Albanian Citizen Mayor eric Adams?
I received so many messages last week when numerous media outlets announced that former NYC mayor Eric Adams had become an Albanian Citizen. One of my students emailed me the story with the subject line simply reading, “Important.” Several friends texted me saying, “I need your thoughts on this.” One person even told me, “I had no one else to share this with but I knew you would know something about it.” And of course, I am the resident Albanian expert for most of my friends, and while many people were really surprised and taken aback by this announcement, I was not completely shocked. Many people have speculated that this is part of an escape plan for Adams, who has faced a number of criminal charges in the past few years, yet officials from Tirana have maintained that the granting of citizenship is more symbolic of relationship between New York and Albania.
News outlets mentioned that Eric Adams developed a close relationship with New York’s Albanian American community during his time in office as NYC mayor. Tis true that in 2025 Adams was the first NYC mayor to establish an Albanian Day Parade in the city, an event that no doubt sparked immense praise from Little Albania in the Bronx to the burgeoning Little Albania in Brooklyn. Side note, I once went into a byrektore (restaurant) in the Bronx and without introducing myself, order a byrek me mish (let’s call it a meat pie) in Albanian and the person behind the counter took several seconds to respond as her face asked, “Wait, what is going on here?”
Returning to Adams, he was first formally invited to Albania by Prime Minister Edi Rama in October 2025, a trip that was supposedly focused on tourism and relationship-building. A lot of this was paid for by the Albanian government. According to multiple news sources, Adams’ previous international travel was tied to the ultimate federal corruption charges, thus, many viewed that first trip to Albania with heightened skepticism.
Still, what few knew, but what I’ve known for quite some time, is that one of the biggest draws for Adams to Albania was likely his own son, Jordan Coleman, better known as the rapper Jayoo. In 2022, Jayoo performed his song “Itsy Bitsy” on Albania’s nationally syndicated music show Kënga Magjik, the country’s version of American Idol. One of personal favorite lines from the song is “…show me that that a** can fly…” The rapper made it to the show’s finale, and while he did not win the competition, he said that Albania was a step to launching his international rap career. Interestingly enough, a colleague and I published a paper ten years ago about African football (soccer) players who similarly wanted to use Albania as a stepping stone to larger football clubs in Europe. This could be an area of further analysis: Albania, the stepping stone for football and now…hip-hop???
Back to Jayoo. His time in Albania was not limited to the performance on Kënga Magjik. He spent significant time in the country, and later released an entire album that he said was inspired by Albania. Speaking abut the country he said it Albania helped him realize that “I had to make music that people could relate to when I was there. I have a purpose that keeps me up at night and wakes me up in the morning." And it seems that Coleman and his dad at some point exchanged texts, with Coleman urging Adams to visit Albania at some point. Adams has remarked that he was jealous of his son’s time in the country, and for those who know Albanian culture well, Mayor Adams no doubt received multiple invites to visit Albania from Internet strangers—Albanians love welcoming Americans to come and see what Albania has to offer. Even Liam Neeson has been invited to be Taken By Albania, which is probably one of my favorite tourism campaigns ever [for those that don’t know, Liam Neeson was the star of the film Taken, a movie in which the bad guys are from Albania].
In sum for now, the announcement of Adams’ Albanian citizenship is peculiar for sure, and I’m curious to see where this goes. May be back with updates at some point. At least for now Adams is probably way more recognizable and well-known, such that people may no longer say to me, “Hey, Obama’s sister, get over here.” Instead they may ask, “Hey, have you heard of Mayor Adams, the new Black Albanian citizen…are you related to him?”
