Renowned Albanian artist, Liljana Kondakçi, shared her emotions on Gjergj Lucë’s “Allishverishi” podcast. She showed that for an artist, the audience’s applause is life itself and the source of energy on stage. Kondakçi recalled the filming of the film Spring Journey in Gjirokastër, where the audience welcomed her with love and warmth, creating a family atmosphere.
“The audience never stopped clapping. For an artist, applause is life. When I shot the film Spring Journey, we had several shoots in Gjirokastra. There they didn’t fight, but they exchanged words: ‘No, today you will take Liljana, tomorrow I will.’ I have always said that I understand their love. How good I feel when I sing, I feel the warmth of the audience. We all sing together, and this is a very beautiful thing. A family atmosphere is created. I choose a repertoire that I know that others know, and that’s how we enjoy ourselves and have a great time.” – said Liljana Kondakçi.
She went back in time, remembering an episode that shows how art creates a permanent connection between the artist and the audience, where children who once gave her flowers later return as adults with families, keeping the memories alive.
“I remember once when I was in Ohrid, it was ’78 or ’79. We were giving concerts there then. There was a competition of ensembles and it was a very bad time. They had put us at the end of the program, because they knew it would be a storm, and it was raining the whole time. When was our turn? Not a drop of rain. The concert went wonderfully, it was a very surprising night.”
We gave a concert when I was in Gjakova once, invited, and the hall was full. When the program ended, there was a table with many couples who invited me there. They said to me: ‘Do you know who we are? We are those little children who brought flowers to the stage.’ They had already become husbands and wives, with children, they had started families,” the artist recalls.
While Gjergj Luca brought to mind memories from his late father, the prominent artist Ndrek Luca:
“Even my father, when he went to Kosovo, would turn audiences into demonstrations and streets into demonstrations, because he lifted the national spirit so high, just as Liliana’s song or the dances and jumps of the great Panajot Kanaçi lifted it. How he lifted the human spirit so high,” said Luca.
At the end of the conversation, Gjergj Luca said that the “Mimika Luca” Foundation will have the great honor of bringing back these pearls of Albanian art. This organization is expected to bring together artists, the public and culture lovers, bringing to the stage the true Albanian spirit and the icons that have inspired entire generations.
“We will bring the Albanian spirit. That spirit that has carried us. That spirit that has raised us with dreams, that spirit that has shown us the way, that you young people are never learning. You must love Albania, you must run, you must move forward, because the more difficult life is, the further you go. And this is what these icons of art, these icons of Albania, these icons of love teach us. Long live Albania, long live these good examples of our country,” said Luca.