Arilena Ara was due to represent Albania at Eurovision 2020 with her song “Fall From The Sky“. Arilena earned the ticket to Rotterdam by winning Albania’s song contest Festivali i Këngës 58.
Arilena is singing a revamped English-language version of her FiK winning number “Shaj”. Click here to read the original “Shaj” lyrics”.
Scroll down for “Fall From The Sky” lyrics
Albania in Eurovision 2020: Arilena Ara “Fall From The Sky”
Arilena Ara is one of Albania’s biggest stars. Her Instagram fans number 1.1 million. She first rose to fame after winning The X Factor Albania in 2013. In the years since she’s racked up numerous chart smashes. And she’s even gone to the other side of the talent show table, acting as a coach on The Voice Kids Albania.
Prior to Eurovision, “Nëntori” was her best known single internationally. It enjoyed considerable airplay in Romania and Russia and has over 67 million YouTube views.
Despite her profile, Arilena’s FiK 58 win surprised some. Many expected Elvana Gjata to take the winner’s title. In a result that caused much debate, the “Me Tana” singer finished second.
What do the “Fall From The Sky” lyrics mean?
While sticking to a broadly similar theme, “Fall From The Sky” is not a direct translation of “Shaj”. And once you study the lyrics for both, it’s clear that the two iterations tell slightly different stories.
The original title — Shaj” — referred to an Albanian verb meaning to insult, revile, slander, curse. And the song was all about Arilena feeling deep, burning emotions that make her want to spit out some strong words.
She sang about a feeling a strong burning desire that hits her hard inside. The feeling dragged her in and gave her the sense that it won’t be ending.
She also confessed that she wants to kill this thing that is making her feel so much, and that desire was, in turn, making her feel guilty.
However, during the festival, Arilena told wiwibloggs that the song originally came to her in English. Our correspondent Erdi asked her if she could remember the English lyrics that ultimately inspired the tune.
After a pause, she sang: “Broken, broken, broken with love…”.
Those lyrics, though, appear to have been lost along the way.
In the new version, the protagonist is much more restrained. Instead, Arilena sings as a woman that’s trapped in a seemingly abusive relationship — at least emotionally.
The other party — it could be a lover, maybe a relative or even a supposed friend — has planted seeds of doubt in her mind. And instead of being her true self, she’s being held back. Her wings are clipped.
All of this has left the singer in turmoil. Inside.
Outside, she’s putting on a resilient front. This seems to be through a combination of sheer determination but also fear. And at times she comes close to breaking.
But unlike in “Shaj”, she doesn’t express any desire to hurt the one who causes her so much pain. Despite everything, she still prays for them. However, crucially, unlike the early draft — “Broken, broken, broken with love…” — this relationship seems to have disintegrated into a loveless affair.
Yet amidst all the gloom, a sense of humanity prevails. While everything seems hopeless, the song ends on an optimistic note — “I am destined to fly”.
“Fall From The Sky” lyrics — Arilena Ara (Albania ESC 2020)
Written and composed by: Michael Blue, Robert Stevenson, Sam Schummer, Darko Dimitrov and Lazar Cvetkovski.
Dimitrov is a prolific composer and producer. He has previously worked on numerous Eurovision entries, including both of North Macedonia’s most successful song contest hits — “Ninanajna” (12th in 2006) and “Proud” (7th in 2019).
Text
Words have cut me to the bone
And my heart is sinking like a stone
But I don’t let it show
Barely take another breath
Though I’m suffocating here alone
I’ll never let you know
Fall from the sky
Always making me hold back my wings
When I’m destined to fly
I’m screaming inside
You can crush and break down my walls
But my heart will survive
You have made me doubt my faith
Hide the truth behind another lie
But you won’t see me cry
I pray for you for all you’ve done
All the hurt that you leave in your wake
It’s so hard not to break
Fall from the sky
Always making me hold back my wings
When I’m destined to fly
I’m screaming inside
You can crush and break down my walls
But my heart will survive
You think I’m better without
A way to speak my mind
You think I don’t wanna shout
And that I’m terrified
Screaming inside
With nowhere to hide
You won’t let me flyyyyyyy..
Fall from the sky
As you hold back my wings
When I’m destined to fly
I’m screaming inside
Fall…
Fall from the sky
Break down my walls
But I’m destined to fly
What do you think of the new “Fall From The Sky” lyrics? How do they compare to “Shaj”? Let us know in the comments below.
Albanian trolls will downvote me but this song is outdated, rehashed, and something we have heard a million times before. Fall From The Sky is a slow, dreary ballad, with terrible lyrics. However, Arilena has stunning vocals, and the instrumental is actually really great. It just seems so pretentious and done-before to me. I loved Shaj so much more and I wish it wasn’t changed back to English. Sorry not sorry
oh look at that, 30 downvotes, how incredibly surprising
well its nearly 50 now, thanks to all the downvoting Albanian trolls for not letting anyone have an opinion
f*ck this is actually impressive, 100 downvotes? wowww! im honoured that y’all hate me so much 🙂
It’s even funnier when you imagine the reality. A lone guy, probably bored out of his mind on lockdown, sitting at his computer with a VPN, constantly clicking refresh so that it looks like hundreds of people disagree with the opinion that one single guy holds about his favourite pop singer. I hope the WHO create a corona vaccine soon.
it’s just crazy to me, like come on guys, I said nothing racist or homophobic or rude in any way, I simply stated an opinion. but you know what, let whoever is downvoting me have their fun, they’re just wasting their time on someone who couldn’t give two sh*ts what they think of me
For me, like 2017, whether or not it qualified is irrelevant. It DESERVED to qualify. Original song was great, revamp was also great. I prefer the Albanian lyrics but obviously, the improvements in production offset this.
I disagree, but I will say that I loved World and Bote 100 times more than I like this song. Lindita’s vocals were out of this world, and the song was really cool (it was in my qualifiers). This, however, is not.
That’s the second case since 2010 when I love an English version more than the original Albanian one. While “Shaj” is great, “Fall From The Sky” is a Masterpiece! Could have won Eurovision at ease!
I kinda agree with you. Except that a qualification would’ve been debatable for this although this could’ve qualified.
LOL, it feels good to be delusional like that
I know that Fall From the Sky came first and Shaj was later made for FiK, but come on. How does it end up that the “original” version ends up sounding like it’s had the classic Albanian devamp treatment? Come back Bushpepa and show them how it’s done!!!
Still loving Me tana more, Sorry Arilena, you were NOT destined to fly!
Shaj was more authentic. This is like 2017 a ballad which is okay and has some parts in which Lindita/ Arilena show how good they can sing. Sorry but long notes dont mean it has emotions and soul. Albania should focus on their great songs in the past 2009,2010,2012,2013 (this was at least a honest song), 2018,2019
If the jury does not want a song like Elvana brought they should be at least authentic.