Eurovision 2013: Albania

Slowly but surely I'm making my way through the national finals, and finally I'm getting to the results from Albania, who chose their winner back in December.

The Albanian representative was chosen through Festivali i Këngës, the Albanian show has chosen Albania's Eurovision representative since they first entered the contest in 2004.

I'm personally partial to the format of Festivali i Këngës, where the contest is much more of a concert instead of a stadium show.  The format puts the songs and the artists front and center, not the lights, dancers, or distracting video displays...like Eurovision seems to have become in the past few years.

It makes me wonder what the Albanians would come up with if they staged the contest:

The Winner  

 

 

Adrian Lulgjuraj & Bledar Sejko  "Identitet"

 

 

I get why the song won the contest.  Bledar Sejko's guitar work is extremely impressive, and the mix of the guitar work contrasted with the string and tympani arrangement is striking.  The music, combined with Adrian Lulgjuraj strong vocals, made it an understandable winner, even if it left me a bit cold.

I must confess that I am a bit distracted by Bledar Sejko.  He looks like an ex-boyfreind of mine, and when I showed a picture of the performers to my friend Janet S., her response was "Albania is pandering to you this year, aren't they?"

Perhaps they are, but sadly, unless I decided to go on a spur of the moment European vacation, I'm not going to be able to vote in the contest.

I just hope that Albania doesn't prerecord the track.  The pull of the song is Sejko's guitar work, and if Sejko can perform as well as he did in this clip, I can see the song making the final easily by getting support from the national juries.

 

Should Have Won 

 

 

Anjeza Shahini  "Love"

 

Shahini was Albania's first representative in the Eurovision Song Contest, and she did quite well, coming in seventh in 2004.  She's also the performer of my favorite Albanian Eurovision entrant.  And I think that that filters over to my preference this entry, even though the song is admittedly weaker than "Identitet".

 

I'll admit that after listening to the song a few more times,"Love" would have needed a lot of work before going to Sweden and for that reason I can understand why Anjeza didn't win the contest.  You can have a fantastic singer, but if the song is weak it's not likely to win.

 

"Identitet" didn't hook me, but I have to say the Albanians picked a stronger song with a strong performance, and I totally respect that.

 

 

My Favorite

 

Besides the two mentioned above, two other artists caught my attention during the finals of Festivali i Këngës and for two very different reasons:

 

 

 

Merland Kademi  "Këtu fillon parajsa"

 

 

The song it a bit of a Frankenstein--take a bit of a James Bond theme song, mix in the drama of last years Albanian entry, and put that on top of the melody of the winner of the 2007 Contest and you have this song.  Kademi sells this Balkan ballad like his life depended on it and it came in a respectable fifth.

 



 





Dr. Flori & Fabi  "Jam ti!"

 

Albanian rap!  With a string section!  And bongo drums!  Pretty freaking awesome, even though it does get a little sketchy towards the end.  Rap is unlikely to go to Eurovision from Albania (that's Montenegro's job), but I'd love to listen to this while driving down the highway.

 

 

All in all, I enjoyed sitting down and watching another Albanian national final, and think they chose a really decent song and one that could do quite well...  Here's hoping that it does...

 

Countries In Review: Albania

Welcome to the first of my "Country In Review" Eurovision posts. 

The nice thing about deciding to to the "Country In Review" blog posts is that I get a chance to take a look at the songs from a country at a whole instead of looking at the songs in comparison to other songs in a given year.

(Although I have to admit that I might enjoy this because I like ranking things and have since I was a little kid.)

And since I'm anything if not methodical, I'm staring alphabetically, and that means Albania is the first country I'm reviewing.

The former Enver Hoxha Museum in Tirana.  From what I understand, a good place for some high-speed tobogganing.

  

Albania has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest since 1994 and has always been sponsored by Radio Televizioni Shqiptar and has chosen their entrant through their year-end concert program Festivali i Këngës.  Festivali is a multi-day show performed in the Pallati i Kongreseve and is pretty impressive as national finals go, with a full orchestra, high productions values, and a lot of talented Albanian singers.  (I recommend looking around for clips from Festivali.  It's well worth your trouble.)

And after listening to all of the Albanian entrants a number of times, I have to admit I had judged the country's songs rather harshly in the past.  I had just dismissed the Albania's songs because it's in the Balkans, which in my mind means that you can send crappy songs and they'll do well because the other countries in the region will vote for you.

But after listening to the Albanian Eurovision songs, I'm shocked by the quality of them.  The songs are for the most part, quite good.
So let get going:

The Worst

By far, the worst song is the Albanian entrant from 2005:

Ledina Çelo  "Tomorrow I Go"

Pretty much it's a cheap rehash of the winner of the 2003's contest,

Sertab Erener  "Every Way That I Can"  Turkey

except that Ms. Erener has stage presence out the wazoo and singer/dancers with a great gimmick, while Çelo has refugees from a Greek vaudeville act.

The Best

I thought that this one was going to be easy.  Before I decided to do this post, there was only one Albanian entry that I've ever rated highly, and it's the entrant from 2010:

Juliana Pasha  "It's All About You"

Ms. Pasha is pitch perfect on the song, the backing singers are fantastic, and the person who did the lighting design for the stage in Oslo deserves an award.  I like playing it loud in the summertime with the windows down in my car and it's gotten me through mile 20 of a marathon.  I still don't understand why it came in sixteenth, but then again, my personal favorites never seem to do well.

But while listening to all the entrants, I had to add the the first Albanian entry to the best list as well.

Anjeza Shahini  "The Image of You"

Ms. Shahini can sing can't she?

Ever since I first heard this song, I've been singing it.  The chorus is super catchy and the melody is tricky enough to stay hooked in my brain.

It's still give the top prize to Pasha, but instead of by a country mile, I'll have to give it to her by a nose. 

 

 

For those of  you who are interested, here's a ranking of all the songs, and if you'd like to hear them all, just click this link.

1.  Juliana Pasha  "It's All About You"  2010

2.  Anjeza Shahini  "The Image of You"  2004

3.  Rona Nishliu "Suus" 2012

4.  Aurelia Gaçe  "Feel the Passion"  2011     Scary stage presentation ruins song
5.  Kejsi Tola  "Carry Me in Your Dreams"  2009       More like nightmare, if your dream is this.
6.  Luiz Eljji  "Zjarr e ftohtë" 2006       Performance was really bland.
7.  Frederik Ndoci  "Hear My Plea"  2007       Performance was melodramatic, too melodramatic.
8.  Olta Boka  "Zemrë e lamë peng"  2008     Completely forgettable.
9.  Ledina Çelo "Tomorrow I Go"  2005

Next up, Andorra!