Ilira Gashi (born 29 October 1994), known professionally as just Ilira, (stylized in all caps) is a Swiss singer and songwriter. In 2018, she signed to Four Music and released her debut single "Whisper My Name".

Early life

Ilira Gashi was born on 29 October 1994 in

Brienz Brienz ( , , ) is a village and Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality on the northern shore of Lake Brienz, at the foot of the Brienzer Rothorn mountain, and in the Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland. Besides the village of Brienz, th ...

, Switzerland, to father Ismet and mother Entela Gashi, the former a Kosovo Albanian from

Pristina Pristina or Prishtina ( , ), . is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. It is the administrative center of the eponymous municipality and District of Pristina, district. In antiquity, the area of Pristina was part of the Dardanian Kingdo ...

and the latter 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 ...

from

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 ...

. She uploaded videos of herself singing on Instagram, which led to a record label deal.

Career

Ilira later moved to

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, Germany and signed a management and publishing deal with

Sony/ATV Music Publishing Sony Music Publishing LLC (formerly Sony/ATV Music Publishing) is an American music publisher. Responsible for publishing the largest quantity of music, with over five million songs owned or administered as of end March 2021, it is part of Sony ...

. In 2018, Ilira signed a label deal with Four Music, and released her debut track "Whisper My Name" on 24 August 2018, followed by her second single "Get Off My D!ck" that same year which entered the Spotify Viral Top 50 in the U.S. Her first chart placement was achieved together with Alle Farben and the song "Fading", which reached number 16 on the German Single Charts and number 1 on the German Airplay Charts for four consecutive weeks. In 2019, Ilira released four singles, "Do It Yourself", "Diablo" (with Spanish producer and recording artist

Juan Magán Juan Manuel Magán González (; born 30 September 1978) is a Spanish producer, singer, remixer and DJ of electronic dance music, recognized internationally for his contributions to the "Electro Latino" category of music. As a remixer, he has wor ...

), "Pay Me Back!", and "Extra Fr!es". In 2020, she released the singles "Royalty", "Fuck It, I Love It!", "Ladida (My Heart Goes Boom)" (together with Crispie), "Easy", and "Eat My Brain". On 14 December 2021 Ilira announced that she had signed a joint deal with

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group. They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), ...

and

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...

. She released the single "Flowers" on 17 December 2021 as her first solo single of 2021, and her first single under Virgin Records. In 2022, she released the single "Another Heart". In 2023, she released three non-album singles followed by her six-track debut EP ''Never Really The End''. In late 2024, she independently released the single, "Floating with the sharks".

Discography

Extended plays

Singles

As lead artist

As featured artist

Notes

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ilira 1994 births 21st-century Swiss women singers Living people People from Brienz Swiss people of Albanian descent Swiss people of Kosovan descent Swiss songwriters Swiss pop musicians Swiss women pop singers