A "silent duel" between VIP journalists took place today in the Albanian media: Arbana Osmani and Grida Duma have waged a fierce competition for the interview with Elsa Lila.
But what was so important that Elsa Lila had to say, come on, find out. It's not that she brought any new songs or changed anything major in her life. She simply came to Albania and on this occasion gave an interview — which reminds us once again of a bittersweet truth of VIP journalism: nothing live, everything recorded and curated until the last second.
But that didn't stop the two ladies from getting into a mini-competition of " who has the most watched exclusive ."
Grida, who usually releases her podcast episodes on Sundays, made a strategic detour: she aired the interview on Thursday at 6:00 PM, a move that was read as a move to cut off Arbana's path.
Meanwhile, Arbana — accustomed to the terrain of a mass audience — didn't even wait until 6:00 PM. She published the interview in the morning, turning the day into a sprint of clicks and putting the first stamp of "exclusivity." Of an exclusivity that, apart from the stamp, has nothing exclusive.
The result?
Elsa didn't bring any big news, but it brought a competition: who publishes first, who has the most clicks, who claims the primacy of the conversation with an artist who — let's say — was more of a reason for the Grida-Arbana duel than for what the interview conveyed.
In the end, the biggest question wasn't "what did Elsa say," but: How has it happened that the race to appear exclusive has become more interesting than what is being said?
