Today Dua Lipa, along with her manager Dukagjin Lipa, announced they will join the ESNS conference lineup on January 21st. As co-founders of the acclaimed Sunny Hill Festival, the global pop superstar and her father will be joined by IQ Magazine editor Gordon Masson for a keynote interview as part of the festival’s conference program in Groningen. Sunny Hill Festival is shortlisted for Best Medium Sized Festival (Prishtina) and the Best New Festival (Tirana) at this year’s European Festival Awards.
Sunny Hill Festival is becoming one of the biggest music festivals in the region, hosting more than 140,000 music lovers from around the world. The festival has brought a stellar lineup of some of the best-known performers of our time to the pair’s home country – including Dua Lipa, Miley Cyrus, J Balvin, Diplo, DJ Regard, Meduza, Calvin Harris, Martin Garrix, Stormzy, Skepta, AJ Tracey, Action Bronson, Grace Carter, Fedez, Mahmood, SG Lewis, Gashi, Bondax, KarmaKid, and many more regional and international artists and performers.
In 2022 Sunny Hill Festival reclaimed the spotlight of local and global attention announcing a new edition of the festival taking place in Tirana, creating a powerful progressive motion in both countries economic, touristic and cultural development.
Alongside the festival, the Sunny Hill Foundation was founded by Dua and Dukagjin as a cultural organisation with the simple mission to be a helping hand for the most vulnerable and in-need parts of the Kosovan community and help young talents thrive. Together they have built a Sunny Hill Kindergarten in Tirana, in neighbouring Albania, for 300 underprivileged children after an earthquake hit that country in 2019, and financially supported music schools while managing other music related projects in the Lipa’s native Kosovo.
Dua Lipa is one of the world’s biggest superstars, solidifying her position as both a critical success and top radio performer with the release of her Grammy award-winning #1 UK sophomore album Future Nostalgia in 2020. In the last year Dua launched Service95, a global style, culture, and society editorial platform, and the accompanying podcast, Dua Lipa: At Your Service, which features thoughtful conversations with high-profile guests from fellow performers and artists to authors and activists.
Dukagjin Lipa is an entrepreneur and marketing and communications expert with over 25 years of experience. His accomplishments throughout the years in various marketing communications and creative industry partnerships paved the way to establishing his own communications agency, Republika Communications, representing some of the main household names, locally and internationally across different industries while heavily concentrating on international music and entertainment.
ESNS, the key exchange platform for emerging European music talent, will take place from 18 to 21 January 2023 in Groningen, the Netherlands. The festival has proven essential in breaking new European acts into live music scenes throughout Europe and beyond. With a line-up of 290 emerging European artists, ESNS23 is the place to discover new breakthrough acts before they make it big. You heard it first at ESNS!
Find more information about the full conference programme at esns.nl/conference
ESNS23 tickets
Conference registrations here: http://esns.nl/en/conference/conference-registrations/
About ESNS
ESNS (Eurosonic Noorderslag) is the key exchange for emerging European music talent, with a proven track record of helping to break new acts on the international music scene, with now well-known names such as Altin Gün, Arlo Parks, Alyona Alyona, Daði Freyr, Dua Lipa, Fontaines D.C., Hinds, Go_A, girl in red, Meduza, Meskerem Mees, MYD, Priya Ragu, Pip Blom, Pongo, Sigrid and Wet Leg.
Each January, ESNS showcases 350 emerging European artists to over 40,000 visitors. The festival and conference attract over 4,000 music industry professionals, including 400 international festivals. By day, the front-running conference hosts over 150 panel discussions, interviews, keynotes and more from Thursday to Saturday that take on urgent subjects and the need for social change in the music industry. By night, European acts perform across 40 locations in the heart of Groningen from Wednesday to Friday, and Saturday presents upcoming Dutch artists in concert venue De Oosterpoort.