"Hear My Plea" is a song by Albanian singer and songwriter

Frederik Ndoci Frederik Ndoci is an Albanian singer, songwriter, poet, writer, actor and international Recording artist. He also represented his country at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, with the song "Hear My Plea". Eurovision Song Contest Before winning ...

. It was issued as part of a CD compilation on 20 April 2007 by

CMC Records CMC International was an American independent record label founded by Bill Cain and Tom Lipsky in 1991, focused mainly on classic rock, and classic heavy metal. The label was the haven of many hard rock, arena rock, thrash metal, glam metal, and ...

. The

English-language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

song was written by

Pandi Laço Pandi Laço (born 21 March 1964 in Korçë) is an Albanian journalist, songwriter, presenter and scenarist. He is mostly known for his work on Albanian Eurovision songs, of which he wrote several. Pandi has worked with notable Albanian artists inc ...

and composed by Adrian Hila. "Hear My Plea" represented in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2007 The Eurovision Song Contest 2007 was the 52nd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Helsinki, Finland, following the country's victory at the with the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" by Lordi. Organised by the European Broadcasti ...

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

, Finland, after Ndoci won the pre-selection competition,

Festivali i Këngës 45 Albania participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 in Helsinki, Finland, with the song "Hear My Plea" performed by Frederik Ndoci and Aida Ndoci. Its selected entry was chosen through the national selection competition Festivali i Këngë ...

, with the song's Albanian-language version "Balada e Gurit". The country failed to qualify for the grand final in 17th place, marking its second non-qualification in the contest. During his dark-themed show of the song, Ndoci was accompanied by an

instrumentalist A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...

and four

backing vocalist A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

s. An accompanying

music 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 promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

for the song 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 Eurovision Song Contest on 5 April 2007.

Background and composition

In 2006, Frederik Ndoci was announced as one of the contestants selected to compete in the 45th edition of

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 ...

, a competition to determine Albania's entrant for the Eurovision Song Contest 2007. Following the competition's rules, the lyrics of the participating entries had to be in the Albanian language. Ndoci took part with the song "Balada e Gurit", composed by Adrian Hila and written by Pandi Laço. For the purpose of the singer's Eurovision Song Contest participation, "Balada e Gurit" was remastered and translated to "Hear My Plea". Musically, the latter is an English-language

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

-inspired dramatic pop song, which lyrically calls for pleading with an unnamed power to bring his love back to him.

Release and promotion

The song was initially released on 20 April 2007 as part of the '' Eurovision Song Contest: Helsinki 2007''

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

on CD through

. On 14 February 2018, it was released for digital download through Broken AL Audio and

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). For promotional purposes, an accompanying

for "Hear My Plea" premiered on the official

channel of the Eurovision Song Contest on 5 April 2007.

At Eurovision

Festivali i Këngës

The national broadcaster,

(RTSH), organised the 45th edition of Festivali i Këngës to determine Albania's participant for the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 in Helsinki, Finland. It consisted of two semi-finals on 21 and 22 December 2006, and a grand final on 23 December, which resulted in Ndoci being chosen after the votes of an expert jury were combined, giving a total of 55 points.

Helsinki

The 52nd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest took place in Helsinki, Finland, and consisted of a semi-final on 10 May, and the grand final two days later on 12 May 2007. According to the Eurovision rules at the time, selected participating countries, apart from the host country and the " Big Four" (consisting of , , , and the ), were required to qualify from the semi-final to compete for the grand final. The top ten countries from the semi-final progressed to the grand final. Albania came 11th in the semi-final, following and preceding , and failed to qualify for the grand final in 17th place with 49 points. During his dark blue-themed performance of the song, Ndoci was accompanied on stage by a

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

player and four

s, including his wife, Aida Ndoci.

Track listings

*Digital download #"Balada e Gurit (Festivali i Këngës)"4:31

Release history

References

{{authority control 2007 singles 2007 songs 2000s ballads Pop ballads Eurovision songs of Albania Eurovision songs of 2007 Songs written by Pandi Laço