ALBANIA

The Albanian Final was held on December 27th at the Palace of Congress in Tirana, hosted by Pandi Laço & Blerta Tafani. Before the final there were 2 semi-finals where the long list of 30 was reduced to a final of 22 which is much more than was originally planned. The winner was chosen by an "expert" jury. the winning act was Eneda Tarifa with the song "Përrallë" (Fairytale)

The song is a moody midtempo song with Bond ballad qualities. The guitar introduction sets the scene perfectly and the change back to it after the first chorus reminds us how far the song grows and develops thought the first cycle. The oh-oh-oh part in the middle is a nice interlude but sounded very odd as the singers voices either did not blend well OR some of them we're a little off in timing. The song does not have a lot of lyrics and contains a lot of extended notes. Although the song is in Albanian I find it quite easy to remember the tune and the patterns and rhythms of the lyrics. I just hop that future changes do not effect these rhythms too much

Eneda has a very exotic look to her. She looks more like she could be Greek or Hispanic rather than being Balkan. I feel her hairstyle and dress could be altered quite drastically to make me much more memorable and dramatic. She has a nice voice and one that really suite the song. My only concern would be that she needs to mind she does not push it too much as it almost sounds like her right on the breaking point.  She seems like a confident performer but does pull some odd faces when singing. She also tends to squint her eves and stretch her mouth and looks reminiscent of the old Smash aliens.

The song will be re-written into English although I suspect it will not keep the English translation of "Fairytale". As I stated before I hope they don't mess about too much with the melody and rhythm of the song but many things will have to change. The song is about 30 seconds too long there are a few parts that could be shortened or omitted or even sped up slightly so I don't see this too much of an issue. What might be in issue is getting that really symphonic sound from a live orchestra to the Eurovision stage. It needs that wall of sound to show the build up through the song cycle.
The song screams "Bond theme"and part of me wonders if they could be really cheeky (or just plain clever) and rewrite the song with the title "Spectre" ?

As there is nothing definite to compare it to, this is a tricky one to review. However I would say that this is quite a good song. After a few listens  it becomes very familiar and that can only quicken when translated into English - providing they keep to the same cadence and tune. This could be a really dramatic song if they get the backing correct. Could this win? Who knows - but this is definitely one I will be watching over the next few months to see how it changes.

ARTIST - Eneda Tarifa

SONG - Përrallë (Fairytale)

MUSIC - Olsa Toqi

LYRICS - Olsa Toqi