ALBANIA 2024

 

Merry FiKmas! Albania's venerable national final, Festivali i Këngës, held its 62nd edition this week, and the nation's representative for Eurovision will be Besa Kokëdhima with her song "Zemrën n'dorë" [Heart in Hand]. Let's take a look at her performance in Tirana:

About the Artist

Besa, from the central city of Fier, is a popular singer in Albania, having served as a judge on The Voice of Albania and scoring a number-one single in 2020. She also won Albania's other singing competition, Kënga Magjike, in 2013. 

Best Things We Lost Along the Way

So, a bit more about Festivali i Këngës ("Song Festival" in Albanian). As mentioned before, it's been going on for a very long time, surviving Hoxhaist repression in the 1970s and 80s, and it became Albania's national final when the country joined Eurovision in 2004. Under the current format, there's a jury winner who becomes the official winner of FiK, but it's the televote winner who goes to Eurovision. The jury winner was this, which is weird and nobody knows why it won. Some other songs that could've been a contender:

• Shpat Deda, "S'mund t'fitoj pa ty" [I Can't Win Without You] - 3rd in the jury vote. Probably what I would've gone with.
• Elsa Lila, "Mars" - The pre-contest favorite, and last year's runner-up. Would've loved to see this, too.
• Erina and the Elementals, "Jetën n'skaj" [Life on the Edge] - Would've been a big change from what Albania's recently sent.
• Luan Durmishi, "Përsëritja" [Repeating] - Very, very avant-garde. A favorite of the online fans, but it went out in the semifinals.
• Anduel Kovaçi, "Nan'" - A good male ballad.

Song Analysis

So, this is pretty standard from Albania - four of the last five FiKmas winners have been female-led ballads. As of now, I think this is the weakest one in a while, though Albanian songs usually get a good revamp (this one has to, to cut it down to 3 minutes). I advise changing the weird little rap bit. It's definitely got potential, though, Besa can sing, and the inevitable red-and-black staging will do its magic.

Albania's History

Though Festivali I Këngës has been going on since the 60s, Albania didn't debut at the contest until 2004. They've been pretty decent since then, qualifying more often than not, but only making top 10 twice (2004, 2012) and usually scraping into the final by just a place or two. Albania does tend to get big televotes thanks to their continent-wide diaspora, so the current semifinal format works well for them. Note that 2022 is the only time recently that they've gone away from the national colors of red and black (just look at the screenshots below) in quite some time.

For me, though, Albania's a top-tier ESC country - 10th overall since their debut. 2018's "Mall" is one of my favorite Eurovision songs ever - certainly the best male vocal I've ever heard - and "Ktheju tokës" ranks quite highly, too.

1 Eugent Bushpepa — “Mall”

2 Jonida Maliqi — "Ktheju tokës"

3 Luiz Ejilli — “Zjarr e ftohtë”

4 Anxhela Peristeri — “Karma”

5 Albina & Famijla Kelmendi — “Duje”

Prognosis

Every year (except 2022), people don't expect Albania to qualify. Every year (except 2022), they do. I really don't see this making it, but history forces me to say that it will.