The festive season is truly beginning to settle in. We’ve even started our own advent countdown on Instagram! But for Eurovision fans there’s one other event coming up that is perhaps even more highly anticipated – Albania’s Festivali i Këngës! Excitement is already building, with newly released preview clips of all 22 songs.
The first national final of the season, Festivali i Këngës enters its 57th year later this month as it returns to our screens on December 20, 21 and 22. That means we only have two weeks to wait before we have the first song for Eurovision 2019!
But before the contest, broadcaster RTSH has uploaded one-minute long clips of all 22 competing songs. You can find the clips on their Instagram page, or in the YouTube playlist below.
The videos aren’t dedicated entirely to the studio cuts of the songs though, as they also allow all the artists taking part in this year’s competition to talk about the meaning behind their entries (and thanks to wiwiblogger Erdi for the translations).
Perhaps the most striking of the songs lyrically is “Leyla” by Marko Strazmiri & Imbro. The song details a 14-year-old girl, Leyla, who is about to become a teenage mother. The lyrics discuss her transition from the life of a child to parenthood.
Another song with a strong message is “Ktheju tokes” by Jonida Maliqi, which talks about emigration. Meanwhile, Mirud’s entry “Nene” is a personal song about an abandoned child.
The majority of the artists also mention Eurovision, saying that they would be honoured to represent Albania in Tel Aviv next year. No doubt it’s a good sign that many are already thinking past FiK57 and how their songs could translate to Eurovision entries — hopefully meaning we’ll bypass the dreaded ‘Albanian revamp’ that has so often not worked in the past.
From what we do get to hear of the songs, however, there definitely seems to be a nice mix of genres involved.
Previous fan favourites Orgesa Zaimi and Dilan Reka are both going upbeat again, as many were hoping.
Jonida Maliqi also caught our attention with her song musically, which sounds like a particularly dramatic ballad with traditional flair.
Lidia Lufi has a moody — dare we say “Statements” by Loreen — vibe going on, while Lorela Sejdini definitely takes things up a notch in the chorus.
FiK has been criticised in the past for relying too heavily on a live orchestra, which often doesn’t pair well with some of the more contemporary, upbeat and synthesised songs.
However, at the end of October the broadcaster announced some big changes to the way this year’s contest will run.
In the first show on December 20th, songs will be performed with the traditional FiK orchestra. The second programme a day later, however, will see the songs performed in a Eurovision-style arrangement and will make use of staging techniques. In the final we can expect a more traditional FiK experience.
With the running order for the first night set, and clips of the songs now revealed, all there is to do now is get out our festive FiKmas decorations and get ready for the show!
What do you make of the one-minute snippets? Are you loving any of the songs just from these brief clips? Any festive plans for the FiKmas period? Let us know in the comments below!
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I’m getting Jonida vs. Soni vibes.
Tickets for the semi finals should be easy to buy at the RTSH building, they usually have a table with someone selling tickets in the lobby. The tickets for the final are a problem though, they are almost always distributed internally to friends and family of artists or government agency workers.
Or the tv ads with just Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro maps… lol
Lidia Lufi’s snippet sounds good, not sure if you can even judge the songs based on these clips though
Great selection! A lot of goodies.
Any chances Wiwibloggs could create a discord group?
Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without the FiK, and Mrs. Baddely’s plum pudding. And if someone catches that reference, I want to be your friend.
My TOP 5
1. Jonida Maliqi
2. Klodiana Vata
3. Eranda Libohova
4. Bruno Pollogati
5. Dilan Reka
I just don’t understand how did u make that Top 5 based on THOSE snippets
Dilan Reka Karma welcome in Tel Aviv 2019
I like him the most too. Another karma boy to add to my collection
Dilan Reka’s entry “Karma” sound very promising to me. Modern, contemporary, up-tempo. It will be a nice surprise from Albania to go in another direction (apart from rock entries and screaming divas). Good luck!
I’m positively surprised. There were actually a couple of promising entries, that could do well in ESC with a successful revamp.
This kind of snippet makes it hard for us to judge, but feeds our curiosity, so well played FiK. What we can say so far is that the songs are quite different one from each other, which is great. Jonida’s entry is the one I’m most curious about.
I could form some judgment based on the one minute clips, but since they were talking over the music, the task is even harder. I’ll stay reserved thus far, but I am looking forward to FiK.
Lidia Lufi….Wow!! I don’t know what the hell youre singing about but I can feel it. So far my absolute favorite among a fairly strong field of singers. I wish you the best!
It’s really hard to say something based on these snippets. But they sound good so far.
Hard to base an opinion on these snippets but jonida maliqi sounded very interesting.
Hard to judge based only on these snippets, but here we go: The clear stand-out act for me was Klinti Çollaku. He has the most “westernly sound”. He even mentioned “Eurovision” in his interview, so I guess he has an English version of his entry waiting for the moment. Other act that caught my attention was Marko Strazimi & Imbro, for being to common, but yet different. Orgesa’s song seems to be too experimental, and too risky. Eliza Hoxha sounds like the “perfect diva” for Albania. The typical screaming woman with a translated version of the song. But again, it’s… Read more »
I like them too, but it’s a “hit or miss”.
Klodiana Vata’s song is quite good! FiK is amazing tjis year! Much luck to everyone!
Jonida Maliqi the best !