Albania 2025: Shkodra Elektronike with 'Zjerm'
This year's Festival I Kenges saw an uptick in quality and interest spearheaded by the duo poly of Elvana and Shkodra Elektronike, with the latter winning out thanks to the jury and domestic televote:
This may just be me, but I find our lead Beatrice to have one of the most engaging and expressive voices from a Eurovision act in recent years and the way her vocal flows through this top standard. There's a great combination of joy and the expressed 'misery' here which also gives this some added depth which works across the language barrier. Albania have also pulled off the neat trick of picking something culturally authentic, but simultaneously suitable enough for a more casual Eurovision audience.
Points of criticism and the weaknesses are obvious here, which is not a bad thing in enabling them to be fixed. Firstly, it has to be said our man on stage Kole is quite uncomfortable and a bag of nerves - this can be endearing, but coupled with his raspy talk/rap in present incarnation he is begging to be marked down. It's not necessary to turn into the greatest showman, but a bit more authority and confidence is necessary. Otherwise, as seen in the recap, going solo on vocals is an option too. Secondly, there is less of a staging blueprint here than what runner up Elvana brought - but more opportunity for something unique. Traditional dancers, instrumentalists, or a couple of each will be needed to help fill the stage - couple that with the inevitable pyro and much sharper camerawork and there's an opportunity for a lively presentation.
I think a clear recent comparison and blueprint would be last year's LadaNiva from Armenia whilst other top 10s from Hungary 2017 and Bulgaria 2007 have also been mentioned. A less successful ‘similar’ entry is ‘Fulenn’ from France 2022 which demonstrates the fine balance with these entries before they become just too messy.
There's a lot to like here and this should hit the Balkan region and Albanian diaspora hard, with the strong FiK televote implying big support. I don't see much issue in qualifying unless some nightmare allocation draw, particularly high standard and poor staging happen to combine. In the final, this has the hallmarks of an entry that will place 7th-10th with the public but almost surely lower with the juries. In fact, I'd estimate quite confidently even before the new year this probably trails whatever televote placing it receives in the jury vote by 6 or so spots.
I'll be watching how this one develops over the coming months, and can see this being somewhere lower left hand side of the scoreboard, with the worst case being somewhere around 17th given the minimum 50 or so from diaspora alone. As we wait for whether or not they get their featured artist that has been teased and what sort of revamp emerges, there is some top 10 hope for Albania.
*I'm switching to a new, more comprehensive (but equally subjective) scoring system for this year. For ‘track record’ I’m taking into account both the country in question as well as ‘similar’ entries.
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Personal Rating: 18/20
Staging Potential: 14/20
Televote Potential: 15/20
Jury Potential: 8/20
Track Record: 13/20
Total 68/100
Early Prediction: 4th-7th in the semi, 9th-13th in the final