Twenty-six artists entered Festivali i Këngës 59. Following one Covid diagnosis, 25 made it to the live shows. But only 18 have made it to the grand final of Albania’s Eurovision 2021 selection.
Last night we launched a flash poll asking you which of the 18 finalists deserves to win. We received a total of 2,814 votes and can now reveal that Inis Neziri is our readers’ favourite with her song “Pendesë”.
If you want to see the complete results, please scroll to the end of this post. If you want to live some drama, watch our video below which presents the artists from #18 to #1 based on our readers’ votes.
Who are the FiK 59 jurors?
Seven jurors will decide who wins and goes to Eurovision 2021. They include five music industry professionals and two members of the RTSH staff. These are the rumoured names. When we approached RTSH they said they could neither confirm nor deny.
- Robert Radoja (Composer)
- Vasil Tole (Musicologist)
- Prec Zogaj (Lyricist)
- Rame Lahaj (Tenor)
- Zana Shuteriqi (Composor)
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Running order for the FiK 59 final
FiK 59: Complete poll results
1. Inis Neziri – “Pendesë”
23.81%, 670
2. Era Rusi – “Zjarri im”
21.11%, 594
3. Mirud – “Nëse vdes”
15.35%, 432
4. Anxhela Peristeri – “Karma”
12.26%, 345
5. Xhesika Polo – “Më mbron”
6.68%, 188
6. Rosela Gjylbegu – “Vashëzo”
4.09%, 115
7. Orgesa Zaimi – “Valixhja e kujtimeve”
2.52%, 71
8. Giliola Haveriku – “E lirë”
1.99%, 56
9. Klevis Bega (Kastro Ziso) – “Vallja e jetës”
1.88%, 53
10. Evi Reçi -“Tjerr”
1.78%, 50
11. Kamela Islamaj – “Ajo vajza”
1.71%, 48
12. Wendi Mancaku – “Si ajo”
1.60%, 45
13. Sardi Strugaj – “Kam me t’ba me kajt”
1.49%, 42
14. Florent Abrashi – “Vajzë”
1.07%, 30
15. Gjergj Kaçinari -“Më jep jetë”
1.03%, 29
16. Festina Mejzini – “Kush je ti dashuri”
0.64%, 18
17. Viktor Tahiraj – “Nënë”
0.60%, 17
18. Devis Xherahu – “Peng”
0.39%, 11
#Eurovision finalist Eugent Bushpepa enthusiastically accepted the invite to perform as tonight’s interval. Love his love of FiK59 and #ESC ?? pic.twitter.com/OMREthm6nH
— wiwibloggs (@wiwibloggs) December 23, 2020
Now can we have all of them released on Spotify, please?
THIS!!! I’ve been jaming to Mirud on spotify and its great and all, but I’ve been waiting for Pendese and Zjarri im forever now.
I am as well, but as far as we know, she might’ve been 4th or 5th and in a good line-up, that’s a respectful result. Xhesika, Klinti and Wendi will still come-up when we get to list our favorite NF songs in late March / early April. I am happy for you and Sabrina that Sardi came second. It was unexpected, but I can see why that happened. He really knows how to grab your attention. I hope we’ll see all of these talented people on next FiKs with hopefully more good songs.
I’ve searched Sardi and found out that he’s also an actor, which explains why he has such a good stage presence.
Oh, and a fun fact: he became famous in the local X-Factor. Who won that season was a 14 year old girl called Arilena…
Absolutely gutter for her!
She made her mom proud, that’s for sure. But I was definitely expecting a top 3 finish for her.
WAIT FESTINA AND SARDI IN TOP 3!??
What the hell happened????
Anyway happy for all the singers performances, they really worked hard and I enjoyed the show, I’d like to see the full results
Festina had a song about abortion so probably the lyrics made the difference. She is a good singer too.
Really, she also had a song about abortion? Hopefully, hers was not as problematic as Erik’s.
that’s a lie. just checked the lyrics, absolutely nothing about abortion.
I just checked them too. They weren’t available up till recent. Those are some nice lyrics about love and longing. Nothing controversial about them. I don’t know why was this even insinuated. Anyway, congrats to Festina for her third place.
I’m not sure how I feel about the result, no mention of my favourites Xhesika or Mirad, at least Anxhela wasn’t a to controversial winner. Still clueless what the other trophies were for!
Oh, what a Fik-mas. WOW.
The Sardi fan club is much bigger than we were anticipating.
A VERY FiK top three. At least they ended up with a winner that they can work with.
Evi – Special award
Festina – Third
Sardi – Second
Anxhela – Winner
Congrats to all! Karma is our first 2021 song. 🙂
Ok, so Anxhela won. Festina and Sardi in the top 3 (I think) is very…..interesting. Xhesika, era, and surprisingly Inis, all robbed.
Anxhela it is! Sardi 2nd place and Festina 3rd then? And another award to Evi.
