it's so many ballad because fik it start as festival for ballad (musika e leht in albanian) 60 years ago , so in albania is always a discussion about the festival itself if to maintain like it is o put other genres inside , and what is the very meaning of the festival. So it final goal is not eurovision but the festival itself , that's why albanian tend to send so many ballad and that dont reflect the music seen of the country ( sorry for my english)
My number one is Shkodra Elektronike - but I love "Mjegull" by Alis Kallacej. It doesn't seem to have had much of an impact in the community, yet it seems like a song that could go to Basel unrevamped and really impress people. The hook is massive
FiK started exactly how Sanremo started as well, as a festival of ballads... it's literally called ''Festival della canzone italiana'', but Sanremo started modernizing itself not in the last few years but for quite some time now, maybe even 15 years ago or more. Last 7/8 years definitely brought Sanremo the music that everyone in Italy listens to on a daily basis, artists that are in the top charts, who sing ballads, rock, pop, trap everything...I wish for FiK to become this...
My favorite is Shkodra Elektronike. I don't think it's usual FiK song. Hope it can do good in the televote so they send it to Eurovision. I'm not that interested in who wins FiK. I'm more interested in who they send to ESC.
Tom, I HAVE to tell you something. Because there has to be happened something in the past, no way there is no national final yet, where our favourites are different. We both got Isak with Ljeto, ljeto, ljeto on Number 1 in Montesong, we both got Tommy Cash in lead for eesti laul and räpina jack very high up in the top. And now, we both got Ardit and Elvana very high again! There has never been such a guy having that similar musik style to mine!
I'm rooting for SE, they are the most interesting entry here. By the way, can any Albanian speaker tell me what the song is about? I've read the translation of the lyrics on "Eurovisionworld", but I didn't get it, so I wonder: are the lyrics so cryptic in their native language as well or is the translation just bad?
Wow, you spent four months in Kosovo? What were you doing there? Did you pick up much language? I love Albania in ESC and it makes me want to learn some Albanian language and to visit. I'd love to attend FiK one year - all four nights of it :)
i started but then gave up - cos its a completely unique language that isnt related to any other european language - so you get nothing for free language-wise. also theres very few resources to learn by
Normally I don't follow FiK, but i give it a shot this year because I saw some hype around elvana gjata and shkodra elektronike. Surprise surprise, I actually enjoy some of these! (Didn't listen to all of them because 30 is just too much). Besides the two mentioned, I also like Amane, Gjallë and sometimes I parë (but I see a few have commented the lyrics for I parë are very nationalistic in a Breskvica way so eeeeehhhhh)
Yeah, Orgesa's song is basically about how Albanians were "the first" (title of the song) in the Balkans lol. I'm Albanian and it makes me cringe. FIK and especially Eurovision shouldn't be platforms for that kind of nationalism. Also she made some very homophobic statements several years ago. If they resurfaced that wouldn't go down well with the Eurovision fan base lol. And finally just a few weeks ago, the FIK Instagram page was posting little snippets/comments from interviews where they would ask generic questions to the artists. One of the questions to Orgesa was "if you could invite anyone to your dinner party, who would it be". And her response was "I wouldn't invite vegetarians because there would be a lot of MEAT". I'm not even vegetarian but it was such an immature answer (and didn't even answer the original question). She just seems like a real sh!tty person tbh. Seriously hope she never makes it to Eurovision, she's not even popular in Albania and has never had a hit song or ranked in any respectable position in the multiple contests she's competed in.
people tend to forget that fik is first and foremost not just a national selection, it is a music festival with a rich history and for sure it cannot consist of 5-6 songs like you offer here lol, yeah some of the songs are absolute fillers and overall it is a rather weird and very traditional show, but it is exactly what makes it unique 😌😌 maybe they should consider creating one more festival as a national selection, but fik itself should stay as it is definitely, the songs selection is the only thing i would improve but as far as i know they got like only 80 submissions this year, so not really much of a choice lol
yea i know its like Sanremo like that. Im not saying it should be like UMk, moreso that the quality would be higher with less songs and then with each subsequent entry the quality i starting to dip
Festivali i Kenges has been that way since the communism times. There used to be another event before 1990 called "Kur vjen Pranvera" on a spring time and this used to be a bit more rhythmic and modern version but this one was one night event and it was short lived (lasted only 4 or 5 years i think) As an Albanian, I find the FiK songs pretty boring and the type of songs I would only listen to once or twice, and unless something changes drastically, this festival will never produce quality art with enough potential to win the Eurovision. By the way, there is a lot of bureaucracy and corruption too in my opinion surrounding FiK, which puts off quite a few high profile artists.
Thanks for the comment, I love getting these insights from locals 🙏🏻 out of interest, who would be the BIG Albanian artists who FiK should be trying to attract and who could really get Albania that first top 3 finish?
