[LMBTO] Albania returns to Eurovision type - Jonida Maliqi for Tel Aviv...

After the powerful vocals of Eugent Bushpepa in Lisbon, the Festivali i Këngës (FiK) jurors have reverted back to a tried (and tested?) formula of the previous four years and gone with a female soloist singing a power ballad.  I predict that there will be a difference with this year's artist as compared to three of those four singers (Lindita Halimi, Eneda Tarifa, Hersi Matmuja)...

Why am I so confident?  Let's start with the studio version that I've already flagged up in my preview post:

As I said there, purely based on the studio audio without any visuals...


"Ktheju tokës" ("Return To The Land") is one of those songs where music and voice come together as one, something that is so mystical and ethnic, that sounds quite dark to start with but then brightens as the composition progresses.  It is also an entry with a message - the lyrics are below to provide some context on what the song is about.  First the story in Jonida's native language:

Combine those with what we saw on night one of FiK57 (Thursday 20th) at The Palace Of Congresses in Tirana and Jonida demonstrated immediately why she was one of the front runners this year, together with an understanding of what the song was about if you watch the backdrop:

A silhouette of a man with a suitcase, a train and lots of traffic signals - obviously a tale of someone travelling but where to of from?  Time for the English translation:

A fairly concise story about Albanians leaving their country but realising that they have no roots or identity where they are now - Jonida is calling them back with this song, her outstanding emotional delivery of the lyrics are nicely intermingled with the orchestral accompaniment.  Now I marked all the shows and, if you can believe it, this was actually her 'worst' performance vocally - a little bit shaky at times and a bit reserved to begin with but, by the end of it, the passion and belief she had in the entry overall was there for all to see.  It was going to be interesting to see how night 2 went for her - whereas the first evening had all acts singing with the RTSH Orchestra, night 2 was an opportunity to show off each entry with a backing track and the option to show what might happen at Eurovision.  Some acts took that opportunity, one of which was Jonida:

Personally, I felt that she sung better with the backing track this time than with the orchestra the night before, everything was full power and it allowed her to put her full passion into the track.  The dancers added nothing to the performance in my opinion, having really no connection to the lyrics and the story of the song - definitely something to work on in the run up to Tel Aviv.

Jonida was stunning yet again - whoever was styling her was doing an excellent job.  I have to say that as far as outfits and Ms Maliqi's look were concerned, the stylist outdid themselves in the Final - if there had been a film role for Cleopatra in Albania somewhere, Jonida would have walked off with that audition:

Absolutely stunning visually and to be honest with you, the best 'orchestral' vocals to date, this was the performance that indicated to me that "Ktheju tokës" was going to be the entry to go to Tel Aviv.  The blue, gold and green outfit, together with the hairstyle and the blue eye shadow, allowed Jonida to be one of the most memorable acts in the Final in that aspect alone, notwithstanding her vocal delivery which was now spot on, after the two previous night's 'practice'.  Perhaps the only surprise was that she was not a runaway winner: 

Lidia Lufi ran her quite close all the way through, finishing only 9 points behind - the main difference was that Jonida won 5-4 as far as the top jury scores of 30 were concerned.    

It is a delight to see her make it to Eurovision, given that her first FiK appearance was in 1995 at age 13, 2019 was her ninth attempt and previously she had a best finish of second in 1999, with a third in 2004.  She even co-hosted the Festival in 2010.  The big question for her, and something that crops up after every FiK, is...

Jonida has indicated already that the language choice is likely to stay the same, something that I am delighted about and I am sure that Eugent's 11th place in Lisbon singing in his native tongue will have encouraged Jonida and the Albanian delegation that NOT swapping to English is an option that can lead to a Final placing and a decent result.  The only immediate modification that would be needed to allow Albania's entry to be sung at Eurovision is it being trimmed slightly from its current 3 minutes and 12 seconds to nearer 3 minutes - a far easier task for Jonida's team than those involved with "Mall" last year, who had to lose 90 seconds!

What are Jonida's chances in Tel Aviv this year?  Being the first complete entry (barring any major changes), there is nothing to compare Jonida Maliqi and "Ktheju tokës" with.  Having said that, I have now seen her perform this live four times (if you include the reprise) and there is nothing to suggest that we will hear anything other than perfection from her in Israel.  Here was my scoring overall for the three night's performances (as per Eurovision juror marking):

For the backing track night (Friday 21st), I actually had Jonida as a 5/5 vocally too - personally I would not change anything as far as the language being sung is concerned, how she sings and presents the song or how Jonida looks on stage.  FiK is never a place where staging shines through and that is the obvious element that can be improved, potentially taking advantage of the rumoured LCD screens that are going to be in Tel Aviv and not having any other movement on stage, as all the focus should be on this amazing artist.  Having said that, I'm not an expert in that field but the contemporary dancers were more a distraction for the cameras than an aid that night.

We will have to wait and see how Albania's entry compares with the other 41 as they get announced but compared to previous entries, the winning entry of FiK57 has real promise and I am looking forward to hearing it performed live, hopefully at some of the promo parties but definitely in Tel Aviv...