ALBANIA

The Albanian Final was held on December 28th at the Palace of Congress in Tirana, hosted by Klea Huta & Enkel Demi. There were also2 shows on December 26th & 27th where the 16 songs were presented. The winner, chosen by an "expert" jury was Herciana Matmuja with "Zemërimi i një nate" (One night's anger)

I have come to expect from Festivali i Këngës a evening full of rock influenced songs which go on far too long. Strangely enough this isn't really one of them! It does need a fair bit of tweaking but possibly not in the ways that "Identitet" or "Suus" were previously, However I write all of this with a heavy heart as the wrong song ended up winning. (Me Ty... was a far better song)

Herciana is a fantastic singer and has lovely, pure voice. Before she sang in the FiK final she was greeted by a very long applause by the appreciative and knowing audience. She delivers the song (in the local lingo) with a lot of feeling and gusto. She performed it twice on the night and seemed to perform it perfectly both times. The start of the song is very odd. A guitar-violin laden storm of frenzy before the lyrical piano kicks is. I suppose it would be a start to get the eyes and ears watching but would probably disappoint people when the real tune begins. Although the title of the song seems quite negative, Herciana can look a bit too happy at time, unless of course the title is a bit of a misnomer. She has a style reminiscent of Nadine Beiler with the sharp black bob hairstyle and flattering black dress.

As with many FiK entries there staging is very simple, focusing on the singer, however she fully uses the backing singers, who are tucked away in the orchestra, so they will need to be on stage. I think that her looked really comfortable on stage and could possibly take a little bit of direction (choreography would be to strong a word). I could imagine her doing something akin to 'the man in Farid's box' routine

The song is an interesting choice and many choices need to be made before it goes to Copenhagen.

1) Will they get rid of the superfluous 20 second rock introduction? Or leave that in and get rid of something else? (The song currently is about 3.25)

2) Will it stay in Albanian or go to English? Will it be a bit of both or will they translate it into something different (i.e. Italian)

3) If they do keep it in a non-English tongue, how will the stage reflect the meaning of the song? Will dancers be needed?

I feel that in the Celtic-clad '90 this could have been a sure fire hit. Although the song is rhythmically interesting and technically challenging I'm not sure that it would be appreciated by the televoters at home. There are too many tunes and rhythms to remember and it takes far too many listens to get into it (I've listened to it at least 5 times and still cannot sing the chorus tune) Here's to an interesting makeover!

Artist - Herciana Matmuja
Song - Zemërimi i një nate (One night's anger)
Music - Genti Lao
Lyrics - Jorgo Papingji