The Albanian national final for the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest was held tonight. 20 acts competed and the jury chose Juliana Pasha with the Nuk mundem pa ty as the winner of the 48th edition of the Festivali i kenges.

The song Nuk mundem pa ty was composed by Ardit Gjebrea, who also wrote the lyrics along with Pirro Çako. Juliana Pasha's had previously competed twice in the Albanian national selection and her results can be seen as following a pattern as she finished third two years ago with Qielli i ri and she came second last year with Një jetë, performed as a duet with Luiz Ejlli. Juliana Pasha will most likely perform a new version of the song in Oslo. All of Albania's entries so far were reworked after the national final. The lyrics might be kept in Albanian (as it happened in 2006 and 2008), they might be changed to English (as it happened in 2004, 2005 and 2009) or the singer could perform a multilingual version (as it happened in 2007).

The complete results were as follows:

1. Juliana Pasha – Nuk mundem pa ty (133 points)
   
2. Anjeza Shahini – Në pasqyrë (118 points)
   
3. Kamela Islami – Gjëra të thjeshta (116 points)
4. Pirro Çako – Një tjetër jetë (106 points)
5. Flaka Krelani – Lë të bëhet çfare te doje (99 points)
6. Bojken Lako & Banda Adriatica – Love love love (98 points)
7. Denisa Macaj – Aria (92 points)
8. Dorina Garuci – Sekreti i dashurisë (78 points)
9. Mariza Ikonomi – La, la, la (76 points)
10. Rovena Dilo – Përtej kohës (69 points)
11. Iris Hoxha – Zërin tim ta ndjesh (67 points)
12. Erga Halilaj – Party (66 points)
13. Erti Hizmo & Lindita Halimi – Nuk të dorezohem (66 points)
14. Goldi Halili – Tirana Brodway (64 points)
15. Kejsi Tola – Ndonjëherë (58 points)
16. Stefi & Endrri Prifti – U dogjem mrekullisht (45 points)
17. Guximtar Rushani – Gëzuar (43 points)
18. Era Rusi – Fjalë dhe gjunjë (41 points)
19. Teuta Kurti – Mall i pashuar (19 points)
20. Claudio La Regina – Ave Maria (17 points)
    

esctoday.com poll results

The esctoday.com poll voters only partly agreed with the results in the national final. Juliana Pasha had finished equal fourth in the poll with 7.7% of the votes. Anjeza Shahini, who won the poll by a landslide (34.6%) finished second on the night. Karmela Islami finished sixth in the poll and third in the national final. Remarkably, PirroÇako finished fourth in the national final but was one of only two acts not to get a single vote in the poll. The two acts who finished second and third in the poll, Denisa Macaj and Kejsi Tola, only reached seventh and 15th place in the national final respectively.

In 2009, Albania was represented by Kejsi Tola, who finished seventh in the second semi final and 17th in the final with her song Carry me in your dreams.

esctoday.com National Final Awards 2010

The 2010 esctoday.com National Final Awards will be held next year between April and May, which means between the national final season and the Eurovision Song Contest. We will repeat the same format with two rounds for nominations which was used this year – you can read how it works here. However, this time the individual polls for each country will always be held right after the national final, when the entries are still fresh. You can vote for your favourite performance not to qualify here and for your favourite song not to qualify here.

The winning performance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLIGrfK9Ndg