Albania at the Eurovision Song Contest

Balance sheet

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Broadcasting company

First participation

2004

Number of participations

16 (as of 2019)

Highest ranking

5 ( 2012 )

Highest Score

184 ( 2018 )

Lowest Score

22 ( 2014 SF )

Points average (since first post)

71.20 (as of 2019)

Average points per voting country in the 12-point system

1.80 (as of 2019)

This article deals with the history of Albania as a participant in the Eurovision Song Contest .

Regularity of participation and successes in competition

Rona Nishliu 2012 in Baku, took 5th place

Albania entered the competition for the first time in 2004 and every year since then. When they first took part, Albania came in a good seventh place - a result that was not to be achieved for a long time: Anjeza Shahini succeeded in the semi-finals and was right at the front in the final. In the following years the country was less successful and had to go to the semi-finals in 2006 after a bad placement in the previous year, in which it got stuck like the year after. In 2008 Albania made it into the final in the second semifinals with only three points ahead of Macedonia in ninth place, where, however, like in 2005, it only finished 16th. In 2009 Kejsi Tola came 17th after successfully qualifying in the final . Juliana Pasha again took 16th place the following year . Aurela Gaçe , however, did not qualify for the final in 2011. In 2012, Rona Nishliu made it to the finals again in second place, where she achieved fifth place, the best result in the country to date. In 2013, however, there were only 31 points in the semi-finals with Identitet and 15th place out of 17 participants. In 2014, Hersi only reached the penultimate place in the semifinals and thus the worst result so far. In 2015, however, the country reached the final for the first time in three years. There they landed in 17th place. In 2016 and 2017, however, the Albanian entries were again clearly eliminated in the semi-finals. Albania only reached the final again in 2018. After a surprising qualification for the final, Eugent Bushpepa achieved 11th place in the final, the best placement in the country since 2012. With 184 points, he also got a new high score for the country. In 2019, the Albanian contribution reached the final again, finishing in 17th place.

In total, three of the 16 contributions ended up in the left half of the table. Overall, Albania was eliminated seven times in the semifinals, but never reached the last place. Nevertheless, the country has only been able to place in the top five once. Thus Albania is one of the less successful countries in competition.

List of posts

Color legend: - 1st place. - 2nd place. - 3rd place. - Equal points with last place. - Eliminated in the semifinals / in the qualification / in the Eastern European preliminary decision. - no participation / not qualified. - Cancellation of the Eurovision Song Contest.      

year	Interpreter	Title Music (M) and Text (T)	language	translation	final		Semi-final / qualification		National preliminary decision
					space	Points	space	Points
2004	Anjeza Shahini	The Image of You M: Edmond Zhulali; T: Agim Doçi	English	Your image	7/24	106	4/22	167	Festivali i Këngës 2003
2005	Ledina Çelo	Tomorrow I Go M: Adrian Hila; T: Pandi Laço, Sidorela Risto	English	tomorrow I go	16/24	53	Qualified directly for the final		Festivali i Këngës 2004
2006	Luiz Ejlli	Zjarr e ftohtë M: Klodian Qafoku; T: Floran Kondi	Albanian	The cold fire	Eliminated		14/23	58	Festivali i Këngës 2005
2007	Aida & Frederik Ndoci	Hear My Plea M: Adrian Hila; T: Pandi Laço	English, Albanian	Answer my request	Eliminated		17/28	49	Festivali i Këngës 2006
2008	Olta Boka	Zemrën e lamë peng M: Adrian Hila; T: Pandi Laço	Albanian	We gambled away the heart	16/25	55	9/19	67	Festivali i Këngës 2007
2009	Kejsi Tola	Carry Me in Your Dreams M: Edmond Zhulali; T: Agim Doçi	English	Carry me in your dreams	17/25	48	7/19	73	Festivali i Këngës 2008
2010	Juliana Pasha	It's All About You M: Ardit Gjebrea; T: Ardit Gjebrea, Pirro Çako	English	It's all about you	16/25	62	6/17	76	Festivali i Këngës 2009
2011	Aurela Gaçe	Feel the Passion M: Shpëtim Saraçi; T: Sokol Marsi	English, Albanian	Feel the passion	Eliminated		14/19	47	Festivali i Këngës 2010
2012	Rona Nishliu	Suus 1 M: Florent Boshnjaku; T: Rona Nishliu	Albanian with a Latin title	Personally	5/26	146	2/18	146	Festivali i Këngës 2011
2013	Adrian Lulgjuraj & Bledar Sejko	Identity M: Bledar Sejko; T: Eda Sejko	Albanian	identity	Eliminated		15/17	31	Festivali i Këngës 2012
2014	Hersi Matmuja	One Night's Anger M: Gentian Lao; T: Jorgo Papingji	English	One night's wrath	Eliminated		15/16	22nd	Festivali i Këngës 2013
2015	Elhaida Dani	I'm Alive M: Arber Elshani, Kristijan Lekaj (Zzap'n'Chriss); T: Sokol Marsi	English	I'm alive	17/27	34	10/16	62	Festivali i Këngës 2014
2016	Eneda Tarifa	Fairytale M / T: Olsa Toqi	English	fairy tale	Eliminated		16/18	45	Festivali i Këngës 2015
2017	Lindita Halimi	World M: Klodian Qafoku; T: Lindita, Big Basta	English	world	Eliminated		14/18	76	Festivali i Këngës 2016
2018	Eugent Bushpepa	Mall M / T: Eugent Bushpepa	Albanian	nostalgia	11/26	184	8/19	162	Festivali i Këngës 2017
2019	Jonida Maliqi	Ktheju tokës M / T: Eriona Rushiti	Albanian	Return to your country	17/26	90	9/18	96	Festivali i Këngës 2018
2020	Arilena Macaw	Fall from the Sky M: Darko Dimitrov, Lazar Cvetkoski; T: Michael Blue, Robert Stevenson, Sam Schummer	English	Falling from the sky	Cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic by the EBU				Festivali i Këngës 2019

