


Publications

*''Die Hofnärrin des Diktators – Von der Propaganda missbraucht, vom Publikum geliebt, von den Mächtigen verboten'' [The dictator's fool - abused by the propaganda, loved by the audience, forbidden by the powerful], ed. Annette Piechutta, Fulda Parzeller, 2009. .


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hisku, Alida 1957 births Living people Musicians from Tirana Expatriates in West Germany Albanian expatriates in Germany 20th-century Albanian women singers Festivali i Këngës winners