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 ...

was scheduled to participate in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2020 The Eurovision Song Contest 2020 was planned to be the 65th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It would have taken place in Rotterdam, Netherlands, following the country's victory at the with the song "Arcade" by Duncan Laurence. The con ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

, the Netherlands, with the song " Fall from the Sky" performed by

Arilena Ara Arilena Ara (; born 17 July 1998) is an Albanian singer and television presenter. Ara rose to national recognition in Albania, upon her victory at X Factor Albania in 2013. After her participation in the 18th edition of the music contest , her ...

. Its selected entry was chosen through the national selection competition organised by (RTSH) in December 2019. 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 ...

sixteen times since its first entry in . In March 2020, the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who ar ...

(EBU) announced the contest's cancellation due to the

pandemic A pandemic () is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. A widespread endemic (epidemiology), endemic disease wi ...

of the

coronavirus disease 2019 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

(COVID-19) and its rapid spread across

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

Background

Prior to the 2020 contest, Albania had participated in the

sixteen times since its first entry in . The country's highest placing in the contest, to this point, had been the fifth place, which it achieved in with the song "" performed by

Rona Nishliu Rona Nishliu (born 25 August 1986) is a Kosovo-Albanian singer and songwriter. She came to international prominence after representing Albania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan, where she placed fifth and achieved the best ...

. The first entry was 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 ...

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 ...

" and finished in the seventh place, Albania's second-highest placing to date. During its tenure in the contest, Albania failed to qualify for the final seven times, with both the and entries being the most recent non-qualifiers. Since the 2018 contest, Albania qualified for the grand final in both the and contest, with

Eugent Bushpepa Eugent Bushpepa (; born 2 July 1984), also known by his alternative name Gent Bushpepa, is an Albanian singer, songwriter and composer. Regarded as one of the most popular modern rock musicians in the Albanian-speaking world, he is noted for hi ...

finishing in eleventh place with "" and

Jonida Maliqi Jonida Maliqi (; born 26 March 1983) is an Albanian singer and media personality. Throughout her career, Maliqi has won six awards at Kënga Magjike and first place in 2008. She is also a double winner of accolades at the Top Fest in 2006 and ...

placing in seventeenth place with "". In July 2019, the national broadcaster of Albania, (RTSH), officially confirmed Albania's participation in the

, the Netherlands. RTSH broadcasts the contest within Albania and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. Since its debut in 2004, it has consistently selected its entry through the long-standing competition .

Before Eurovision

Festivali i Këngës

(RTSH) organised the 58th edition of in order to select the nation's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020. The competition consisted of two semi-finals on 19 and 20 December, respectively, and the grand final on 22 December 2019. From May 2019 to September 2019, artists were able to submit their entries to the broadcaster. An artistic committee reviewed the received submissions and chose 20 artists and songs shortlisted to compete in the semi-finals of .

Contestants

Shows

= Semi-finals

= The semi-finals of took place on 19 December and 20 December 2020 and were broadcast live at 21:00 (

CET CET or cet may refer to: Places * Cet, Albania * Cet, standard astronomical abbreviation for the constellation Cetus * Colchester Town railway station (National Rail code CET), in Colchester, England Arts, entertainment, and media * Comcast En ...

) on the respective dates. Ten songs competed in each semi-final with five entries in the first and seven in the second semi-final qualifying for the final. The qualifying songs were selected by a jury panel consisting of two national and three international members with connections to the Eurovision Song Contest. The jury panel was composed of

Christer Björkman Christer Samuel Björkman (; born 25 August 1957) is a Swedish singer and television producer. He represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 1992 with the song "I morgon är en annan dag". From 2002 to 2021, he served as a producer of Me ...

Dimitris Kontopoulos Dimitris Kontopoulos (Greek: Δημήτρης Κοντόπουλος born November 9, 1971, in Athens, Greece) is a Greek music composer. Personal life Dimitris Kontopoulos was born in Athens, Greece on November 9, 1971. After graduating from the ...

, Felix Bergsson, Mikaela Minga and Rita Petro. The first semi-final was opened by the country's Eurovision Song Contest 2019 representative

performing her song "". The interval act included

Mahmood Mahmud is a transliteration of the male Arabic given name (), common in most parts of the Islamic world. It comes from the Arabic triconsonantal root Ḥ-M-D, meaning ''praise'', along with ''Muhammad''. Siam Mahmud *Mahmood (singer) (born 19 ...

performing his songs "" and "". The interval act in the second semi-final featured Agim Krajka and Lindita Theodhori with the song "". After the semi-finals, the votes of an expert jury panel selected twelve songs to advance to the grand final.