@@ESCTom The artists that are actually popular and relevant in the Albanian pop scene are Elvana Gjata, Dhurata Dora, Tayna, Rina, Xhensila, Ledri Vula, Noizy, amongst others. It's a scene which is dominated by female artists. I kinda hope Elvana wins just because it might actually attract other big names. If she fails again, I fear it will be several years before any of the commercially popular artists consider entering, if ever.
Well FIK 63 is insane this year. I would be happy if Ardit, Alis or Shkodra Elektronike wins - all of them have unbelievabe potential. Elvanas song doesn't reflect her iconic discography of the last decade, i love all of her songs but Karnaval ain't it. Although she will elevate it by 1600% with a live Performance but the song itself is so dull. She will probably win tho as she is the biggest albanian popstar.
Hopefully Elvana wins this time 😭 Festivali i Kenges started as a copy of San Remo. Usually it would be mostly ballads competing and then some songs with ethnic elements. It was after the fall of Communism that rock songs and some more upbeat ones, as well as alternative ones started competing. But the winner was still either a ballad or one with ethnic elements. Hence most of Albania's entries had these elements. The problem though, wasn't that ballads or ethnic songs won. But that those songs were outdated... They just didn't go in par with time. In the 90s FiK was at its peak, if Albania had debuted then, it would have been its decade in Eurovision. As for who wins and the transparency, well the winner is whoever is in the clique and has friends in the jury members or production team. Usually either the singer or the composer of the song. For example, in 2004/2005/2008/2009/2010 the composers of the song won the contest. In 2010 the composer was also the presenter and part of the production team 😂 But i ain't complaining, he at least brought an upbeat track to Oslo, and not another boring ballad or ethnic song. (Mind you i am referring to Eurovision entries, as FiK entries count for a year earlier). In other years it was the singer who won, like in 2013,2015,2016,2017,2019. In 2016 Eneda for example was friends with the production team. In 2017 Lindita was promised to win after failing in 2015, but she was asked to return with a ballad. In 2020 Arilena won because she was the prodigy and product of Vera Grabocka and Alketa Vejsiu, who have been the producers of Xfactor, which she won, and of FiK that year. The thing was that Alketa messed it up by inviting Elvana as well. And then while she had said that the jurors would only be foreigners, they added two albanian ones just a week before the contest, one of which is a big hater of songs that Elvana Gjata sings.
Omg I love this comment. This explains so much. The 2020 one is the most blatant, if you look at the scores, that single juror decided the entire contest. And since then, the results are hidden So out of interest then, why was Mal chosen to win the non Eurovision prize last year?
@ESCTom That was mostly random probably. According to what information we have he wrote the song on his own. Now if he had any ties within RTSH, that is something i am not aware of. But it was obvious that Besa would be the one to go to Eurovision. The only difference was in 2023 with the Kelmendi family, who won due to Kosovo Albanians spamming votes for them.
well if you wanted to make the contest look NOT rigged, one of the ways to do it would be to have a jury winner prize, who goes to someone not involved in rigging, and then give the Eurovision prize to the rigged person. So maybe's that's what happened last year
Spice Queen Orgesa for me Tom and it's not even close She would make a terrific contestant in Basel and boy her social media would be interesting 🤔 Shkroda Electonike would be a more than acceptable alternative and Elvana would bring a great performance too By the way, what have you got against the fine profession of stone masonry? Perchance you meant free masonry? 🙈🙈🤣
haha freemasons developed from stonemason guilds and regulating their qualifications, so thats where i got the connection 😂 Im sure Orgesa would be great in Basel, but from everything im hearing, the FiK winner is decided before the show and it looks like Elvana agreed to come back if she would win 😱
Albania is my last favorite Eurovision country, so I'm not gonna suffer through 30 songs, even with your comments. I watched this video however, because I have a huge respect for the work you do, and because I'd like to know what's going on, theoretically.
it's so many ballad because fik it start as festival for ballad (musika e leht in albanian) 60 years ago , so in albania is always a discussion about the festival itself if to maintain like it is o put other genres inside , and what is the very meaning of the festival. So it final goal is not eurovision but the festival itself , that's why albanian tend to send so many ballad and that dont reflect the music seen of the country ( sorry for my english)
My number one is Shkodra Elektronike - but I love "Mjegull" by Alis Kallacej. It doesn't seem to have had much of an impact in the community, yet it seems like a song that could go to Basel unrevamped and really impress people. The hook is massive
I loved Mjegull. The song was ok when I first heard it but I loved Alis’s performance. I could really see the visual package.
FiK started exactly how Sanremo started as well, as a festival of ballads... it's literally called ''Festival della canzone italiana'', but Sanremo started modernizing itself not in the last few years but for quite some time now, maybe even 15 years ago or more. Last 7/8 years definitely brought Sanremo the music that everyone in Italy listens to on a daily basis, artists that are in the top charts, who sing ballads, rock, pop, trap everything...I wish for FiK to become this...
