Albanian (gjuha shqipe, pronounced [ˈɟuha ˈʃcipɛ], or shqip Albanian pronunciation: [ʃcip]) is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 7.6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an indigenous Albanian population, including western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and northwestern Greece. Albanian is also spoken in centuries-old Albanian colonies in southern Greece, southern Italy,Sicily, and Ukraine. Additionally, speakers of Albanian can be found elsewhere throughout the latter two countries resulting from a modern diaspora, originating from the Balkans, that also includes Scandinavia, Switzerland, Germany, United Kingdom, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, Netherlands, Singapore, Brazil, Canada and the United States.

The Albanian language is a distinct Indo-European language that does not belong to any other existing branch; the other extant Indo-European isolate is Armenian. Sharing lexical isoglosses with Greek, Balto-Slavic, and Germanic, the word stock of Albanian is quite distinct. Once hastily grouped with Germanic and Balto-Slavic by the merger of PIE *ǒ and *ǎ into *ǎ in a supposed "northern group", Albanian has proven to be distinct from these two, as this vowel shift is only part of a larger push chain that affected all long vowels. Albanian does share with Balto-Slavic two features: (1) a lengthening of syllabic consonants before voiced obstruents and (2) a distinct treatment of long syllables ending in a sonorant. Conservative features of Albanian include the retention of the distinction between active and middle voice, present tense and aorist.

Rita Sahatçiu Ora (born 26 November 1990), better known as Rita Ora, is a British singer-songwriter and actress. In 2009, she appeared on the BBC's Eurovision: Your Country Needs You where she auditioned to be the British contestant for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. Later in 2009, she signed to Roc Nation. Ora is of Kosovar Albanian ethnicity.

In 2012, Ora provided the vocals for DJ Fresh’s "Hot Right Now", which has been the fastest selling single in the UK of 2012. Ora's debut single, "R.I.P", topped the UK Singles Chart in May 2012. Ora will spend the summer 2012 opening concerts for Coldplay.

Rita Ora was born in Pristina, SFR Yugoslavia (now Kosovo) and moved to the United Kingdom the same year of her birth. She grew up in West London and attended St Cuthbert with St Matthias CE Primary School in Earls Court, following which she graduated from Sylvia Young Theatre School and then St Charles Catholic Sixth Form College. She began singing from a young age. In 2004, she appeared in the British film Spivs. She auditioned for Eurovision: Your Country Needs You on BBC One to be the British contestant for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest but later withdrew from the competition after a few episodes as she did not feel ready.