singer
Rita Ora waves the flag at the concert – but the wrong one
Singer Rita had an accident on stage in Hungary. photo
© Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa
The British musician waved a flag at a concert in Hungary, which a fan is said to have handed over to her before the performance. But it was by no means the flag of their host country…
The Kosovar-born British singer Rita Ora waved a Serbian flag at a concert in the southern Hungarian city of Szeged. Ora, who is ethnic Albanian herself, subsequently portrayed this as an accident.
A fan gave her the red, blue and white striped piece of fabric shortly before the performance on Saturday evening, she told the Kosovan portal “klankosova.tv” on Sunday.
Blinded by the headlights, she couldn’t tell that the flag was Serbian and not Hungarian. The Hungarian national flag has red, white and green stripes. “I am a proud Kosovar Albanian and had no intention of denying my origins or provoking my people,” she said.
Almost exclusively Albanians live in Kosovo, which has been independent since 2008. Until 1999, the country belonged to Serbia, which oppressed the Albanian population. Ora was born Rita Sahatciu in 1990 in the Kosovo capital of Pristina. Her family emigrated to Britain with her shortly after her birth.