It's gonna be between Elvana and Shkodra Elektronike.
I do think Orgesa has a chance as well, it’s quite patriotic which might appeal to the jury and also some Albanian televoters
My favorite is Shkodra Elektronike. I don't think it's usual FiK song. Hope it can do good in the televote so they send it to Eurovision. I'm not that interested in who wins FiK. I'm more interested in who they send to ESC.
It's my favourite, too. I'm so much looking forward to hearing those bombastic strings live! That must sound amazing!
9:10 last year's jury... i swear one juror was asleep, or possibly dead. I took a screenshot of him. Weekend at FiKmas 😂
Tom, I HAVE to tell you something. Because there has to be happened something in the past, no way there is no national final yet, where our favourites are different. We both got Isak with Ljeto, ljeto, ljeto on Number 1 in Montesong, we both got Tommy Cash in lead for eesti laul and räpina jack very high up in the top. And now, we both got Ardit and Elvana very high again! There has never been such a guy having that similar musik style to mine!
It’s going to happen eventually that they’re different 😅
I'm rooting for SE, they are the most interesting entry here. By the way, can any Albanian speaker tell me what the song is about? I've read the translation of the lyrics on "Eurovisionworld", but I didn't get it, so I wonder: are the lyrics so cryptic in their native language as well or is the translation just bad?
Someone gave a really good explanation on the Reaction video that i did
in the comments section
I gave a really in-depth explanation in the original Zjerm lyric video, under a comment. I’ll reply it here aswell if I can
Wow, you spent four months in Kosovo? What were you doing there? Did you pick up much language? I love Albania in ESC and it makes me want to learn some Albanian language and to visit. I'd love to attend FiK one year - all four nights of it :)
i started but then gave up - cos its a completely unique language that isnt related to any other european language - so you get nothing for free language-wise. also theres very few resources to learn by
Normally I don't follow FiK, but i give it a shot this year because I saw some hype around elvana gjata and shkodra elektronike. Surprise surprise, I actually enjoy some of these! (Didn't listen to all of them because 30 is just too much). Besides the two mentioned, I also like Amane, Gjallë and sometimes I parë (but I see a few have commented the lyrics for I parë are very nationalistic in a Breskvica way so eeeeehhhhh)
Yeah, Orgesa's song is basically about how Albanians were "the first" (title of the song) in the Balkans lol. I'm Albanian and it makes me cringe. FIK and especially Eurovision shouldn't be platforms for that kind of nationalism.
Also she made some very homophobic statements several years ago. If they resurfaced that wouldn't go down well with the Eurovision fan base lol.
And finally just a few weeks ago, the FIK Instagram page was posting little snippets/comments from interviews where they would ask generic questions to the artists. One of the questions to Orgesa was "if you could invite anyone to your dinner party, who would it be". And her response was "I wouldn't invite vegetarians because there would be a lot of MEAT". I'm not even vegetarian but it was such an immature answer (and didn't even answer the original question). She just seems like a real sh!tty person tbh.
Seriously hope she never makes it to Eurovision, she's not even popular in Albania and has never had a hit song or ranked in any respectable position in the multiple contests she's competed in.
Mal is such a big stand out for me.
I have a feeling that he will elevate as well, however I think it’s very unlikely that they’ll pick the same winner two years in a row
The synth hook in Karnaval reminded me of Rod Stewart's Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?
people tend to forget that fik is first and foremost not just a national selection, it is a music festival with a rich history and for sure it cannot consist of 5-6 songs like you offer here lol, yeah some of the songs are absolute fillers and overall it is a rather weird and very traditional show, but it is exactly what makes it unique 😌😌 maybe they should consider creating one more festival as a national selection, but fik itself should stay as it is definitely, the songs selection is the only thing i would improve but as far as i know they got like only 80 submissions this year, so not really much of a choice lol
yea i know its like Sanremo like that. Im not saying it should be like UMk, moreso that the quality would be higher with less songs and then with each subsequent entry the quality i starting to dip
They can look at TV Klan's Kënga Magjike. Their songs are good.
Festivali i Kenges has been that way since the communism times. There used to be another event before 1990 called "Kur vjen Pranvera" on a spring time and this used to be a bit more rhythmic and modern version but this one was one night event and it was short lived (lasted only 4 or 5 years i think) As an Albanian, I find the FiK songs pretty boring and the type of songs I would only listen to once or twice, and unless something changes drastically, this festival will never produce quality art with enough potential to win the Eurovision. By the way, there is a lot of bureaucracy and corruption too in my opinion surrounding FiK, which puts off quite a few high profile artists.
