Wiwi Jury: Albania’s Eneda Tarifa with “Fairytale”

Yesterday the Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — travelled to Albania and visited the southern shore of the picturesque Lake Ohrid. While sitting at a lakeside cafe, we discussed Eneda Tarifa and her song “Fairytale”. Did we live happily ever after? Read on to find out!

Eneda Tarifa with “Fairytale”

“Fairytale” reviews

Bogdan: Most viewers will be unaware that “Fairytale” had an Albanian past as “Përrallë”. Judging the entry purely for what it is now, the drama of the lyrics is compromised by the playful beats. What was and should have remained a sweeping power ballad is a mid-tempo song that is struggling to find its identity. The only thing that could rescue it is Eneda’s spectacular voice, and that thankfully hasn’t changed since FiK54.

Score: 6/10

Edd: Albania once again tried to polish a turd and once again ended up with poo on their hands. They’ve managed to transform a shouty, messy, unintelligible ballad to a creepy, sleazy, (still) unintelligible ballad – even after translating it into English. I feel really sorry for Eneda, because she has massive potential. The only hope Albania has is to call up an emergency producer and completely transform it – dance, ethno, reggae… ANYTHING but this! Because this is just a waste of participation.

Score: 0.5/10

Angus: We know Eneda can bring her A-game in a live performance, but the English version lacks all of that fire. “Fairytale” as a result is more of a meandering nightmare, with moments of brilliance squandered because of a lack of vocal commitment. Let’s hope on stage Albania can pull it back.

Score: 1/10

Cristian: Dear Albania, what have you done? Where is the epicness of “Përrallë”? I can’t believe someone really thought this was an improvement of the song she presented at FiK. The song lost its identity and now there is not even a real and distinctive chorus. I’m disappointed.

Score: 5/10

Deban: Eneda Tarifa’s “Fairytale” presents a cultural divide: I just don’t get it! It was rich in sound at Festival I Kenges, but its current version is languid despite sitting on a chilled dance vibe. The supporting imagery featuring Tarifa in a myriad of playful roles doesn’t translate tastefully. It may take a lifetime to understand much of what this entry means.

Score: 2.5/10

Rezo: This song brings nothing in my heart now. It misses naturalness. I prefer the original song. That song would stand out in the contest.

Score: 1/10

Luis: “Fairytale” is a case of a country going kamikaze against their own song. This revamp has been purposely done to murder “Përralle” and leave us with its tormented phantom. The amount of anticlimax moments in this song is alarming, as if many pages had been torn from the “tale of love” which Eneda sings about. Albania has clearly lost its way in the revamping process of their songs, and their drift is becoming worrisome.

Score: 2/10

William: Eneda is a beautiful woman with an equally stunning voice and her FiK entry had great potential. Sadly this train wreck of a revamp has turned the Fairytale into a nightmare. The lyrics are very ESL and the song beyond repetitive. Even so, the hook — and that’s why I love you oh oh — gets stuck in your head like the most stubborn of earworms. The video does little to save this. It opens with Eneda playing the part of a sexed-up Little Red Riding Hood — and one wearing a rug on her head — before she goes all Dumbledore in an observatory, which appears to be made of cardboard cut-outs spray painted gold. Girl, you can sing. I just wish you weren’t singing this.

Score: 1/10

Marek: I am so disappointed, like really upset and pissed off. Eneda showed up with song which was 8/10 but her voice was really good so it was 8.5. When she announced an English version, no one ever thought it would end up so bad that it’s now 1/10. But scores aren’t the only thing I want to say about this song. The title is “Fairytale” – well, kinda. The only thing that comes to my mind when I listen to this song is Batman. The lyrics are terrible. In the music video she looks like a hooker. At the end when she closes her dress, it looks like a vagina. I am so sorry, Eneda, but you ruined everything. 

Score: 3.5/10

Robyn: The difference between “Përrallë” and “Fairytale” is the difference between a wicked queen and a fairytale princess. Eneda ain’t no sweet princess so the attempt to shoehorn her into that role feels jarringly wrong. As the musical Wicked showed us, fairytale villainesses can be sympathetic, complex characters — it would have been so much more compelling seeing Eneda fully embrace that side. The dark fire and drama that took Eneda to victory at FiK54 wasn’t perfect, but it worked so much better than the neutered “Fairytale”.

Score: 4/10

Mikhail: This new arrangement is horrible. At some point it just cuts the line, which has to go on. The song has simply lost all its magic. Especially the chorus — it lost everything. Some electronic beats do not open the soul of the music and leave it laying unfinished on the table. Now let me go and cry over the dramatic and magical “Përralle”, which would have been in my top 10.

Score: 5.5/10

Padraig: The transition from Albanian to English has hit “Fairytale” hard. The original may have been far from perfect, but at least it could never be called boring. Stripped of the lush orchestral backing, the track loses its cinematic feel and sense of drama. The new arrangement just plods and would be better suited for preschool TV. Even Eneda sounds weary. At FiK54 she absolutely belted it out, now she’s much more restrained. Hopefully the spark returns in Stockholm. Because at the moment this fairytale is more like a drawn out nightmare.

Score: 3.5/10

In the Wiwi Jury we have 40 jurors but only have room for 12 reviews. The remaining 28 scores are below.

The highest and lowest scores are dropped prior to calculating the average score. This is to remove outliers and reduce potential bias. We have removed a low of 0.5 and a high of 7.

WIWI JURY SCORE: 3.58/10

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