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Albanian music star, Parashqevi Simaku, told the show "Opinion" about parts of her life, from Albania to the USA, with all the ups and downs she has experienced over the years.
In an interview with Blendi Fevziu, from New York, in the apartment where she now lives, the singer reveals the reason why she left Albania.
Simaku says that he initially traveled to Italy, with a purchased passport.
"My mother told me: I'm going to see my brother in Italy, who was one of these refugees. She always cried, 'he said you're very famous'. I went to the embassy with my friend. That Italian ambassador had always seen me at these Christmas party nights and remembered me. I told him to please... 'You're Parashqevia', he said! 'Don't worry', he said, 'I'll call Dash Dervish. I'll get a guest room ready', because I was also poor.
I didn't have any money! I had a gift, they brought me that diplomatic car. A man and woman came from New York, and they wanted to have fun, to play music in New York. They were from Dibra, Macedonia, a man and a woman. They came and bought me a passport. It was a purchased passport, Calabrian. Victoria Marini! I spoke Italian, I looked Italian", Simaku confesses.
On March 9, 1992, she arrived in New York.
“I was shocked when I arrived. The first thing I said was 'why is the sky so high?!' In Albania we have those clouds like hats. It felt like I had gone to another world. The Albanians here loved me very much.”
Simaku emphasizes that at that time he earned a lot from music.
“It was a fairy tale for us!” says Parashqevi Simaku. She remembers her first years in the United States as extremely beautiful.
"A miracle! As if I were in heaven," says the singer about her first years in the US.
Meanwhile, she says that marrying Robert Noflen made her no longer have as much interest in "breaking into" Hollywood.
"I didn't leave a single day without trying, I married Robert very quickly. That interest disappeared... I started writing songs with Robert. In 1997 I came to Albania, I sang at the festival."
From the time of the pandemic until the end of last year, Simaku lived on the streets of New York. In her story for "Opinion", she reveals that this was her choice.
"I lived mostly in Times Square. Sometimes I moved up and down, when it was hot I would go to the river, then at night I would go back there. I went out on the streets for these four years because there was no one alive in New York, it was empty," Simaku says.
Interestingly, during this difficult time, she read all the religious books.
"Every Friday at dinner you had to go sing songs to the angels, the most wonderful thing I experienced was that the husband and wife did not touch each other, a tradition of the Orthodox Jews. They lived a holy life. Especially the wife should never sing! I had to eat, to drink, I didn't need the money. Everyone threw money there! Even to this day, I can show you the centers to study, eat, to work. For free! I told my brother "I won't be able to call you because I will continue these studies", said Simaku.
"I've never taken any aspirin," she said, adding that many people have helped her.
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