Begins at 7.35pm in the UK or 8.35pm in Albania and Central Europe

Programme scheduled to last 2 hours 55 minutes

 

L M A O

Seriously, the Albanian Radio Times must be a mess.

We have lift off on Eurovision.tv, let's see if they start anywhere near on time - has tended to be around 20 minutes late for the past couple of nights.

 

 

Where else would we get the opportunity to watch picturesque videos of Tirana with backing music from Céline Dion?

 

 

And we have begun only 25 minutes late *.* Let's see if we can finish before midnight!

 

^^ Deja vu indeed!

Power failure so we get more adverts instead? What a start! *.*

Voting split now confirmed at something way different to expected, jury voting will provide 12/13ths of the vote and the audience vote will provide the other 1/13th. Each juror will individually announce their points following the conclusion of the performances!

Currently in the top 2 of the scoreboard are the best song (Lindita) and the worst song (Genc), this could go very well or horribly wrong...

And I THINK Lindita has won!

Yes Lindita wins fairly comfortably in the end! :cheer:

 

Great start to the season yet again from Albania, every year it seems like there is a great song and a complete outsider in their top 2 but the good one always prevails (2013 aside).

 

I trust Lindita to do something good with this, it is already the perfect length so was made with Eurovision in mind. She's been living in the US (even made it to the top 50 in American Idol this year) so her English is pretty much perfect! And she's another Kosovan so nice recognition for them via Albania yet again.

 

The song is a mix of Diell (Elhaida's original) and Rise Like A Phoenix and with a bit of work should be a solid qualifier!

Final scores are below. That last set of points was the public vote.

 

I don't like how the last minute seems like one big long note however that can hopefully be changed in a revamp.

Studio version:

 

 

Lindita has confirmed that the song was originally written in English before being translated for FiK, and the song will be reverting back to the English original for Eurovision.

The revamp is finally being revealed tonight at 8pm CET.

can't frikkin wait cuz the last version of the song was a complete disaster

even though I used to like (almost) all the Albanian entries for, um, last 10 years maybe?

btw Olta Boka and Rona Nishliu slayed me back in the day ^_^

Yesssssss!! The video looks incredible, probably the best video this year. They've definitely avoided doing an Eneda, it's most certainly an improvement. Such a shame this presumably has no chance once it is shoved on like 3rd in semi 1, very good entry.

Yesssssss!! The video looks incredible, probably the best video this year. They've definitely avoided doing an Eneda, it's most certainly an improvement. Such a shame this presumably has no chance once it is shoved on like 3rd in semi 1, very good entry.

 

I actually think there's so few uptempos at the start of semi 1 there's a case you could make to have this as the opener to get things started with something that's a ballad but still pretty 'big'.

I agree, when we talked about it yesterday I was thinking Albania is the most "bombastic" sounding of the ballads in that it could be transformed into an epic opener. That said, I still think they'll go predictable with Montenegro (or Sweden if Christer has surprisingly little influence) but Albania would be the best choice I agree.

Lex Lex it's time for the 2017 version of this!!! http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=188276

 

And this!!! http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=188460

 

(We are not waiting ages for Gohar to finally unleash her masterpiece and we have a full semi anyway *.*)

all i hear is yelling. she ain't no rona, sorry

 

and LOL the video is TERRIBLE. are you HIGH (on eurovision) ryan? oops

Actually I really like the song. If I could pick a surprise qualifier it'd probably be this.