Bleona Qereti-Mandarine

Bleona Qereti was born in Tirana, Albania. Her first international appearance was in the Balkans Song Festival. After that first appearance she performed in a professional theater group “Skampa”, and made appearances at international song festivals in Albania, Switzerland, Germany , Belgium, Netherlands and Austria culminating with the World Folk Festival in France. Despite tremendously difficult social conditions in Albania, she produced her first video clip “The Wind”, which caught the eye of French television TV5, and was broadcast in a special segment on Albania. She completed work on her first album entitled “I Do What I Like”, and toured heavily to support the album. The release of her sophomore album, “If You Truly Love Me” was hugely successful in her home country and she embarked on an 80 city European concert tour. Her third album containing the blockbuster hit, “I Don't Care”, instantly became the biggest selling record ever in Albania, going on to sell over 300,000 copies in only two months. Today, Bleona routinely performs concerts for 15,000 to 20,000 dedicated fans. Most recently she was invited to take part in the National Albanian American Council