The Wiwi Jury — our in-house team of music unprofessionals — is reviewing and rating the 37 competing songs in Eurovision 2024. Next we review Albania, who have chosen BESA with “TITAN”.
Are we feeling the titan spirit? Read on to find out!
BESA – “TITAN” (Albania Eurovision 2024)
Review: BESA – “TITAN”
Deban: Albanian as a musical language is powerful, and it gave “Zemrën N’dorë” added mystery. Whilst the revamped arrangement of “TITAN” is much tighter, this lingua change makes it considerably weaker overall. Sounding less folk, but more middle of the road, TITAN’s effort to appeal to every listener backfires. However, Besa Kokedhima is fabulous and she remains the key selling point here. As a formidable performer, she exudes timeless feminine beauty and impressive vocal strength.
Score: 6
Jonathan: We’ve had the ‘80s and ‘90s music revivals. Now, Albania are taking us back to the 2010s with the return of their English-language devamp. Admittedly, the production of “TITAN” has been polished up, but any authenticity from BESA’s Festivali i Këngës entry has been stripped away. The rap section in particular, which originally gave the song some extra dynamism, has been considerably watered down. BESA is certainly the saving factor here – there are no concerns of a bad vocal performance. But by returning to their old ways, Albania should also expect their results to follow suit.
Score: 4.5
Sebastian: One of the finest voices and a consummate professional, BESA cannot be faulted in her performance of “TITAN”. As a song, however, “TITAN” straddles the generic, with an all too familiar theme of resilience — with rising, bullets, and not breaking all too repetitive a theme through the song. The revamp of the song did wonders for bringing Besa’s gorgeous vocals into the 2020’s, with some clever theme changes from country to a bit of almost drum and bass at the end. Where Besa has become a “TITAN” in disguise, the song itself is missing a clear identity.
Score: 7
Tomas: BESA always brings her A game when it comes to performing and her passion was felt during Festivali i Kenges. She’s taking the risk of translating her entry to English; however, this song isn’t as strong as previous Albanian submissions despite languages. For me, this is one of the weakest Albanian entries in years and being set up to perform second in the semi-final doesn’t promise success. Nevertheless, I believe Besa will put out her best effort and will deliver a beautiful performance.
Score: 4
Albania Eurovision 2024 ranking
In the Eurovision 2024 Wiwi Jury, we have 17 jurors but only have room for four reviews. The remaining scores are below:
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Antranig: 7.5 Cinan: 6 Georgia: 6 Lucy: 7 Pablo: 4 Ron: 4 Ruxandra: 8.5 |
Scarlett: 4 Simon: 3 Suzanne: 6 Tom: 6 William: 4.5 Youyou: 6 |
We have removed the highest and lowest scores prior to calculating the average. This is to remove outliers and potential bias. We have removed a low of 3 and a high of 8.5.
Wiwi Jury verdict: 5.50/10
What do you think of Albania’s Eurovision 2024 entry? Share your own score and review for BESA’s “TITAN” below!
Uselessa
this is just another example of an unnecessary albanian revamp, no one needed this song to be in english. the albanian language was the only thing making it remotely charming.
For anyone who believed that the introduction of televote to choose the Eurovision representative at FiK would lead to Albania having greatest diversity in their Eurovision representatives, got “Zemrën N’Dorë” this year to join last year’s “Duje” in putting death to that notion. Another Albanian Eurovision staple, that of the English-language “devamp”, is once again revisited. What was a rich, orchestral instrumental experience, has become less dynamic, overly-digitalised and slowed down to the point of almost being characterless. Even the much-maligned rap section, isn’t as distinct from the rest of the song as it used to be. What “Titan” does… Read more »
Vocals are there, but I don’t like the color of her voice and the song is so boring with or without revamp. I didn’t like it in Albanian, I’m not gonna like it in English. Albania should stop the tradition of sending divas to Eurovision. Just send Eugent Bushpepa again.
3.75/10
1. United Kingdom (7/10)
2. Australia (6.75/10)
3. Greece (6.75/10)
4. Azerbaijan (6.75/10)
5. Serbia (6.5/10)
6. Portugal (6.25/10)
7. Georgia (6/10)
8. Israel (6/10)
9. Luxembourg (4/10)
10. Cyprus (4/10)
11. Albania (3.75/10)
I love how the wiwi team tried so hard to find something praisable about this song!
