Albania’s Decision: Was it Wrong? First Song of Eurovision 2021 is From Anxhela Peristeri: “Karma”

If you didn’t before, now is a good time to start feeling excited for Eurovision 2021, because this song you heard has officially started the Eurovision season. First of all, let’s give Anxhela her dues. Although she wasn’t one of our favorites before the competition, we found her performance very successful. Her voice is great, the song is nice. We had ranked the song quite low on our Top 25 list before seeing her performance. There is no denying that she took the song to the next level on the stage. With good choreography and some tweaks this song will surely spice things up in next year’s Eurovision.

However, despite all this praise, we are confident that this result wasn’t the best possible outcome for Albania’s interests. In our opinion, Inis Neziri was unquestionably the best singer of the night. Her performance didn’t need an extravagant stage show to stand out. She left her mark on the night with her magnificent voice.

If you ask us, of all the songs at “Festivali i Këngës” this year, “Pendese” was the only one that could have a shot at Eurovision success.

For us, Anxhela winning wasn’t a big shock. The real shock of the night was Inis Neziri not even making it into the top 3. When the results were announced, we had difficulty remembering the 2nd and 3rd placed songs. How the competition jury made those decisions is beyond us.

To put it in one word, the way the artists who topped the internet polls were completely ignored, was “ridiculous”. In our opinion, a contest as big as “Festivali i Këngës” needs to seriously consider implementing public voting as the main determinant. If they want to increase international interest in this contest, the singers’ fate should not be left to a handful of jury members.

The disappointment of the night for us was Mirud. We had ranked him very high after listening to the studio version of the song, but after saw his performance, we thought we could have as well left him out of our list. Maybe he was too excited or was afraid of making mistakes, but his expressions made him look like he was forced to be on stage.

To sum up the night, Albania missed an opportunity by not choosing Inis Neziri. To say the least, the fate of the competition being in the hands of a few jury members is “wrong” for an organization attracting international audience. Anxhela is by no means a bad winner. But the potential of “Pendese” was sky high.

In the end, we had lots of fun watching Festivali i Këngës. We had the chance to listen and watch many good songs and singers. It is obvious that Albania has a very colorful music scene. We hope that the competition will grow even more internationally in the coming years.

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