RTSH have revealed the dates for the 56th edition of Festivali i Këngës! This Albanian festival that has been running since 1962 and since Albania’s debut in 2004 at the Eurovision Song Contest has served as their national selection, will this year take place on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd of December. The first two nights are semi-finals with a big final for the third night.
The Albanian broadcaster has also revealed that the shows will be hosted by TV-presenter and journalist Adi Krasta. He has hosted Festivali i Këngës on five previous occasions: 1997, 1999, 2002, 2003 and 2006.
The submission window for Festivali i Këngës is yet to be opened and will do so on the 2nd of November up to November 10. In that time frame, artists can submit their song on a CD, include a photograph of themselves and provide a full set of lyrics to the song. The song has to be in Albanian and instead of 3 minutes, as is required for the Eurovision Song Contest, can be 4 minutes for Festivali i Këngës!
Even though submissions aren’t opened yet, RTSH already put out this ad to let the Albanian citizens know:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7zyjjE1vQM
The winner of Festivali i Kënges will in the end represent Albania at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal.
