Albania hasn’t reached the final since 2012, when Rona Nishliu achieved a remarkable 5th place, the best result for the country to date.

Albania has been in the contest since 2004, and has always used its traditional Festivali i Këngës as its national selection format. The plans were the same this time, and things seemed to be normal like every year when Elhaida Dani won the contest back in December with her song Diell.

Elhaida Dani, who had previously entered Festivali i Këngës in 2011, was the big favourite for the ticket to Vienna following her victory in The Voice of Italy in 2013. However, while the singer remained the same, the song was changed in the meantime – a first in the history of Albania at Eurovision. As recently as February, the composer of Diell, Aldo Shllaku, withdrew his permission for the song to compete at Eurovision, as we reported earlier.

Instead of Diell, we now hear Elhaida singing I’m Alive in Vienna. I already didn’t like Elhaida’s FiK song, and my hopes that she would get something decent for Vienna were in vain: She doesn’t. Instead, she’s going to perform what’s probably the weakest Albanian entry to date.

My verdict is that this doesn’t hurt her a lot, as her performing capabilities will easily help people forget that the song is bad. Neither did it stay in my ears after I listened to it for the first time, nor did I have the desire to listen to it again. Everyone who knows me, knows that I am a big fan of Festivali i Këngës and Albanian entries at Eurovision, but this time I won’t bring my Albanian flag to Eurovision. This definitely won’t do a lot on the scoreboard. However, a qualification for the final isn’t unlikely.

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