Qendresa's Rise to Fame: From Working at Sexy Fish to Writing for Drake
Qendresa is a London-based singer-songwriter who has been making waves in the music scene. Born to Kosovo-Albanian parents, she was raised in Kilburn, north-west London, where she grew up with two younger brothers.
A Kosovan Heritage and a London Accent
Qendresa's name, which means resistance or endurance in Albanian, points to the country's history. Her parents migrated to London in the 80s, where she grew up with a love of music. However, her tomboyish tendencies got in the way of traditional pursuits, and she preferred being outside, getting mucky or playing football.
At college, she studied fashion and fine art, but even creative subjects couldn't keep her engaged in education. At one point, her mother convinced her to try out hairdressing, but she only got paid £3 an hour and quickly lost interest. It was during this time that Qendresa and her friends were discovering the city's rave scene. They'd sneak into Fabric once a month and go out dancing to drum and bass, jungle and UK garage.
A Career in Music
Qendresa started DJing at 24 and eventually landed her first Boiler Room set, followed by an NTS show. Between gigs, she was writing, recording and learning how to sample for herself. In 2020, she released her debut EP, Midnight Request Line, before dropping her acclaimed debut album, Londra, in 2024.
Qendresa's music is deeply rooted in her London upbringing and her Kosovan heritage. She talks proudly through a thick west London accent on tracks like "Don't Stop" ("Yeah bitch I'm from London, but my mum's Albanian," she sings). Her music is a reflection of her love for the city and its people.
A Breakthrough with Drake
In January 2026, Qendresa found herself ringing in the new year in the Bahamas, where she was part of a writing camp for Drake's Iceman album trilogy. Her unexpected friendship with the Canadian rapper first blossomed when he posted her track "Tearz" on Instagram. "I couldn't believe it was real," she says from her Brighton seafront apartment.
Their messages soon became a back and forth of music recommendations and tracks they'd been working on. "Looking back, I didn't realise he was reaching out to collaborate. Then a few months later we got the invite to go and work on the Iceman albums - or album, at the time, we didn't know there were going to be three."
In May, Drake surprised fans by dropping three albums at once: ICEMAN, HABIBTI and MAID OF HONOUR. Qendresa contributed to a number of tracks - many of them unreleased. On HABIBTI, she features on "Slap the City" and provides backing vocals on "Gen 5" and "Fortworth". On MAID OF HONOUR, she's credited on "Stuck".
Since the albums came out, Qendresa's monthly listener count jumped from "under a million to over six million," she says. "My monthly listeners have gone up a lot, but the new fans are on the same wavelength as me and my fans. They're people that are genuinely intrigued and interested in what I'm doing. I love organic fanbases - loyal, organic fans who aren't there because of any kind of hype, [but] because they believe in what you're doing and enjoy listening to what you're making."
New Music and a Love for Reggaeton
Qendresa recently gave her newfound fanbase a warm welcome by releasing new music. Her latest project, which dropped last week, consists of a new single, "Besitos", and its accompanying B-side. The former marks her first venture into reggaeton. "It's a love song to Mexico," she says. "It has a fun, playful, whimsical vibe. It's not serious but it touches on serious things like attachment issues."
Then there's the B-side, "Gave Myself 2 U", which is dripping in the artist's sexy, signature 80s sound. "That one is sensual and heartbreaking. I'm hoping people are going to cry. That's my dream. No offence, but I do want people to cry to one of my songs."
Qendresa's music is a reflection of her love for the city and its people. Despite her love for the capital city, she moved to Brighton three years ago. She misses London, but it doesn't feel like the same city she grew up in anymore. "I miss London when I'm in London," she says. "People think gentrification is just fancy new builds, but it's the whole mood. London has changed. The cost of living and people not being able to afford the city that they grew up in, the road they grew up on, that breaks a city. That breaks the mood of a city. It never used to feel this way."
The version of London that shaped who she is as a person and an artist might not exist anymore, but its memory and impact lives on through her music. With a little help from Drake, Qendresa is taking Kilburn (and Kosovo) to the world.
