December 21st was supposed to be the longest night of the year, but believe you me, you’ve not sat through anything yet.
Tonight, RTSH will set out to prove they have NOTHING on mother nature with a near four-hour show to showcase the 14 songs that qualified from two semi-finals. All this followed by an aftershow lasting another 75 minutes!
The 56th Festivali i Këngës was held at the Palace of Congresses in Tirana, with the semi-finals taking place on December 21st and 22nd before tonight’s final. Twenty-two songs entered the competition, with seven qualifiers from each semi-final making up the 14-song final.
[table id=424 /]There is going to be a lot of talking and “entertainment” going on this evening … so much so that the world tiddlywinks championships sounds a more exciting viewing spectacle, but as we are a hardy Eurovision-loving race, I’m sure someone will be watching.
Clearly the jury of five professionals will be, because they are going to decide which song is going to get a make-over before the Eurovision Song Contest in May next year.
Stand down, everyone, this is just a warm-up!
What happened next?
Retrospectively, the five-member professional jury chose Eugent Bushpepa and his song “Mall” as the winner. Bushpepa wrote both the music and lyrics, and went on to represent Albania at Eurovision 2018 in Lisbon. He performed “Mall” in Albanian, so the anticipated Eurovision “make-over” did not mean that the song had to be changed into English.
