Mirëmbrëma, Evropë and hello Europe! Tonight 17 acts will sing in the final of Festivali i Këngës 60 in Albania. But only one will survive the night to slay another day at the Eurovision Song Contest in Turin.
Tonight four of our bloggers are backstage inside the Pallati i Kongreseve in Tirana. Diego from Colombia, Erdi from Kosovo, William from the United Kingdom and You from China will be commenting all evening and will bring artists to our room after their performances to get the tea.
There are some big surprises tonight — and we know that a few artists will be singing versions of their song with English lyrics. Will that impact the feeling and the results? We’re going to find out together.
Also: Get ready for the hosts to sing their favourite FiK songs of all time a little later in the show. And expect to see a few former FiK winners singing past Eurovision winners!
Festivali i Këngës 60 Livestream
FiK 60: Final Running Order
1. Olimpia Smajlaj
2. Denis Skura
3. Kelly
4. Sajmir Çili
5. Ester Zahiri
6. Kastro Zizo
7. Urban Band
8. Gjergj Kaçinari
9. Evi Reçi
10. Mirud
11. Endri and Stefi
12. Ronela Hajati
13. Shega
14. Janex
15. Alban Ramosaj
16. Eldis Arrnjeti
17. Rezarta Smaja
FiK 60: Who should win in Albania?
New show, new poll. We will open the voting lines as soon as the first performance starts.
Ronela doesn’t make even the Finals in Turin
*Thank you artists that hold this mess together. RTSH is such a terrible broadcaster, literally ages behind. You could hear Jonida’s mic popping during the WHOLE show and no one even bothered to come and fix it for her. RTSH is cringe, I rest my case.
Getting downvoted for pointing out a technically terrible show lmao
I don’t blame the artists. They were great.
It was a great top four! First year that the jurors didn’t put something random in the podium positions. Maybe they’re taking it a bit more seriously? :3
That’s what happens when they finally allow younger jury to be the majority, and not some old wrinkly men.
Was kind of worried they were going to sneak in Kastro lol jk
I hate how they now announce the winner since 2017 without any scoreboard and juries votes. Killing any suspens and eventually drama during points awarded.
YESSSS RONELAAAAAAA
It’s Ronela!
Apparently, Eldis and Rezarta tied on third place and it’s Alban x Ronela bow.
And Ronela won!
Wow, a bop won in Albania… Now let’s see how they fare. It will be a nice experiment.
To be fair, all top 4 had good songs, and were deserving of the trophy.
I hope that Ester and Mirud had a decent finish.
It has potential. Let’s hope their delegation make the right moves with the cards they had in hands. This year, for example, they did the best that was possible for “Karma”.
Yeah, last year it was the same 😀
What disappoints me, that with Eurovision everything gets more and more predictable. I always hope that somthing surprising can happen, but it doesn’t really 🙁
My first place finished 3rd (Eldis), but all top 4 are among top 7 of songs I found deserving of winning.
I understand that. 🙂 Overall, I am still glad that they recognized the most striking packages of the group. These songs actually grew on me a bit in the last couple of days, especially Eldis’.
As for Sekret, it’s a pretty solid ethno-bop with a charismatic performer, so nobody can say that Albania only sends ballads now. It will be a change of pace.
Like Colin commented before, I think we had a bunch of entries with different qualities. Nobody got even close to check all the boxes to me, so I’m fine with the result. But to echo a common cliché surrounding Albanian entries, this time they REALLY need a revamp, this song is messy the way it is right now.
I agree. Theje, Hijena, and Me jemja nuse wouldn’t need a revamp. Refuzoj would only need shorter verses to fit the time, but chorus could have stayed intact. However, Sekret needs a revamp to polish the breaks, to tie it all together. That said, the ceiling of this entry is pretty high (Mata Hari / maybe even Fuego), and Eurofans LOVE this kind of music. I *like* it myself, but I can see that Albania has (for once) catered the fandom, and I’m not against it. 🙂
I just hope this doesn’t become one of the bops the fandom abandons down the road when they find something shinier. But let’s see how the revamp will play out.
The issue with Albania is that while they are usually the first ones to pick (or third in this case, which is still pretty early), they wait *a long time* to actually release a revamp, so during the majority of time in which fans have ”my top lists”, they don’t completely know how Albanian entry would sound like. I mean, some revamps are minuscule, like Khteju tokes, but the others can be drastic. I have no idea what to expect of Sekret once it reaches its final form. It’s a – sekret for now, I guess. 🙂
That’s true. With “Shaj” for example, we knew right away the song would substantially change, so I even stopped ranking it during polls here. For example: right now, I prefer “Lights Off”. But I have no idea if this will change when Albania releases their revamp.
I miss some balance. At times, it feels like she’s talking more than she should. At other times, it feels like we have too much of the ethnic beat (those you love :P) going on. Better transitions would help a lot already.