Difficult indeed
I gave it a 7, I quite like it!!
28th place – Albania I like that song despite placing it so low. It sounds very Albanian and even if you don’t know much about Eurovision, you’ll be able to guess the country right away. I have to admit I prefer the original version before the revamp. I think it sounded more unique and good. After the revamp and the translation to English, it made it a bit more underwhelming. Also when it comes to qualifying, I don’t think it will go though. Considering it’s performing second and it’s only public vote that counts, there is like only 5% chance… Read more »
My least favourite song of the year. Sounds like any Albanian entry when they translate to English, it will be a miracle if they qualify
“Titan” wins my prize for “Best Re-vamp 2024”. Bravo. It was also a contender for my “Best Video 2024” prize. However, it has not made my Top 5 songs. Albania in recent history has sent a lot of “wailing women” to ESC, some of whom have done quite well. Here is another one of those. Albania also has a history of sending songs that started out in Albanian and were later translated into English; this is also one of those. And, Albania has a history of holding their National Final selection in the previous year and then making a re-vamp… Read more »
The song went from one of my favorites to one of my least favorites this year, thanks to the revamp. Pity.
26TH PLACE: ALBANIA: The original version didn’t do much to me and the revamp made no difference, apart from making it more modern (which in this case is a also perhaps a downgrade for me). The melodical parts in the chorus are good enough but the rap is an unnecessary addition for me and outside my personal taste. I also don’t like the aesthetic of either the music video or the national final performance. The lyrics in the English version are also basic. Besa has a nice voice but that’s about it I think.
I love Besa! She deserves the world and even more!
idk if her daddy can buy her the entire world though lol
battle of the rich queens, who wins that
i think Besa’s daddy is quite successful as businessman and politician, owner of a newspaper tabloid but i think Malta’s Sarah and Poland’s Luna outslay her in that department
also wouldn’t rule out Cyprus’s Silia, with her lawyer and former dancer Mommy
Great voice poor song.
I’m sorry, zero stars.
I think I preferred the Albanian version. Also, it needs a bit more oomph!
no one understands albanian gibberish, hun
Neither Hebrew murderlish
I’d say that in case of this song’s lyrics, not understanding a word is a good thing.
I enjoy this, imo the revamp did this some good. I do have this on repeat, and enjoy the attitude mixed with funky ballad. I feel this will get lost in the semi but otherwise I do enjoy this song and hope for it to qualify.
Score 8.5/10
37) Albania – Yeah… I’m so sad because Albania is one of my favourite countries in Eurovision, but there was no way I could’ve put it anywhere else. The original wasn’t terrible but rather just forgettable, and I had hopes that the revamp would be what Albania usually does, but instead it’s the other way around. The English lyrics don’t work for me at all, and when it gets uptempo near the end, I just can’t help but laugh. I know folks do get tired of Albania doing the same stuff every time, but for me that’s what I’ve always… Read more »
ALBANIA – The trend has shown that Albania usually qualifies when they keep their entries in Albanian, yet they don’t most of the times when they translate it to English. In its revamp, Titan kept a lot of the aspects that made Zemren n’dore win the hearts of the Albanian voters. It’s still a mid-tempo-ish pop ballad delivered by a great vocalist. The melody in the chorus is still pretty. The rap segment is gone, and now replaced by the more levelled structure of both verses, which I personally don’t mind. The lyrics now paint a different story. Zemren n’dore… Read more »
10/10
Dua Lipa vibes!!!!
Just because they are from their families are from the same country doesn’t mean they sound anything alike lol. This is not even close to Dua Lipa’s sound
This is the first time since i’ve followed eurovision that i have not liked an albanian song. This falls pretty flat for me and the way they reimagined the song in the revamp in my opinion made them DOA in the semi final. 26th place 5/10
I prefer the revamped version than the original one. The original soumdeed imdeed more folklore, but in my opinion it was pretty meh. She has a strong team behind her and I’m waiting for her live performance.
Albania 3/12
27. Albania – Besa – Titan – 5.5/10 – I like the song more after the revamp, however it is a little too cliche-ridden in its lyrical and musical delivery. Besa delivers the song with appropriate gusto but there remains elements of disconnection between various aspects of the song which take me out of the moment that had been building. I do enjoy the chorus though and the uptempo bit at the very end is a nice surprise.
We are pretty much on board here, Kosey. You having Albania higher than I do, tho.