ALBANIA 2022

The Albanian Final was held on December 29th at the Palace of Congress in Tirana, hosted by Jonida Maliqi, Isli Islami, Xhemi Shehu & Kelvi Kadilli. Before the final of Festivali i Këngës there was a semi-final where 3 of the newcomers were selected to continue on in the competition. The winner, chosen by a jury, was Ronela Hajati with the song "Sekret" (Secret)

Ronela has been an active performer, entering singing and dancing competitions, since she was a child. She scored her first charting single in 2016 and has been almost ever present in the charts since then. As well as a performer she has penned many of her own songs and has written for last year's Albanian representative Anxela Peristeri. Ronela's music is generally in the pop genre but her singing and performance style is extremely varied with influences of R'n'B, Latin, Balkan music and even reggae. 

The song starts with what turns out to be a slower and elaborate choral interpretation of the chorus tagline which is then repeated by the backing singers. After 30 seconds the ethnic bassy rhythms come out and the song starts proper. The monotone verse is followed by the melodic chorus which breaks down to a chanted part with a lengthy instrumental and accompanying dance routine. There is then another verse (but bares little or no relation to the first) followed by another chorus and outro dance routine. The song ends with another earwormy outro to the end. This performance is about attitude and feeling more than tune and melody.

Let's get some elephants out of the room straight way. Firstly the song is about 35 seconds over the Eurovision time limit although this is not unknown for competing FiK or Sanremo entries. But as many good songs have been butchered by bad editing as the amount that have been dealt with sympathetically. The edit may be tricky as the song needs to keep its repetition but also leave the instrumental breaks as not to lessen the dance sections. Secondly, the choir of backing vocalists and live orchestra gives the performance a real live feeling and, when the re-recorded version is made, it will be interesting to see if the same kind of magic can be conjured up. Finally, there are way more than 6 people on the stage. The delegation may decide to pare down this staging and keep the overall aesthetic - possibly utilising any LED screens - or they may start again from scratch. 
With all this to take into account it is rather hard to say how this will go down. However, this was the hot fan favourite before the show began and it is easy to see why. Ronela's voice is shown off perfectly using every single part of her diverse range. The repetitive rhythm and lyrics, albeit mostly in Albanian, is very catchy and even the odd English line did not sound out of place. The on pointe dance routine is striking and copyable. The identical black outfits for the dancers makes them a cohesive unit with Ronela as their captain. My main worry is that the song does feel like a collection of parts and the lack of an extra chorus - or even another verse - at the very end of the song might lessen the impact made at the very start.

ARTIST - Ronela Hajati
SONG - Sekret (Secret)
WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Ronela Hajati, Marko Polo