After two semifinals the previous days the final of the 53rd edition of Festivali i Kenges was held last night. After a four hours show an expert jury decided that Elhaida Dani with her song Te Kerkoj will be the 12th entry of the country in the Eurovision Song Contest.
The show:
Eighteen acts fought for the honour to represent Albania in Vienna. The show started with the famous WiK orchestra. After that we had the introduction of the three hosts: Turjan, Floriana and Liberta. Turjan explained the rules to the audience and presented us the RTSH orchestra, as every artist was going to be backed up live by them. The jury was the same as in the semifinals consisting of Fatos Baxhaku, Rona Nishliu, Genc Dashi, Alida Hisku, Agim Doçi, David Tukiçi, and Evi Reçi. After finishing all the introductions it was time for the competing songs. The running order was as follows:
Besiana Mehmetaj & Shkodran Tolaj – Keshtjella
Bojken Lako – Band Te ndjej
Emi Bogdo – Nje femer
Lindita Halimi – S’te fal
Mjellma Berisha – Sot jetoj
Enver Petrovci – Te vrane
Erga Halilaj – Ti s’me njeh
Rezarta Smaja – Me rrembe
Jozefina Simoni – Mendje trazi
Venera Lumani – Dua te jetoj
Altin Goci – Rock dhe per gjithe jeten
Gjergj Leka – Himn
Klajdi Musabelliu – Vetem te ti besoj
Saimir Braho – Kristal
Estela Brahimllari – Kjo nate
Marsela Cibukaj – Smuj
Agim Poshka – Ne rrugen tone
Elhaida Dani – Te kerkoj
Interval Act:
Rona Nishliu (Albania 2012) was the interval act of the night. Rona gave an impressive performance as always. Rona Nishliu still holds Albania’s best result in Eurovision History.
Voting:
All the judges voted with the eurovision method. After a close tie Elhaida Dani won the whole thing, leaving the second place to Bojken Lako Band and the third place to Lindita Halimi. Elhaida had a fair victory tonigh as she was the hot favourite to win in all the fan’s polls. Elhaida is very famous not only in Albania as she was the winner of The Voice of Italy. Her eurovision entry is composed by Aldo Shilaku and the lyrics are written by Viola Trebicka and Sokol Marsi.
Albania in Eurovision Song Contest:
Albania has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 11 times, managed to quallify to final on 6 occasions (2004, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2012). The best place until now is the 5th place, achieved by Rona Nishliu in Baku (2012) with the song Suus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksuh4aGu8Vk
In my view
Elhaida gave a very professional performance with strong vocals. However if she wants to quallify for the final in May, she should change a lot of things to her song, keeping of course her powerful voice.
The opinion expressed in "In my view" are those of the author and are not necessarily the one of EuroVisionary.com.
