Albania: RTSH begins preparations of Festivali i Kenges 59

Thursday, 02 July 2020

• The Albanian national broadcaster, RTSH, has confirmed that it's annual music event Festivali i Kenges will be held this year despite the difficulties covid-19 has brought along.

  Preparations for the 59th ART Song Festival have kicked off. Despite the extraordinary circumstances caused by the coronavirus, it is confirmed that the biggest song event in the country will take place this year as well.

  
  The Deputy General Director of ART, Martin Leka, held the first consultative meeting with the creators, who have left their mark on this festival, musicians and songwriters. Issues regarding of the quality of the music event were discussed at the meeting, starting from the establishment of an evaluation committee for the songs' selection and reaching to the criteria for participation in this year's edition of the festival.

  
  In September, the creators are expected to present the songs that will be selected for the 59th edition of the Song on ART.

  The Albanian broadcaster though, hasn't cleared out what will happen with last year's winner Arilena Ara who was the country's hopeful for this year's cancelled Eurovision Song Contest. Thus it remains a question whether Festival i Kenges will select a new hopeful for next year or Arilena will be internally selected. 

  Arilena was set to perform her song Fall From Sky on the Eurovision stage in Rotterdam, but saw her journey ending due to the coronavirus outbreak as the contest was cancelled . 

   

   

  Albania in Eurovision 

  In 2004 Albania participated for the first time in the contest  with Anjeza Shahini and the entry “The Image of You”, which came 7th . The country hasn’t scored a victory yet in its 16 participations up to date. Its best result was achieved in 2012 with Rona Nishliu and her 5th placing in Baku with her song “Suus”. 

  In 2019 Jonida Maliqi won the Festivali i Kenges 2018   and became the 16th Albanian representative in Eurovision. Her song Ktheju Tokes ended in the 17th place of the Grand final.

   News Source: RTSH