A story that begins in Albania and passes through sacrifices, music, and success in Italy. The prestigious Italian daily Corriere della Sera has dedicated a lengthy article to singer Ermal Meta, bringing attention back to his journey, from his arrival in Bari as a teenager to the grand stage of Sanremo and beyond.
Arrival in Bari at Age 13
Today Ermal Meta celebrates his birthday. Born in Fier, Albania, on April 20, 1981, he moved to Bari at the age of 13 along with his mother, brother, and sister.
In 2023, in a touching monologue on Le Iene, he recounted that his mother managed to leave Albania thanks to the help of two strangers: a man who provided her with a false passport and an officer who stamped the document, even though he understood it was forged, moved by the desperation of a mother who sought only to save her children.
"Two acts of kindness saved four lives. Among those lives was also mine. Be kind, you might save someone's life," he says.
Raised listening to classical music, Ermal Meta began playing music at the age of 16.
"I 'devoured' music as a child," he told Corriere della Sera in 2019. "My mom was a classical violinist, the whole house was music and sheet music. From Albania, I only remember regime singers and folk music. I listened to international music. Then I discovered Italian songs with 'Almeno tu' by Mia Martini and 'Mare mare' by Luca Carboni. When I arrived in Bari, the soundtrack of my first loves was Antonello Venditti. To learn the language, I wrote down in a notebook the words I didn't understand," he says.
The singer was part of several bands before joining Ameba 4 as a guitarist. With the band, he participated in the 2006 Festival di Sanremo in the "Giovani" category with the song "Rido… forse mi sbaglio." Before fully dedicating himself to music, Meta worked various jobs: dishwasher, newspaper seller at traffic lights, and call center operator.
In Sanremo Giovani with Francesco Gabbani and Irama
In 2007, Ermal Meta founded a new band, La Fame di Camilla, with which he released three albums. The band, engaged in intense concert activity across Italy, participated in the 2010 Festival di Sanremo in the "Giovani" section with the song "Buio e luce."
After the band disbanded, Meta began his career as a songwriter, writing for many Italian artists such as Emma Marrone, Francesco Renga, Patty Pravo, Chiara Galiazzo, Marco Mengoni, Francesca Michielin, Francesco Sarcina, and Giusy Ferreri.
He then made his debut in Sanremo Giovani 2015: selected alongside Chiara Dello Iacovo, Cecile, Michael Leonardi, Francesco Gabbani, and Irama, he thus earned a spot in the following year's festival.
Ermal Meta returned to the Sanremo Festival with the song "Vietato morire," which secured him third place. A year later, he took the stage at the Teatro Ariston in a duet with Fabrizio Moro, winning the 68th edition of the festival with the song "Non mi avete fatto niente."
With the same song, the duo represented Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 in Lisbon, where they placed fifth in the final ranking. Ermal Meta also competed in Sanremo in 2021 with "Un milione di cose da dirti" and in this year's edition with "Stella stellina."
Singer Ermal Meta has spoken on more than one occasion about his father, a figure he has described as abusive and with whom he cut off contact years ago.
"He left my life in 1990; I haven't seen him for 28 years. He was absent even when he was present. I didn't speak to him even when he was at home," he said in a 2018 interview for Verissimo. To this personal experience, he has dedicated the songs "Lettera a mio padre" (2014) and "Vietato morire" (2017), the latter as a continuation of the former, focused on the theme of domestic violence.
In 2022, Ermal Meta published his first book, "Domani e per sempre," published by La nave di Teseo, which is set in Albania during World War II. The novel features as its main character Kajani, a talented musician who grows up with his grandfather amid dreams, harsh reality, and an uncertain future.
"This is a book about fate, about what becomes inevitable, and about how a small thing can change everything," he said. Initially, he saw fate as a path shrouded in the fog of the future, like a dark house where you have to turn on the light to see the present. Today, he believes there are many parallel paths and that every choice we make leads us from one to another.
In 2025, he also published his second book, "Le camelie invernali."
Regarding his sentimental life, Ermal Meta has always been very reserved. He had a long relationship away from the public eye with radio host Silvia Notargiacomo. He later became involved with Chiara Sturdà, with whom in 2024 he welcomed their daughter, Fortuna.
Soon, the family will be joined by two other daughters of the couple, two Albanian girls whom Meta and Sturdà had wanted to adopt (but couldn't, as they are not married). The girls will join the family in June, when both come of age.
"We met them a few years ago when I participated in a fundraising campaign to help a family home in Albania. Their stories touched me: when couples went to visit the family homes or orphanages where they had been, they only saw the younger children. No one looked at the older girls. When they told me 'no one wants us,' my heart broke, as if shattered into a thousand pieces," he says.