¹ 2012 - the original title "Personal" was replaced by the Latin word for "personal" for artistic reasons.

National preliminary decisions

Congress Palace in Tirana, venue of the Albanian preliminary rounds

→ Main article : Festivali i Këngës

The Albanian representatives have always been elected within the framework of the Festivali i Këngës, a music competition held since 1962 by the national television broadcaster Radio Televizioni Shqiptar ; the winner should also win the ticket to the Eurovision Song Contest. In 2004 and 2006, Anjeza Shahini and Luiz Ejlli each received a direct nomination for the festival as the winners of the Albanian pop idol format of those years. The preliminary decision has always been held on three days in December of the previous year for the respective song contest. Before the grand finals, there were two semi-finals, the total number of participants fluctuated over the years between 28 (2003), 32 (2004), 34 (2005), 31 (2006), 29 (2007) and 20 (2008). The jury usually voted.

In 2007, the result of the Albanian preliminary decision was highly controversial: The second-placed duo Flaka Krelani and Doruntina Disha had received the highest or second-highest rating from five of the seven jury members, while the remaining two members received no points at all, so with Zemrën e lamë peng der Won third contribution in five years, written by Adrian Hila and Pandi Laço. The entry's victory was also hotly debated in the Albanian press. The singer Blero had previously withdrawn his contribution on short notice on the grounds that the vote had been manipulated and the winner had already been determined.

The 52nd Festivali i Këngës, which selected the participant for the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Copenhagen , was the first since Albania's debut in 2004, in which all semi-finalists also competed in the final. There were only 16 candidates in total at the festival and the semifinals were irrelevant for the result. For the 53rd Festivali i Këngës, which took place from December 26th to 28th, 2014, the original mode was reintroduced, with eight or nine entries from each semi-final with 13 participants qualifying for the final. This system was also retained in the following years.

Languages ​​of the contributions and new entries

Since at the Festivali i Këngës all titles have to be presented in Albanian, all contributions were in the original version in the national language. In 2004, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2020, English versions were recorded for the competition as well as in 2007 and 2011 when the contribution Hear My Plea in Helsinki and the contribution Feel the Passion in Düsseldorf were sung in English and in Albanian were. In 2006, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2018 and 2019 the contributions were presented entirely in Albanian. In addition, all contributions were rearranged after the preliminary decision, among other things because they exceeded the maximum permitted duration of three minutes.

In 2015, for the first time, the winning song of the Festivali i Këngës was not used as an Albanian song at the ESC because the composer did not consider it suitable.

Scoring

The following countries received the most points from or awarded the most points to Albania (as of 2019):

Most of the points awarded in the final space country Points 1  Italy 132 2  Greece 129 3  Turkey 071 4th  Spain 055 5  Germany 049

Most in the final received points space country Points 1  North Macedonia 117 2  Greece 088 3  Montenegro 069 4th  Switzerland 068 5  Croatia 037

Most of the points awarded space country Points 1  Greece 230 2  North Macedonia 163 3  Italy 132 4th  Turkey 113 5  Bulgaria 088

Most total obtained points space country Points 1  North Macedonia 253 2  Greece 206 3  Switzerland 160 4th  Montenegro 121 5  Croatia 100

Award of the highest rating

Since 2004, Albania has awarded the highest number of points in the final to seven different countries, six of them to Greece. In the semifinals, Albania awarded the maximum number of points to eight different countries, seven of which went to North Macedonia.