Top 4 are Alban, Ronela, Eldis, Rezarta
All the songs unfortunately seem to have the Eurovision objective and have lost the soul and spirit of the Festival and of its tradition. Very dissapointed after long time that I have not followed , hoped as it was the 60th edition would be a bit better.
William is just announcing the results of our votes here.
I am seriously more and more impressed by her! I’m even becoming a fan of E jemja nuse! 🙂
She shouldn’t, if we are being totally objective.
And she placed third!
Objectively, this should be very open. Eldis, Ronela, Ester, Alban, Mirud, Rezarta, and Gjergj all have good reasons to win this, depending on which element one values the most. I’ll even throw Kastro’s name in, even if I’m not crazy about the song itself. If only Albanian judges didn’t include “seniority / popularity” as a factor.
I have voted for Kastro and Rezarta. I could also have voted for 3 other songs, but you need to make up your mind.
Ester has my favorite song, Eldis my favorite vocals, Rezarta my favorite performance and Ronela my favorite package for Eurovision. I won’t riot if Alban wins, because his song is better on the studio version, but he would need to be more convincing in Turin, because he would depend on some jury appreciation to qualify.
In the interview with William Evi said after she was asked that she likes Ester’s song the most, she also knows the composer well.
Hopefully the composer has more in their bag for both of them.
I think that Eldis and Ester are my personal winners after all. However, among two big favorites, both are good, but I’d give a slight advantage to Ronela now. However, Theje is also a good song, so I’d be glad for either.
Vote for Rezarta now ;D
Rezarta rocks! Great stage presence and voice.
Kastro zizo is a very god singer and it looks crazy how the people doesn’t vote him. I hope is not only the friends vote that is in this blog. Shpresoj që shqiptarët të mos votojnë shokët e tyre por me te mirin. Drejtësia fitofte. Un provova të votojë disa her per te par se si funksiononte sistemi dhe pash qe numrat rriten shpresoj të mos votojnë 1 person me 100 her.
Eldis is better than Alban, for sure he sings better.
Eldis is another newcomer that I want to see many more times in FiK. And Rezarta closed the night with a bang, great performance.
An 18-year-old probably gave the best vocal performance thus far. But now – Rezarta!
… and she delivers an 11/10 vocals!!!
Its now between Robela and Alban. Alban improved his vocals and Robela changed some lyrics to English that were a little strange to me but im so excited to see the results, its so tight and the winner can be anyone at this point
Well, correct me if I’m wrong, however I feel like Ronela still got the biggest applause. And with that said, Ronela is gonna probably snatch the crown
Why the hell is Alban’s music louder than his voice?! Hm what are they covering ?
Alban’s delivery was around what it was two days ago – very good, but a bit overdone. If he wins, the factors of song and staging are probably also as important.
It was better than his Monday performance, but I agree that he’s overdoing it.
Alban’s vocals are not perfect, but the improvement is undeniable. I think he still has the chance of winning.
Alban deserves to win absolutely best vocal performance
Ronela winner
Alban deserves it….
Well, that was some crowd reaction!
No doubt about it now. If Alban wants to win this, he *needs* to sing better than he has been.
Ester did, so Alban might also. It’s gonna be tighter between him and Ronela than I previously though.
On the other hand, Shega’s back vocals are seriously offkey now. 🙁
Her song doesn’t demand much from her vocals though.
Ronela has a doublechin <3
I like the bilingual version of Sekret. So do the audiences. Do we have a winner?
Ronela slayed so hard. The English lyrics sound a bit strange to me after getting used to the Albanian chorus, but that was a winning performance in my opinion
Well, she did what she had to do. Perfect delivery, the venue is clearly on her corner. Tons of pressure on Alban and the jurors now.
The problem with FiK jurors being so conservative is that from time to time somebody tries something different, doesn’t get a result and then returns with a conventional entry that wastes their talents. It happened to Orgesa last year, this time was Evi. Both on my wishlist for the future.
Both on my list as well!
I still listen to “Ngrije Zërin” from time to time.
Gjergj is my winner since the first night, and English version was on fire! I would have loved even more a English/Albanian version, but he was perfect. Hope either he or Rezarta win. Man i love FiK.
Scared asf from the last song
Ester already looked much more confident tonight. Hope to see her more times in FiK.
Yeah, she did very well today. 🙂
I believe that Gjergj Kaçinari just made history by being the first peron to sing in English at FiK!
Who will follow? Rumors say Ronela and Janex. Who else?
Would Ronela sing the whole song in English or just some parts like she mentioned in her Wiwi interview?
No idea yet… I’m hoping for a multilingual version.
Well, Ronela said she would add English for Eurovision and I remember reading Janex lives in the US. So both are good bets.
Whoever allowed english in FIK this year should be fired ASAP.
I understand the criticism, but would you rather have additional translations? At least now you know which song you’re actually getting…
Who wantsss to see opera in Eurosong this yearrr
Can I just say how great the stage looks this year!
Ot: I wanted to ask the wiwibloggs staff if they will be in Sanremo in person this year, given that this year Eurovision will be in Italy. thx