She was indeed. And from the songs I thought could win (hers, Inis’ and Xhesica’s), I think we’ll have the most memorable one (at least if they don’t destroy it with revamp and translation, of course).
Wait, what award did Evi just win?
I have no idea, but I’m happy anyway!
I don’t think so. It’s not a golden trophy.
What did evi win? 3rd place?
No a bunch of flowers
Top 3 most likely winners are Inis, Anxhela and Xhesika, but knowing FiK, I am not sure this will be the exact top 3. The third / second place will be someone unexpected (Kastro? Devis? Festina?), but the first place will probably go to either Anxhela or Inis. So… let’s see…
So… Evi is third? CONGRATS! Cool song.
Great to see again Mister Bushpepa. 2018 souvenirs! And what a sweet performance. All I needed at the end of this year
Eugent Bushpepa singing Hallelujah is a shop stopping moment. This was just spectacular!
As for songs, as I said, many are really good, and I’d be quite happy with either Inis or Anxhela, but my personal winner is still Xhesika.
Always a delight to watch Eugent performing. His renditions of “Mall” still give me goosebumps.
Eugent <3
It’s not. You just have a different taste. To my taste, both songs are very good, even if both (especially Pendese) would feel like songs Albania would send. That still doesn’t derail from their quality IMHO, but it perhaps makes them slightly predictable choices for this particular country. I’ll still likely rate either high for my Top 41 list when the time comes. 😉
This was a voice of confidence! That’s the way! 😉
How is the festival going? At which point are we?
The voting is about to start
Sardi, Sardi, Sardi! Nobody listens to me – so sad 🙁
Between you, me and Tibor, there’s actually a small fan club for him here. But we would be outnumbered anyway if we were jurors.
I am looking forward to it.
Does anyone know the time when the winning song will be announced? Approximately…?
Oh ok, so I think I can stay along. I thought it was going to end like San Remo. Plus for now I find the show is pretty well conduct (despite ads). There’s a special spirit in it that I really enjoy, like all these Mediterranaen festivals.
Vallja e Jetes is a good song but why oh why does Kastro not have dancers? For a song like this, dancers are basically essential, especially since Kastro isn’t really moving.
I’m here wondering how it would be a duet by Era Rusi and Kastro Ziso. Because both of them really go for it when performing.
I am confused by this song. It stands out, but I don’t know in what way. It’s slightly repetitive, but also very intense and committed. He feels really into it and it’s intense and scary, but at the same time, I feel like the staging could have been even more of a ”nightmare fuel” to go the distance. In any case, I can congratulate Kastro for making something out of the box.
Festina’s vocal is amazing and this chorus is actually rly good. Once again, not a winner but still very good.
In a way I have a very similar problem with Inis as I had with Norways choice for 2020. Great voice, ballad loved by everyone. Perfect performance – but it can’t convince me. I am sorry.
Second time I read this comparison here today, but I disagree. It’s true that both are very “by the books ballads” and bring nothing new to the table, but I loved how “Attention” allowed Ulrikke to show different spots of her voice, I don’t think the same happens with “Pendesë”. “Piedestal” from 3 (?) years ago made much better use of Inis’ skills.
Oh I didn’t see another comment comparing them. And you are right when it comes to deeper analysis! Ulrikkes song is more interesting for my taste too.
It was one on a different post, someone said it and Colin replied. Anyway, now it doesn’t matter, both Inis and Ulrikke won’t be in Rotterdam. Hope they get to Eurovision someday though, I’m very fond of both.
Tjerr is a fun little psychedelic country pop moment, but evi’s styling is just so good that it’s kind of better than the song.
She’s super cool and this song would stand out in any contest. But yeah, maybe too experimental for most people. And FiK’s jurors aren’t exactly known for being bold, I’m already glad that she’s in the final.
Well, Inis looks absolutely stunning. And her vocal is flawless. Knowing Albania, this will most likely win, and to be honest I’m not too mad at it. This is great.
She’s so ellegant that even the smoke coming from her mouth was tidy and organized. 😀 Still think the song’s too predictable, but her performances always grab my attention. The ball is in Anxhela’s court now.
I’m a little angry that such an obvious problem is robbing us this song in Rotterdam
All the right questions. Maybe what preserves us something special in Fik prevents on the other hand development.
Ok, let’s go Kamela. Unpopular opinion, but I like this song. The melody, especially in the chorus, is so interesting and subtly jazzy, and Kamela’s vocal is near-flawless. I did prefer Me Ngjyros, but Kujtimet S’kane Forme is very respectable.
I was very disappointed to not find much on Kamela’s Spotify page, because she was my absolute favorite last year and I really like her singing style.
The “Oniro mou” of this year’s FiK. It sounds great on the studio version, but nobody figured out how to translate it to a stage.
Of course, in a normal semi (that one was absurdly strong) she would probably qualify anyway but I’ve rewatched the performance on the Eurovision Again special and it left me cold again. And it’s not because it’s simple or because of Yianna. I can’t point what went wrong, but I haven’t felt what I feel when I listen to the studio version.
omg pls don’t remind me of Oniro Mou…..such a genuinely great song stuck in possibly the hardest semi since the 27-song 1-semi era.