Highest rating (final) year country Place (final) 2004  Greece 3 2005  Greece 1 2006  Bosnia and Herzegovina 3 2007  Spain 20th 2008  Greece 3 2009  Greece 7th 2010  Greece 8th 2011  Italy 2 2012  Greece 17th 2013  Italy 7th 2014  Spain 10 2015  Italy 3 2016  Australia (J&T) 2 2017  Italy (J&T) 6th 2018  Italy (J&T) 5 2019  North Macedonia (J) 7th  Russia (T) 3 2020 Competition canceled

Highest rating (semi-finals) year country Place (semifinals) 2004  Greece 3 2005  North Macedonia 9 2006  North Macedonia 10 2007  Turkey 3 2008  Turkey 7th 2009  Greece 4th 2010  North Macedonia 15th 2011  Turkey 13 2012  Montenegro 15th 2013  North Macedonia 16 2014  Montenegro 7th 2015  Greece 6th 2016  North Macedonia (J&T) 11 2017  Moldova (J) 2  Portugal (T) 1 2018  Cyprus (J&T) 2 2019  North Macedonia (J) 2  Norway (T) 7th 2020 Competition canceled

various

• Albania planned to take part in the competition as early as 2003 , but the European Broadcasting Union only allowed one new participating country - Ukraine - after a rule change . The winner of the Festivali i Këngës, Mira Konçi with the title Brenda vetes më merr, was intended to represent Albania .
• So far, Albania has received the most points on average from North Macedonia - 11.3 out of a possible 12. Albania awarded the most points to Greece - an average of 10.8.
• Albania very often placed between 16th and 18th place in the final (three times 16th, twice 17th and once 18th). In the semi-finals, on the other hand, the country landed in 14th or 15th place more often (three times 14th and twice 15th place).
• Ledina Çelo was the presenter of the Festivali i Këngës in 2004, a year before she won the preliminary round.
• In 2005 with Ledina Çelo, in 2007 with Aida and Frederik Ndoci, and in 2008 with Olta Boka, songs composed by Adrian Hila and written by Pandi Laço won the Albanian preliminary round. With two winning compositions (2004 and 2009) Edmond Zhulali and Agim Doçi are just behind.
• Since Albania selects and presents the entry for the Eurovision Song Contest in December of the previous year, the country is often the first of all participants, for example in 2004 , 2005 , 2006 , 2009 and 2016 . In 2007 , 2008 , 2010 and 2011 Albania was the second country whose contribution was presented to the public, whereas in 2008 the Andorran contribution had been previously chosen but only partially presented. In 2010 the Dutch contribution was only published in a demo version.
• In 2012 Albania did not broadcast the semi-finals live on television with Rona Nishliu, as May 22 was declared a national day of mourning after a serious bus accident. Only the votes of the jury were counted for the award of points.

Impressions

• 

  Anjeza Shahini 2004

• 

  Frederik Ndoci & Aida Ndoci 2007

• 

  Olta Boka 2008

• 

  Kejsi Tola 2009

• 

  Juliana Pasha 2010

• 

  Adrian Lulgjuraj & Bledar Sejko 2013

• 

  Hersi Matmuja 2014

• 

  Elhaida Dani 2015

• 

  Eneda Tarifa 2016

• 

  Lindita 2017

• 

  Eugent Bushpepa 2018

• 

  Jonida Maliqi 2019

Web links

• The texts for all Albanian contributions up to and including 2013 (with pictures of the participants)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ esctoday.com
2. ↑ geocities.ws
3. ↑ geocities.ws
4. ↑ geocities.ws
5. ↑ geocities.ws
6. ↑ geocities.ws
7. ^ Festivali i 47th i Kenges ne RTSH. Archived from the original on August 13, 2010 ; Retrieved December 2, 2008 . 
8. ↑ esctoday.com
9. ↑ esctoday.com
10. ↑ esctoday.com
11. ↑ esctoday.com
12. ↑ diggiloo.net
13. ↑ Albania: Elhaida Dani Will Not Sing “Diell” At Eurovision . wiwibloggs.com, February 24, 2015
14. ↑ geocities.ws
15. ^ Albania to broadcast tonight's semi-final deferred. May 22, 2012, accessed May 25, 2012 .