= Final

= The grand final of took place on 22 December 2019 and was broadcast live at 21:00 (CET). The final featured guest performances by

Eleni Foureira Eleni Foureira ( el, Ελένη Φουρέιρα; born Entela Fureraj; 7 March 1987) is a naturalised Greek, Albanian singer and dancer. She began her music career in 2007 as a member of the Greek girl group Mystique, pursuing a solo career after ...

and

Giusy Ferreri Giusy Ferreri (; born Giuseppa Gaetana Ferreri on 17 April 1979) is an Italian singer and songwriter. In 2008, she took part at the first Italian edition of the talent show X Factor, coming in second place. She topped the Italian Singles Chart ...

. Twelve songs competed and the winner was determined by the combination of the votes from a five-member jury panel. Each member of the jury voted by assigning scores from 1–10, 13 and 18 points to their preferred songs. Before the end of the show,

emerged as the winner with "" and was simultaneously announced as Albania's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020.

Promotion

An accompanying

lyric video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

for " Fall from the Sky" premiered on the official

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel of the

on 10 March 2019. For further promotion, Arilena was scheduled to embark on a small tour with live performances at various Eurovision Song Contest-related events, including in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, before the tour was cancelled due to the

of the

(COVID-19). The first live performance of the song was broadcast during Arilena's ''Sounds of Silence'' concert at the Mother Teresa Square in

Tirana Tirana ( , ; aln, Tirona) is the capital and largest city of Albania. It is located in the centre of the country, enclosed by mountains and hills with Dajti rising to the east and a slight valley to the northwest overlooking the Adriatic Sea ...

on 2 May 2020 as well as the

's ''

Eurovision Home Concerts The Eurovision Song Contest 2020 was planned to be the 65th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It would have taken place in Rotterdam, Netherlands, following the country's victory at the with the song "Arcade (song), Arcade" by Duncan La ...

'' series on 8 May 2020.

At Eurovision

The Eurovision Song Contest 2020 was initially scheduled to take place at

Rotterdam Ahoy Rotterdam Ahoy (formerly known as Ahoy Rotterdam or simply as Ahoy) is a convention centre and multi-purpose indoor arena located in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Opened originally in 1950, the current complex consists of three main venues: a fairs an ...

, Netherlands, and consist of two semi-finals on 12 and 14 May, and the grand final on 16 May 2020. According to the Eurovision rules, each participating country, except the host country and the " Big Five", consisting of , , , and the , would have been required to qualify from one of two semi-finals to compete for the final, although the top 10 countries from the respective semi-final would have progressed to the grand final. In January, it was announced that Albania would be performing in the second half of the second semi-final of the contest. However, in March, the

(EBU) announced the contest's cancellation due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Europe The global COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Europe with its first confirmed case in Bordeaux, France, on 24 January 2020, and subsequently spread widely across the continent. By 17 March 2020, every country in Europe had confirmed a case, and all ...

. With respect to Arilena and her entry " Fall from the Sky" participating in the 2021 contest, the EBU announced soon after that entries intended for 2020 would not be eligible for the following year, though each broadcaster would be able to send either their 2020 representative or a new one. By September 2020, RTSH announced that they planned to instead host the next edition of to choose their 2021 entry.

Alternative song contests

The broadcasters who were planned to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 organised alternative music competitions. Amongst them, Austrian broadcaster,

ORF ORF or Orf may refer to: * Norfolk International Airport, IATA airport code ORF * Observer Research Foundation, an Indian research institute * One Race Films, a film production company founded by Vin Diesel * Open reading frame, a portion of the ...

, organised in April 2020, which saw every entry being assigned to one of three semi-finals. A jury, consisting of ten members that had represented at the contest before, was hired to rank each song, with the highest-placed in each semi-final advancing to the final round. In the third semi-final on 18 April, Albania placed fourth in a field of thirteen participants, achieving a total of 62 points. Swedish broadcaster,

Sveriges Television Sveriges Television AB ("Sweden's Television Stock Company"), shortened to SVT (), is the Sweden, Swedish national public broadcasting, public television broadcaster, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksdag (national ...

, additionally organised , in which Albania was scheduled to participate on 9 May 2020.

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 2020

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020

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 ...