ALBANIA

The Albanian Final was held on December 22nd at the Palace of Congress in Tirana, hosted by Enkel Demi and Floriana Garo. Before the final there were 2 semi-finals and the eventual winner was chosen by an "expert" jury. The winner of the Festivali i Këngës 51 was the duet of Adrian Lulgjuraj & Bledar Sejko with the song "Identitet" meaning Identity. 

This song has an ethic edge to it  but also maintains a rock edge and a lot of the song is lead with strong drums and guitar. Here was me thinking that Belgium was the only country that still liked Simple Minds - it looks like Albania does too. However this is Simple Minds if they had been re-fronted by an middle aged Adam Lambert. The two singers have that kind of gravelly retching tone to their voice which seems to be popular in Eastern European circles but I am not sure if this will be enough to be reprieved into the final.

The song, as many Albanian entries are, are well over 3 minutes long. This is a shame as the introduction to this song (which lasts almost a minute) is the best part of the song and will probably get cut to pieces before it gets to Malmo. However the pointless dad-dancing guitar solo is the bit that really needs to be cut. Unlike many Albanian entries I would say that being translated or re-written into English would be a good thing. It does has a strong repetitive tune and having English lyrics would help the song's catchiness no end.

Needless to say this is no Suus. In many ways this is the furthest they could probably get from it. As it is, there is very little chance of this song getting to the final but with some clever tweaking it could actually be a good song.

Artist - Adrian Lulgjuraj & Bledar Sejko
Song - Identitet (Identity)
Music - Bledar Sejko
Lyrics - Bledar Sejko