Albania picks Alis for Eurovision 2026 as Festivali i Këngës crowns ‘Nân’

Albania has chosen its Eurovision 2026 entry, with Alis winning Festivali i Këngës and earning the ticket to Vienna with the song ‘Nân’.

After four nights at Tirana’s Palace of Congresses, the RTSH showcase delivered a final that was unusually clear-cut by national final standards. Alis topped both halves of the vote on the night, taking first place overall on a combined jury and public result.

The winning song, ‘Nân’, was written by Alis alongside Desara Gjini, and now becomes Albania’s official entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in Vienna.

A rare alignment at the top

One of the more striking details from the final results is just how neatly jury opinion and public taste lined up at the top of the scoreboard. Alis finished first with 152 points, made up of 68 from the jury and 84 from the public.

Behind him, Inis Neziri finished second with ‘Ta kam fal’, buoyed primarily by televote strength, while Sheila took third with ‘Zemra e Tokës’, doing particularly well with the jury.

This matters because Festivali i Këngës can sometimes produce messy, factional scoreboards, where juries and viewers appear to be watching entirely different programmes. This year’s ending, at least at the sharp end, suggested a clearer consensus about what Albania should send.

More broadly, Festivali i Këngës remains one of Europe’s longest-running televised music competitions, and it has served as Albania’s Eurovision selection route since the country debuted at Eurovision in 2004.

For Eurovision fans, the immediate question is what sort of three-minute package ‘Nân’ becomes by spring. Festivali songs are not always built to Eurovision’s exact rhythms, and Albania has a long tradition of evolving its entries between December and May.

But the basic proposition is now set: Albania is going to Vienna with a song that, at least on home turf, did the hard thing and pleased both the room and the phones.