Or will she? The Albanian Broadcaster, RTSH, have launched an investigation into the result of the 2007 Festivali I Kenges.
Despite winning the Festivali by 10 points from ‘Jeta Kerkon Dashuri’ which was written by the team responsible for Albania’s debut in 2004, everything depends on the result of the investigation. RTSH decided to have the investigation because of apparent irregularities in the voting. The result was decided by 5 jury members, 3 composers and 2 members of the public. The votes of the members of the public differed greatly from those of the composers and made all the difference to the final result. All we can do now is wait.
The song itself ‘Zemren E Lame Peng’ (We Left Our Hearts Behind) was written by Adrian Hila and Pandi Laco, who also wrote ‘Hear My Plea’ for Frederik Ndoci last year. This song failed to qualify from the semi-final.
Olta is sixteen years old. If she is allowed to go to Belgrade, her inexperience could be a factor in a contest in which performance has become almost as important as the song itself. No doubt the temptation will be strong to perform the song in English.
Albania will compete in the 2nd semi-final on 22nd May
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In my view
I hope it will stay in Albanian; to put it in English will be to lose the ethnicity and therefore some of the effect of the song. If the Albanians send this song, it should stand a decent chance of qualifying from the semi-final. It’s their best since ‘The Image of You’ and will have less songs to compete against in the semi thanks to the new format.
The opinion expressed in "In my view" are those of the author and are not necessarily the one of EuroVisionary.com.
