"One Night's Anger" is a song by Albanian singer

Hersi Matmuja Hersjana Matmuja (born 1 February 1990), also known as Hersi Matmuja or simply Hersi, is an Albanian singer and songwriter. After winning the 52nd edition of Festivali i Këngës, she represented Albania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014. L ...

. The track was first released as part of a CD

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on 11 April 2014 by

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and

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. The

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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 written by Jorgo Papingji and composed by Gentian Lako. An accompanying

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was uploaded on the official

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channel of 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 ...

on 16 March 2014. The song received mixed reviews from

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, some of whom praised the singer's vocals, while others described it as a "work-in-progress". The song represented Albania in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2014 The Eurovision Song Contest 2014 was the 59th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, following the country's victory at the with the song "Only Teardrops" by Emmelie de Forest. Organised by the European ...

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, Denmark, after Matmuja won the country's 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 determ ...

with the Albanian-language version "Zemërimi i nje natë". It failed to qualify for the grand final in fifteenth place marking the country's fifth non-qualification in the contest. During her minimalistic performance, she was performing against a slightly dark-themed

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whose colors were predominantly blue and white.

Background and composition

In 2013,

was announced as one of the contestants selected to compete in the 52nd edition of

, a competition to determine Albania's entrant for the

. As part from 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 "Zemërimi i nje natë" composed by Genti Lako and written by Jorgo Papingji. For the purpose of the singer's Eurovision Song Contest participation, the song was remastered and translated to "One Night's Anger". Musically, it is an

pop song. Hersi stated in an interview that the song is about the dangers of letting anger guide one's decisions, and the importance of thinking before reacting.

Critical reception

Upon its victory at

, the song received mixed reviews from

. In a

Wiwibloggs Wiwibloggs is a fansite and YouTube channel focusing on the Eurovision Song Contest, launched in 2009. It has a seasonal audience, peaking at 250,000 page views per day during the week of Eurovision in May 2016, based on Google Analytics data. ...

review containing several reviews from individual critics, they criticised the song's

version, but praised the singer's vocals and the song's lyrical context. Contributing writers for ESC Tips gave the song a rating of three stars out of five, describing the song as a "work-in-progress" and suggested that at the present time it would be "difficult to predict Albania's course in the contest". They went on to say that the instrumentation would need to be altered to juxtapose verses and chorus " ..for those elements to provide clear separation and add layers to the song".

Promotion and release

An accompanying

for the song premiered on the official

channel of the

on 16 March 2014. For further promotion, she appeared to perform the song at various radio and television shows in April 2014, including in

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, the

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and

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. The song was initially issued on 11 April 2014 as part of the '' Eurovision Song Contest: Copenhagen 2014''

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 by

and

. On 14 February 2018, it was released as a standalone download through

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).

At Eurovision

Festivali i Këngës

The national broadcaster of Albania,

(RTSH), organised the 52nd edition of

to determine 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 the ...

's participant for the

, Denmark. It consisted of two semi-finals on 26 and 27 December, and the grand final on 28 December 2013, in which,

was chosen to represent the country in the contest, after the votes of an expert jury were combined, resulting in 69 points.

Copenhagen

The 59th edition of the

took place in

, Denmark, and consisted of two semi-finals held on 6 and 8 May, and the grand final on 10 May 2014. 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 20 January 2014, it was announced that Albania would be performing in the first half of the first semi-final of the contest. During the live show, Albania performed sixth, following and preceding . The country eventually failed to qualify for the grand final in fifteenth place with 22 points, ranking ninth by the jury's 64 points and fifteenth by the televote of 6 points. Matmuja's minimalistic performance commences with a rear view of her looking out across the arena standing on a podium. She wore an

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-coloured full-length dress created by Kosovo-Albanian designer Blerina Kllokoqi Rugova, and 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 a

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player, who were further hired for the show placed on the stage floor. On stage, Matmuja performed against a slightly dark

whose colors were predominantly blue and white.

Track listing

*Digital download #"Zemërimi i një nate (Festivali i Këngës)"3:36

Release history

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 2014, state=collapsed 2014 songs 2014 singles English-language Albanian songs Pop songs Eurovision songs of Albania Eurovision songs of 2014