Rona Nishliu and her song “Suus” won the Albanian National Final yesterday. It’s the 50th winning song in the history of Festivali i Këngës, and the 9th entry that the country sends to Eurovision. Even though Goldi Halili achieved more points in the chat’s voting for semi 2 than Rona did in the night of her semi, one can say that the chat favourite in the final actually won. This is a quite rare occasion, especially when the real voting procedure is as unpopular as the one Albania is using. The more delightful it is to see, that the jury in Tirana’s Palace of Congresses actually made a rather popular decision. After all, it was the favourite finalist among our chatters, and among a lot more fans all over Europe.

This, however, doesn’t mean that Suus is popular for everyone. It’s going to have a lot of lovers, and probably as many dislikers, to avoid an even stronger word. Suus is another dramatic ballad at Eurovision, in the tradition of entries like Sama (Poland 1995). Suus worked especially well with the orchestra that supported it at Festivali i Kënges, and this song does “cry” for a big orchestra besides the stage, which it will miss in Baku. So it will be interesting to see how this song will be staged in May! A lot of fans, including ourselves, hope that Suus will stay in Albanian language, and that the song won’t get much more editing than the necessary shortening down to 3 minutes. Meaning, it would be a shame to cut away the most moving and goosebump-creating parts, like, when the orchestra sets in in the middle of the song.

Rona Nishliu was born 1986 in Mitrovica, and thus is the first Kosovo-Albanian singer that will represent Albania at the ESC. In her home country she got famous during her participation at Albanian Idol, where she achieved a Top 5 placing. Rona is already known to some Eurovision fans because of her participation in a trio together with Teuta Kurti and Vesa Luma, and their song “Flakareshë”, which competed at Festivali i Këngës 2004. If you are not familiar with Flakareshë yet, we have the video for you at the bottom of this article. So now, Rona tried again as solo singer and succeeded, which makes the list of solo singers for ESC 2012 even longer. Will Suus be able stand out from the other solo-singer-songs? Only time will tell. After all, the National Final season just begun, and about 40 more entries will be chosen and presented in the upcoming three months.

We are curious to follow the Albanian entry’s way from Tirana to Baku!