Thanks for the comment, I love getting these insights from locals 🙏🏻
out of interest, who would be the BIG Albanian artists who FiK should be trying to attract and who could really get Albania that first top 3 finish?
@@ESCTom The artists that are actually popular and relevant in the Albanian pop scene are Elvana Gjata, Dhurata Dora, Tayna, Rina, Xhensila, Ledri Vula, Noizy, amongst others. It's a scene which is dominated by female artists. I kinda hope Elvana wins just because it might actually attract other big names. If she fails again, I fear it will be several years before any of the commercially popular artists consider entering, if ever.
Vesa, Shkodra and Elvana top 3
Well FIK 63 is insane this year. I would be happy if Ardit, Alis or Shkodra Elektronike wins - all of them have unbelievabe potential. Elvanas song doesn't reflect her iconic discography of the last decade, i love all of her songs but Karnaval ain't it. Although she will elevate it by 1600% with a live Performance but the song itself is so dull. She will probably win tho as she is the biggest albanian popstar.
If FiK wont change the rules big stars wont take part on FiK and show what Albanian and Kosovar real music is all about
Hopefully Elvana wins this time 😭
Festivali i Kenges started as a copy of San Remo. Usually it would be mostly ballads competing and then some songs with ethnic elements. It was after the fall of Communism that rock songs and some more upbeat ones, as well as alternative ones started competing. But the winner was still either a ballad or one with ethnic elements. Hence most of Albania's entries had these elements. The problem though, wasn't that ballads or ethnic songs won. But that those songs were outdated... They just didn't go in par with time. In the 90s FiK was at its peak, if Albania had debuted then, it would have been its decade in Eurovision.
As for who wins and the transparency, well the winner is whoever is in the clique and has friends in the jury members or production team. Usually either the singer or the composer of the song. For example, in 2004/2005/2008/2009/2010 the composers of the song won the contest. In 2010 the composer was also the presenter and part of the production team 😂 But i ain't complaining, he at least brought an upbeat track to Oslo, and not another boring ballad or ethnic song. (Mind you i am referring to Eurovision entries, as FiK entries count for a year earlier).
In other years it was the singer who won, like in 2013,2015,2016,2017,2019. In 2016 Eneda for example was friends with the production team. In 2017 Lindita was promised to win after failing in 2015, but she was asked to return with a ballad. In 2020 Arilena won because she was the prodigy and product of Vera Grabocka and Alketa Vejsiu, who have been the producers of Xfactor, which she won, and of FiK that year. The thing was that Alketa messed it up by inviting Elvana as well. And then while she had said that the jurors would only be foreigners, they added two albanian ones just a week before the contest, one of which is a big hater of songs that Elvana Gjata sings.
Omg I love this comment. This explains so much. The 2020 one is the most blatant, if you look at the scores, that single juror decided the entire contest. And since then, the results are hidden
So out of interest then, why was Mal chosen to win the non Eurovision prize last year?
@ESCTom That was mostly random probably. According to what information we have he wrote the song on his own. Now if he had any ties within RTSH, that is something i am not aware of.
But it was obvious that Besa would be the one to go to Eurovision. The only difference was in 2023 with the Kelmendi family, who won due to Kosovo Albanians spamming votes for them.
I'll never forgive Mikaela Minga.
@@im.joeyb. No one will 😂 Let's who will be this year's Mikaela Minga 😭
well if you wanted to make the contest look NOT rigged, one of the ways to do it would be to have a jury winner prize, who goes to someone not involved in rigging, and then give the Eurovision prize to the rigged person. So maybe's that's what happened last year
Shkodra elektronike or Mal to Eurovision
Shkodra Elektronike, and Alis
My two favorites ❤
Spice Queen Orgesa for me Tom and it's not even close
She would make a terrific contestant in Basel and boy her social media would be interesting 🤔
Shkroda Electonike would be a more than acceptable alternative and Elvana would bring a great performance too
By the way, what have you got against the fine profession of stone masonry?
Perchance you meant free masonry?
🙈🙈🤣
haha freemasons developed from stonemason guilds and regulating their qualifications, so thats where i got the connection 😂
Im sure Orgesa would be great in Basel, but from everything im hearing, the FiK winner is decided before the show and it looks like Elvana agreed to come back if she would win 😱
@ESCTom are you suggesting FiK is not a transparent and open contest Tom?
Surely not!
🙉
i would never suggest such a thing - it's clearly as transparent as a clear Albanian sky on a winter morning 😇
@ESCTom 🤣🤣🤣
Yeah I can really only see Elvana winning. It’s the only song that stands out for me
Shkodra Elektronike
@@pirukiddingme1908 Zjerm.
Albania is my last favorite Eurovision country, so I'm not gonna suffer through 30 songs, even with your comments. I watched this video however, because I have a huge respect for the work you do, and because I'd like to know what's going on, theoretically.
thank you ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️