“Diell” by Elhaida Dani will represent Albania at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, Austria.
The 53rd edition of the traditional Festivali i Këngës doubled up as the Albanian national final for ESC as usual, with two semi-finals on Thursday and Friday being followed by tonight’s grand final.
And in a clear verdict, it was Elhaida Dani – known outside her country’s borders as the winner of The Voice Of Italy in 2013 – who triumphed, with “Diell” (which means “Sun”) obtaining 82 out of a maximum of 84 points from the professional jury. The runner-up was “Të ndjej” by Bojken Lako Band (62 points), with the podium positions completed by Lindita Halimi’s “S’të fal” (45 points).
Over in the #esc chat, “S’të fal” was our chatters’ favourite with an average score of 7.40 out of 10, followed by “Ti s’më njeh” (7.35) and “Më rrëmbe” (6.83). Meanwhile, we placed “Diell” 6th with an average score of 6.56. These and the other results from the chat are being used in our new SongHunt concept, which was launched tonight – you can vote in heat 1 here and help us find our favourite NF song of the 2015 season!
But it’s the real results from Albania tonight that count, and after two years of failing to qualify with somewhat unconventional entries, Albania is sending what could be described as a mainstream “diva ballad” to the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest – although it remains to be seen what will happen when the usual Albanian song makeover takes place to cut it down to 3 minutes and possibly introduce English lyrics. We look forward to finding out!
Elhaida Dani – Diell
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