I don’t think we’ll ever have a semi like that one.
You know I can’t reed these words without singing a Georgian song chorus right?
Ok, Gigliola’s vocal and styling have drastically improved. This won’t win, but it’s a very respectable entry (apart from the random inclusion of dubstep, which I choose to pretend to not hear).
My favorite song in FiK, too bad she had a bad first night. I don’t mind the dubstep, but it could be less louder.
Mirud’s song is good but he just looks SO uncomfortable on the stage. Nothing to do with his costume or anything, but this is a song with banger potential and Mirud hasn’t smiled once. He looks especially uncomfortable in the dance break. It’s a shame.
Rosela sounds really good, and Vashezo is a bop. I can’t see this winning but it’s fun and it’s executed well.
I loved all the three performances so far
Top 6 (so far)
1: Xhesika (this just leaves me speachless, such an emotional song, she will never win, but I would be really happy with her going to ESC)
2: Orgesa (sang effortlessly and the song is really catchy and you can easily sing it to it evn without knowing lyrics)
3: Era (So much energy from Era Rusi, it makes me wanna dance and that rarely happens with me with an upbeat song)
4: Gjorgj
5: Sardi
6: Wendi
Era Rusi just blew my mind!
Same! She really brought it! Even if she doesn’t win, this is a performance she can be proud of.
In case she pulls of a surprise win tonight, I guess it would be a no-brainer to pick Era to close the 2nd semi in Rotterdam. She really knows how to set a stage on fire (pun intended).
Karma it is, by far, at least for me.
Neziri’s song is a good runner up.
Two good options with strong potential for Eurovision staging. I also love Era Rusi — it reminds me of Eurovision in the late 00s when there were lots of fun ethno-bops!
Now I don’t love Me Jep Jete as a song but can we all admit that Gjergj’s styling is absolutely immaculate, like wow.
Inis is good, but Era is just eurovision ready! They gotta send her!!!
Xhesika is once again phenomenal. If the juries don’t give this a lot of points, it will be insane.
She is real winner here! Cause some sh*t will win instead of this. We know Albania, unfortunatelly…
I dare to say that the 2 best vocalists of this year’s FiK already performed: Xhesica and Orgesa. Let’s hope the jurors won’t forget about what they showed for the third consecutive time.
Orgesa’s vocal tone is not my favourite by any means, but even I can admit that she sounded exactly like the studio version and was precisely on the pitch and key.
It’s not my favorite side of her (I miss her out of the box entries), but she sounded exactly like the recording all 3 times.
Wendi didn’t have dancers tonight and I’m perfectly fine with that. Now nobody could be distracted from her and she was lovely as usual.
Ngrije Zerin was one of my favourite FiK entries and Hije wasn’t bad but I didn’t love it as the fandom did. And Wendi once again just sounds so good, her vocal is just so……liquid and smooth and sweet. One of my fav voices of the night.
Such a strong voice and she really gets into her performance. It’s like the audience isn’t there and she’s having a moment.
Completely Agree William! And the message behind the song aswell adds to the power! I’m team Xhesika for sure
Totally agree, Xhesika was amazing under every criteria
Running orders don’t define who’ll win, but usually can tell who the producers believe will win (sometimes, even who they want to win). I guess they’re really expecting it to be between Anxhela and Inis then. All of those I would consider possible surprise winners will be on the first half.
Alright everyone, lets’ go!!!! Rooting for Xhesika but I think the running order may have killed her chances.
So upset for Xhesika, she definitely won’t win after being put 2nd in the running order
Where are Klinti and Erikson seriously they deserved to be in this final more than some others and what the aim to do a final with 18 out of 25 acts? It doesn’t make sense…… moreover when you eliminate some of the best, all participants deserve to go in final after all so why only these 7 acts are eliminated?
Ok I don’t understand….. but best of luck to all Albanian participants tonight .
Erikson didn’t deserve the final with those lyrics.
I don’t speak albanian I don’t know but I liked his voice and performance as for Klinti.
What are his lyrics about? Or just plain childish?
His lyrics are anti-abortion.
Do they explicitely say so?
As long as law isn’t involved, I don’t see it as wrong, after all every opinion should be respected
Yes they say so, and it is wrong, but I’m not interested in getting political right now.
Why? He and Fatos are in my top 10 of all the songs
My top 4 is literally the poll’s top 4
Poor Xhesika 🙁 I was really rooting for her but the running order has definitely killed her chances at this point. Inis is the most likely win which is not the worst thing but she must have a better song. I wouldn’t count out Anxhela tho
I have a feeling Anxhela could definitely pull an upset. It seems more like a traditional song which is what Albanian jurors tend to like. Although I’m wouldn’t mind either but my slight favourite is Inis. I just hope she doesn’t switch to English if she is selected.