How Rising Artist Qendresa Landed on Drake’s ‘HABIBTI’ & ‘MAID OF HONOUR’ Albums: ‘I’ve Always Been Inspired by Him’
Categoria: Musica
The British-Kosovar singer is featured on "Slap the City," "Fortworth," "Gen 5" and "Stuck."
Por Billboard | 08/06/2026
A random Instagram DM changed Qendresa’s life. Born Qendresa Sopa, the Northwest London-bred R&B singer was out dancing at a beachfront party when she checked her phone and saw a message from Champagnepapi, Drake’s IG alias. “I got the Champagnepapi DM when we were dancing,” she recalls of Drake using her “Tearz” song in an IG post last year. “I was like, ‘What the f–k? He just posted my song!'” Drake dropped another hint at a potential collaboration when he posted the vinyl covers to Qendresa’s Midnight Request Line and Londra albums on his Instagram Story in February. Qendresa later found out that producer Kid Masterpiece, who has worked extensively with the 6 God, put Drake onto her music. Kid Masterpiece would play the British-Kosovar singer’s music on SiriusXM’s OVO Sound channel. With influences ranging from Sade to Frank Ocean , it’s not hard to see what drew Drake into Qendresa’s music. She blends a unique mix of ’90s R&B, funk, EDM and jazz for an atmospheric sound. “‘Slap the City’ was the first thing he sent me,” Qendresa says of her HABIBTI collaboration with Drizzy, while speaking from her Brighton flat. “He made me laugh because he was like, ‘This one sounds like a bit of us.” I was like, “He’s f–king right.” She continues: “[We] started sending each other unreleased stuff, stuff he was flirting [with] around ICEMAN or stuff from before. Same with me. I did a bunch of stuff and I really miss that time. I was working on my bits and I was getting Drake stuff.” The woozy “Slap the City” debuted at No. 39 on the Billboard Hot 100 when Drake’s trifecta of albums toppled the charts following their May 15 releases. Qendresa also contributed vocals to HABIBTI ‘s “Fortworth,” “Gen 5” and MAID OF HONOUR ‘s “Stuck.” However, she didn’t sing the ad-libs on ICEMAN ‘s “Ran to Atlanta,” which many on the internet have speculated. The Drake stimulus boosted Qendresa from six figures to over six million monthly listeners on Spotify. She’ll look to parlay the momentum into more eyes and ears on her next project, which the singer’s currently working on. Check out the rest of our interview with Qendresa, which touches on her Drake collaborations, early music influences and plans for the future, below. What got you into music growing up and who did you listen to? I grew up in the ’90s and 2000s. Around those times, there was really good music on the radio. It’s much different in the U.K. than America. You actually play hip-hop on the radio. I remember going to yoga in L.A. and they were playing Drake and Future. Here, it’s just pop. Back in the ’90s and 2000s, pop was good. There was a wide variety of different genres that were good, so you have Blink