It seems that the Albanian song will be the once more the first one to be made known as the country's final has been set as early as the 21st December. Popular Albanian names and Eurostars are tipped to return to the Festivali i Kenges this year, among them Anjeza Shahini, Olta Boka and Elsa Lila.
As it was confirmed to the Albanian media by Pirro Cako, the artistic director of Festivali I Kėnges, the festival whose winner traditionally represents the country in the Eurovision Song Contest, will take place on19 (first semi), 20 (second semi)and21 December (final). The deadline for the submission of the songs was 18 October.
The festival organisers together with the Albanian broadcaster are exploring new possibilities regarding this year's format but nothing has been finalised yet. It is quite possible that we may be seeing many familiar names competing such as the country's first entrant ever, Anjeza Shahini, who claimed she was contacted by many composers and said she would enter the competition if offered a good song. Olta Boka, who represented Albania this year in Belgrade, confirmed to Panorama earlier that she is competing once more with a song by the same creators of Zemrën e lamë peng, which placed 16th. Olta is currently working on her first album. Finally, Elsa Lila, who has already won the festival twice and hosted it last year together with Pirro Cako is also tipped to be making a comeback after 11 years.
With very special thanks to Totti Alba for the report.
