General Director of this year’s Festivali i Këngës, Shpëtim Saraçi (composer of “Feel the Passion” from ESC 2011), announced that there will be two semifinals with 14 songs each. From each semifinal nine songs will proceed to the final thanks to the jury voting. A total of 18 songs will fight for Grand Prix and ticket to Vienna during the final night of Festivali i Kenges.
This year RTSH will hold a special press meeting after each part of Festivali i Kenges, to inform about the results and to provide journalists with all information. Almost 50 songs were submitted to Albanian National Final but a special team decided to pick 28 compositions performed by new talented singers as well as well-known and popular artists to attract the attention of the audience. The organization team informed as well that the main goal is not to find the perfect Eurovision song, but to provide viewers with the best quality and value of songs.
Shqiptarja.com published the full list of performes, song titles, composers, lyricists and conductors for every song. Adrian Hila (composer of Albanian entries from 2005, 2007 -2008) composed song “Keshtjella” for Besjana Mehmeti & Shkodran Tolaj with lyrics by Pandi Laco (who wrote the lyrics of “Tomorrow I go”, “Hear my plea”, and “Zemren e lame peng”). Klodian Qafoku (the author of the Albanian entry from 2006) composed “Vetem ti” for Rezarta Smaja with lyrics by Dr. Flori, who participated in Festivali i Kenges in the past. Sokol Marsi is the lyricsts of “Eklips mbi oqean” performed by Florent Abrashi & Sigi Bastri. Marsi wrote the lyrics for the Albanian entry from 2011 – “Feel the passion”. Famous singer and guitarist who represented Albania in 2013 with Adrian lulgjuraj, Bledar Sejko is back as well but this time as the composer of “Mendje trazi” for Jozefina Simoni. The composer of this year’s Albanian entry – Genti Lako, will fight for another Eurovision try with “Ne koma” for Ana Gramo.
One of this year’s early favourites Elhaida Dani will sing “Te kerkoj” by Aldo Shllaku (music) and Viola Trebicka & Sokol Marsi (lyrics). There are many participants who will perform their own songs i.e. Kelly, Gjergj Leka, Kumrija sisters, Agim Poshka, Bojken Lako, Klajdi Musabelliu, Andos Sinani and Saimir Braho. Full list of authors can be found here.
Two semifinals of Festivali i Këngës will take place in Tirana at 26-27th December with the Grand Final at 28th December 2014. Below you can wath A1’s news report about FiK (in Albanian).
