On Monday night she unleashed a wall of sound at Festivali i Këngës 60 — proving that you can do fierce hairography and helicopter twirls while staying in tune. And while she most definitely proved her superstar status, Ronela Hajati says she’s less interested in the hype and buzz than she is in touching people’s hearts.
“I want to be a singer for the people,” she told me backstage, just moments before taking the stage on Night One. “I don’t want to be a superstar.”
But she’s grateful for all of the love — and thinks that it’s helping push her forward.
“I think artists live for that. We do everything for the love of the people. If we don’t have that, we have nothing. That’s the thing that makes me so happy.”
Her song “Sekret” is difficult to define. It brings together traditional sounds and instrumentation, but amps it all up with her unique brand of in-your-face. So what’s the message?
“The message is a little bit, ‘We all have our secrets and we all have our love secrets.’ That’s what I’m going to do tonight — I’m going to show him my secret and his. He doesn’t know….”
Well, whoever he is, he will have learned that Ronela plays the part of sensual warrior princess very well. Her black and gold costume featured bold epaulettes and a tight corset, meant to convey her strength. She jokes that it’s also meant to keep everything looking taut.
“It’s something that defends me,” she says. “I’m a little bit fat for the moment, so this corset doesn’t show everything bad about my body.”
Ronela’s emotional postcard segment conveyed the close relationship she had with her father. He actually led state broadcaster RTSH for many years, and oversaw the construction of some of its main buildings.
“He was a great man. He has the respect of everyone that worked here for years and he loved this institution so much. He gave it all his best years, and he taught me love. So I grew up having this big love about the festival and this institution before I knew what it’s about, for real.
“Being part of the festival for the first time — it’s brought up a different emotion than other people here. I’m singing for my father tonight.”
Ronela Hajati may add English lyrics to “Sekret” if she goes to Eurovision
A true polyglot, Ronela could sing the song in Albanian, English, French, Spanish or Italian.
“I love Spanish a lot. I learned Spanish from telenovelas. I really wanna add some words if I win. I want to do something in English too.”
“I know people are really sceptical about the song being revamped in English, because sometimes words are only translated. I don’t want to translate. I want to do other lyrics that have the same meaning, but other lyrics.”
She isn’t, however, getting ahead of herself. She fully understands that FiK60 is no cake walk and that several artists could snatch the crown.
“This thing has to finish first. I have so many plans. But I think every other singer here has plans and dreams.”
“I want to keep it in Albanian — a lot of parts — but I want to add some English too if it goes well.”
“I really want to make it a global song, for real, if there’s the opportunity. Why not?”
What do you think of Ronela’s song and performance? What secrets do you have to share? Let us know in the comments section down below.
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Honestly, I would like to see that. Albanian singing parts, English rousing choruses, it would be lit.
In most ex Yugoslav countries (Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro) the word “Sekret” means pre-menstrual secretion, so she should definitely at least change the name of a song to avoid being laughed at by all ex yu countries, if she end up representing Albania.
Oh my god. I saw all these articles about FIK and I thought I might try it out. I loved Secret. Probably the best new song I have heard in a while and the most surprised as I was not expecting it to be good.
nobody asked for your opinion
Instead of focusing on words she needs to emphasize on how to make this song polished cause even though it has potential, right now sounds messy af and confusing.
not every song has to be Scandinavian
lmao who told her that this song could have any commercial appeal, let alone international one… plus bilingual songs sound clunky and botched 99% of the time
well all the reception maybe?
the does well in Albania and the reception is good are you here on Wiwibloggs just to hate fan favorites?
Ronela and Alban are the outstanding FIK 60 performances. Ronela’s performance is for me a little bit “too much of everything” but I wouldn’t be sad if she or Alban would represent Albania in the next ESC. So far, so good.
Im going to say this she could do a little bit like maybe when she counts she can do it in English honestly I’m going to keep an open mind because there can be parts in English and still sound good it could be like Hurricane where they said that they wanted some English in the song and it had one line maybe it could be one verse
First, FdK looks very expensive. Congrats to them for having this high level of a production. I don’t feel the love for this like other people seem to do. Maybe I’m missing something. It feels like a messier Mata Hari. But they always seem to revamp between now and ESC. Also for everyone who is in love with this choreo and staging—the number of dancers on stage will need to decrease by about 75%. Personally, Elvana’s Me Tana was miles better than this.
No!!!!!! DON’T DO IT.
It’s always a big mistake. Me tana didn’t need a single word in english. And your best results in eurovision neither.
While this song definitely has staging potential and also the potential to be a great song, atm I’m apprehensive about it. The song feels a bit messy and that there are too many elements clashing with each other instead of complementing each other. I will say, I prefer the live performance over the studio version as I think the choreography really brings it together. I hope that if it wins FIK, it’ll not only be revamped for timing purposes but that it would also be revamped to make it more cohesive and melodic. Atm I like the idea of the… Read more »
I know that we should hear first before judge. Myself included, considering that in 2017, I prefer Lindita’s “World” (in English) than the original.
Also, I don’t really like “Sekret” yet, so this could be a game changer.
People will probably act like this is the end of the world, but the song is 3:34 minutes long and will need a considerable revamp anyway. Also fall from the sky was really good in 2020. I think definitely an improvement on shaj. Just like how people expect there to be more rock songs (altough i’m kinda sceptical about that) there is a chance we will hear more songs in native languages in 2022 and they won’t all succeed so it’s important that you get the vibe, message or emotion of your song through somehow and doing a chorus in… Read more »
the song has a bit too much instrumental, so they could, in one way or another, cut down some parts of it.
I agree that Sekret’s length alone necessitated a revamp, however Shaj/Fall From the Sky isn’t a good comparison. That song was clearly written in English to begin with (the songwriters weren’t Albanian) and Shaj was just translated in order for FiK. Moreover, it’s sound was quite international so it’s language wasn’t an issue.
Sekret, however, has a distinctively Albanian sound which could be impeded by subpar English lyrics.