Alban Skënderaj and the sold out at the Assago Forum: “Inspired by Battisti and Jovanotti”

Assago (Milan) – On the stage of the “Astrit Sula” Theater in Tirana, rehearsals continue for the show that Alban Skënderaj will perform on May 14th in the stands of the Assago Forum, just a step away from being sold out. Not a foregone conclusion for the Albanian star, 43 years old, born in Lushnjë, but originally from Valona , ​​who, after last year’s performance at Terminal 3 at the Castano Primo Festival, continues to cross paths with Italy and the Balkan community that resides here.

Alban, did you expect it?

“The Forum represented a great challenge that, after having filled the Arena Kombëtare in Tirana months in advance last year, I thought I could take on. Filling a stadium with over 20,000 seats in Tirana, in fact, is not like doing it in Milan, because the Albanian population is one twentieth of the Italian one and everything has to be related. Succeeding was a huge result that stimulated me to chase new goals”.

What show do you plan to propose?

“I'm preparing something a little special; a two and a half hour show with thirty people on stage and then guests, videos, special effects and even twelve thousand light-up bracelets like the ones Coldplay uses in their shows”.

Since he is married to Miriam Cani, another celebrity of Albanian song, will he have her on stage too?

“Even if I don't announce it, she's always there on these special occasions. The audience expects her now. I'd like to have our children Ameli, nine, and Duam, five, on stage too. But the little one is very exuberant and I don't know how manageable he is in a context like that”.

The Albanian Wikipedia page about her says: “She committed the greatest folly of her life by leaving with a friend on a ship to Italy, without their families knowing anything about it.”

“That's exactly how it went. To change your life in that world at fourteen, you need courage, but also a little bit of madness. One step was enough, since there was only a meter between the land and the departing ship. Thanks to a series of coincidences, my friend and I arrived at the dock and, after a moment's hesitation, we climbed aboard with an act of rare recklessness, since the old vessel was packed four times its capacity and a few miles from Puglia it began to sink. We were saved thanks to the intervention of the Italian Navy”.

In Italy he became a singer.

“I already had a passion for music, but it was in the almost ten years I spent in Pistoia, where I joined my brothers and received my first guitar as a gift, that everything changed. It was my singing teacher Sandro who opened the doors to the world of song for me, suggesting that I try the route of competitions for new voices. After winning the first one, I was convinced that that would be my path. One day I will tell everything in a book. At the time I listened to a lot of Anglo-American music, but my idol was Lucio Battisti. And if I still think about Italian music today, he comes first and then all the others”.

Other references?

“Jovanotti. Because I think he is a great innovator. And it is an honor for me to take his place on the stage of the Forum the day after the last Milanese performance at the PalaJova. However, within the year I plan to record a duet with an Italian artist, hoping perhaps next year to reach another goal: rereading my repertoire with a symphony orchestra on the stage of the Verona Arena”.