ÃÂiljeta Xhilaga (born February 5, 1985), also known mononymously as ÃÂiljeta, is an Albanian singer, model and actress.
ÃÂiljeta was born into an Albanian family in Tirana, Albania, to Ferdinand Xhilaga, an accountant whose family hails from Dibër but who was born in Delvinë, and Majlinda Xhilaga, a hairdresser from Korçë. She attended the Sami Frashëri High School in Tirana.
Xhilaga featured in the Miss Shqipëria competition in 2001 and won the title "Miss Cinema".
ÃÂiljeta distinguished herself in the successful song "Dridhe", a collaboration with Getoar Selimi of Tingulli 3nt, a rap group from Kosovo. The song was followed by many successful ones, especially "Puçi Puçi" (), featuring Ingrid Gjoni, and "Të dy qajmë të ndarë" (), a hit composed by Flori Mumajesi and with lyrics by Ardit Roshi in Kënga Magjike 2010, where she cried while performing it. ÃÂiljeta had already performed in the Kënga Magjike 08 with "S'ke ku vete" ().
ÃÂiljeta participated in the second season of Dancing with the Stars show along with partner Dion Gjinika.
ÃÂiljeta had a son on February 4, 2013, whom she named after her father. Father of the baby, is reportedly a French architect with a Latin American background. She is a well known supporter of Partizani Tirana. She is dating Alban Hoxha, an Albanian football player.
Early in her career, ÃÂiljeta was a vocal supporter of the Democratic Party of Albania, and its leader Lulzim Basha. She once sang in New York, in a party organised by Red and Black Alliance, now an extinguished party, but declared that she was unaware of who the organiser of the party was. ÃÂiljeta declared herself a supporter of the Socialist Party of Albania, having changed her political opinion, and participated in Erion VeliajâÂÂs campaign for mayor of Tirana in the 2023 Albanian local elections.
She notably had two public reactions against Serbia and Greece politicians: to Serbia after the Serbian government removed a memorial to the Liberation Army of Preà ¡evo, MedveÃÂa and Bujanovac in Preà ¡evo, an Albanian-inhabited region of Serbia. The second reaction was to Greece, after she saw in television an anti-Albanian interview of Christos Pappas, a politician of the Golden Dawn, a Greek far-right political party. After these declarations, the Greek media attacked her, saying that she "claims to be a singer, but must be something else," and published provoking photos of ÃÂiljeta.
On March 20, 2012, ÃÂiljeta was reported by the media to visit a correctional facility for minors, where she met 38 children, a meeting organised by the Institute of Minors in Kavajë, the Centre for the Human Rights of Children of Albania, and UNICEF.