Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

participated in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2008 The Eurovision Song Contest 2008 was the 53rd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Belgrade, Serbia, following the country's victory at the with the song "Molitva" by Marija Šerifović. Organised by the European Broadcas ...

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

, Serbia, with the song "

Zemrën e lamë peng "Zemrën e lamë peng" (; ) is a song by Albanian singer Olta Boka, written by Pandi Laço and composed by Adrian Hila. It was released as a CD single in 2008 through Radio Televizioni Shqiptar (RTSH). Musically, it is an Albanian-language ball ...

" performed by

Olta Boka Olta Boka (born 13 September 1991) is an Albanian singer. She represented Albania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 with the song " Zemrën e lamë peng", after winning Festivali i Këngës 46. Career Olta Boka was born in Tirana. She starte ...

. Its selected entry was chosen through the national selection competition

Festivali i Këngës Festivali i Këngës (; ), also referred to as simply FiK, is an annual music competition in Albania organised by the national broadcaster Radio Televizioni Shqiptar (RTSH). Broadcast every year since its inauguration in 1962, it has also determ ...

organised by

Radio Televizioni Shqiptar Radio Televizioni Shqiptar (; en, "Albanian Radio and Television"; mostly called RTSH ) is an Albanian public broadcasting radio and television company. Founded in 1938, it operates several radio and television channels, over a domestic transmi ...

(RTSH) in December 2007. To this point, the nation had participated in the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

four times since its first entry in . Due to the introduction of two semi-finals, Albania was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the contest, which took place on 22 May 2008. Performing as number six, the nation was announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the

grand final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...

. In the final on 24 May 2008, it performed as number three and placed 17th out of the 25 participating countries, scoring 55 points.

Background

Prior to the 2008 contest, Albania had participated in the

four times since its first entry in . The nation's highest placing in the contest, to this point, had been the seventh place, which it achieved in 2004 with the song "

The Image of You "The Image of You" is a song by Albanian singer Anjeza Shahini. The song was composed by Edmond Zhulali and written by Agim Doçi. Radio Televizioni Shqiptar (RTSH) released it as a CD single in 2004. A rhythmic English-language electropop b ...

" performed by

Anjeza Shahini Anjeza Shahini (born 4 May 1987) is an Albanian singer. She is best known for representing Albania at 2004 Eurovision Song Contest in Istanbul, after winning the 42nd edition of Festivali i Këngës. Career 2003–2009 Anjez ...

. Albania's national broadcaster,

(RTSH), has organised

since its inauguration in 1962. Since 2003, the winner of the competition has simultaneously won the right to represent Albania in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Before Eurovision

Festivali i Këngës

RTSH organised the 46th edition of Festivali i Këngës to determine Albania's representative for the

. The competition consisted of two semi-finals on 14 and 15 December, respectively, and the grand final on 16 December 2007. The three live shows were hosted by Albanian singer

Elsa Lila Elsa Lila (; born 4 July 1981) is an Albanian singer. Life and career Elsa Lila was born on 4 July 1981 in Tirana, Albania. Her father was a singer of the former Albanian state choir, while her mother was a violinist, so both of her parents r ...

and composer

Pirro Çako Pirro Çako is an Albanian singer and composer. In 1988, he won the Festivali i Këngës as a composer with the song ''E duam lumturinë'' ( en, We love happiness). The song was interpreted by Parashqevi Simaku. He has issued two albums: ''Her� ...

Competing entries

Shows

= Semi-finals

= The semi-finals of Festivali i Këngës took place on 14 December and 15 December 2007, respectively. The first semi-final featured a guest performance from Albanian

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Elita 5 Elita 5 is an Albanian rock band formed in Tetovë in 1988. The group consisted of vocalist Arif Ziberi, guitarist Mevaip Mustafi, drummer Besim Ibraimi, bass player Agron Idrizi and keyboardist Nexhat Mujovi. With a heavy rock sound and Albanian ...

. 15 contestants participated in the first semi-final and 14 in the second, with the highlighted ones progressing to the grand final.

= Final

= The grand final of Festivali i Këngës took place on 16 December 2007. The winner was determined by the combination of the votes from a seven-member jury, consisting of Agim Krajka, David Tukiqi, Gjergj Leka, Gjergj Xhuvani, Rudina Magjistari, Baton Haxhia and Alban Skenderi. Guest performances were featured from Italian

a cappella ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...

group

Neri per Caso Neri per Caso are an Italian a cappella musical group. Career The group formed in Salerno as Crecason in 1991 and consisted of six elements: Diego and Ciro Caravano (brothers), their cousins Mimì and Gonzalo Caravano (also brothers), Mario Cres ...

and Swedish musical group

Rednex Rednex is a Swedish musical group whose style is a mix of American country music and modern Eurodance, with their appearance and stage names taking inspiration from the American redneck stereotypes. The band originally consisted of the lead sin ...

emerged as the winner with "

" and was simultaneously announced as Albania's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2008.

At Eurovision

The Eurovision Song Contest 2008 took place at the

Belgrade Arena Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 mill ...

, Serbia and consisted of two semi-finals held on 20 and 22 May, respectively, and the

on 24 May 2008. According to the Eurovision rules, all participating countries, except the host nation and the " Big Four", consisting of , , and the , were required to qualify from one of the two semi-finals to compete for the grand final, although the top 10 countries from the respective semi-final progress to the grand final of the contest. With the introduction of two semi-finals for the Eurovision Song Contest, Albania was required to compete in one of the two. On 28 January 2008, a special allocation draw was held that placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, with Albania being placed into the

second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...

, to be held on 22 May. Once all the competing songs for the 2008 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the delegation heads of the 43 participating countries of the contest rather than through another draw; the nation was set to perform at position 6, following and preceding . In the grand final, it was announced that Albania would be performing third, following the and preceding .

Voting

The tables below visualise a breakdown of points awarded to Albania in the second semi-final and grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2008, as well as by the nation on both occasions. In the semi-final, the nation finished in ninth place with a total of 67 points, including 12 from and 10 from both and . In the grand final, Albania finished in 17th place, being awarded a total of 55 points, including 12 awarded from Macedonia and 10 from . The nation awarded its 12 points to in the semi-final, and to Greece in the final of the contest.

Points awarded to Albania

Points awarded by Albania

References

{{Festivali i Këngës

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...