"Feel the Passion" is a song by Albanian singer

Aurela Gaçe Aurela Gaçe (; born 16 October 1974) is an Albanian singer and songwriter. She is a three-time Festivali i Këngës winner, a three-time Kënga Magjike winner and a two-time Balkan Music Award winner for ''Balkan's Song of the Year'' and ''Bes ...

. It was issued as a

CD single A CD single (sometimes abbreviated to CDS) is a music single in the form of a compact disc. The standard in the Red Book for the term ''CD single'' is an 8 cm (3-inch) CD (or Mini CD). It now refers to any single recorded onto a CD of any si ...

on 15 April 2011 by

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

. The English-language pop and

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 ...

song was composed by Shpëtim Saraçi and written by Sokol Marsi. An accompanying music video premiered on the official

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channel of the Eurovision Song Contest on 16 March 2011. The song represented Albania in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2011 The Eurovision Song Contest 2011 was the 56th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Düsseldorf, Germany, following the country's victory at the with the song "Satellite" by Lena. Organised by the European Broadcasting Uni ...

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...

, Germany, after Gaçe won the pre-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 deter ...

with the Albanian-language version "Kënga ime". It failed to qualify for the grand final in fourteenth place marking the country's third non-qualification in the contest. During her show, Gaçe was accompanied by three

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 and two

instrumentalists A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wri ...

, while the Albanian theme was visually amplified by the wings of a white and red coloured eagle on the

LED screen A LED display is a flat panel display that uses an array of light-emitting diodes as pixels for a video display. Their brightness allows them to be used outdoors where they are visible in the sun for store signs and billboards. In recent ...

Background and composition

In 2010,

was announced as one of the contestants selected to compete in the 49th edition of

, a competition to determine Albania's participant for the

. As part of the competition's rules, the lyrics of the participating entries had to be in the

Albanian language Albanian ( endonym: or ) is an Indo-European language and an independent branch of that family of languages. It is spoken by the Albanians in the Balkans and by the Albanian diaspora, which is generally concentrated in the Americas, Europ ...

. The singer took part with the Albanian-language song "Kënga ime" written by Sokol Marsi and composed by Shpëtim Saraçi. For the purpose of the singer's Eurovision Song Contest participation, "Kënga ime" was remastered and translated to "Feel the Passion". It was recorded and reworked at Village Studios in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, the United States. Musically, it is an English-language pop and

song.

Promotion and release

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 promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

for the song premiered onto the official

channel of the Eurovision Song Contest on 16 March 2011. The colourful and vibrant video contains footage of several Albanian tourist attractions, including in the cities of Shkodër in the north of the country and

Dhërmi Dhërmi ( sq-definite, Dhërmiu; el, Δρυμάδες, ''Drymádes'') is a village in Vlorë County, Albania. It is part of the municipality of Himarë. The village lies 42 kilometers south of the city of Vlorë and about the same distance north ...

Gjirokastër Gjirokastër (, sq-definite, Gjirokastra) is a List of cities and towns in Albania, city in the Republic of Albania and the seat of Gjirokastër County and Gjirokastër Municipality. It is located in a valley between the Gjerë mountains and th ...

Ksamil Ksamil ( sq, Ksamili, ) is a village and a former municipality in the riviera of Southern Albania, and part of Butrint National Park. At the 2015 local government reform it became a subdivision of the municipality Sarandë. The population at the ...

and

Vlorë Vlorë ( , ; sq-definite, Vlora) is the third most populous city of the Republic of Albania and seat of Vlorë County and Vlorë Municipality. Located in southwestern Albania, Vlorë sprawls on the Bay of Vlorë and is surrounded by the foo ...

in the south. For further promotion, Gaçe made several appearances throughout

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 subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

to perform the song on various occasions, including in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

and

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...

. On the same month, she also appeared to sing the song on the Turkish television shows ''Gün Sonu'', ''Gülay Kuriş ile Life Style'' and ''

Beyaz Show ''Beyaz Show'' is a popular talk show program hosted by Turkish television personality Beyazıt Öztürk (also known as Beyaz). It has been on air on Kanal D since December 1996. The program is among the highest rated television shows in Turkey. ...

'', as well as on the Greek television show ''Kous Kous''. The song was released as a

in various countries through

. In 2012, the song was included on the singer's sixth studio album ''Paraprakisht''.

At Eurovision

Festivali i Këngës

The national broadcaster of Albania,

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), organised the 49th edition of

to select the

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while ...

's entrant for the

, Germany. It took place in December 2010, for which 32 songs had been internally shortlisted by a jury panel made up of music professionals. Following the grand final,

and her song "Kënga ime" was chosen to represent Albania in the contest, after the votes of an expert jury panel were combined, resulting in 81 total points.

Düsseldorf

The 56th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest took place in

, Germany, and consisted of two semi-finals on 10 and 12 May, and the grand final on 14 May 2011. According to the Eurovision rules, each participating country, except the host country and the " Big Five", consisting of , , , and the , were required to qualify from one of the two semi-finals to compete for the grand final, although, the top ten countries from the respective semi-final progress to the grand final. On 17 January 2011, it was announced that "Feel the Passion" would be performed in the first half of the first semi-final of the contest. During the live show, Albania performed third, following and preceding , and failed to qualify for the grand final in fourteenth place with 47 points, ranking eleventh by the jury's 61 points and thirteenth by the televote of 42 points. During Gaçe's Albanian-themed performance, she was accompanied by three female

s, a drummer and a

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

ist. She was wearing a beige flowing dress and her backing vocalists and instrumentalist were dressed in black. The

s in the background displayed large white wings of a flying

eagle Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, j ...

mixed with red colours representing the flag and theme of Albania. Her show also featured a variety of red colours with turning white spotlights, while pyrotechnics and

smoke Smoke is a suspension of airborne particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with the quantity of air that is entrained or otherwise mixed into the mass. It is commonly an unwanted by-produc ...

were used along the performance.

Track listing

*CD #"Feel the Passion"3:01

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2011 singles 2011 songs English-language Albanian songs Pop songs Rock songs Eurovision songs of Albania Eurovision songs of 2011