For me Albania usually always provides the relief moment from the early beginnings of the Eurovision season. They’re San Remo-esque Festivali i Këngës provides some great classy entries which are always refreshing in the Eurovision world.
Elhaida Dani was the one to beat in this year’s edition of the festival, and she deservedly so won it. She attempted the festival for the first time 3 years ago, however didn’t manage to score so well in the final. