Eleni Foureira

Birth Name: Entela Fureraj

Place of Birth: Fier, People’s Socialist Republic of Albania (now Albania)

Date of Birth: 7 March, 1987

Ethnicity: Albanian, Greek

Eleni Foureira is an Albanian-born Greek recording artist, singer, and dancer. She was a member of Greek girl group Mystique.

She is the daughter of Marjeta and Kristaq Fureraj. She was raised Eastern Orthodox. Eleni grew up in Vlorë, and later moved with her family to Greece during the 1997 Albanian civil unrest. They settled in Athens.

Eleni’s ethnic origins have been debated. As a member of Mystique, she stated that she is Brazilian. However, she later said that her father was from Athens and her mother from Ioannina, Greece, and that she had some Mexican ancestry as well. In 2014, she stated that she is indeed of Albanian origin. She added that she hid her Albanian roots due to Albanophobia in Greece, and that she would have been denied by record labels if she was known to be Albanian.

A MyHeritage DNA test taken by Eleni stated that her genetic ancestry is:

*68.9% Greek and South Italian
*29.8% Balkan
*1.3% Ashkenazi Jewish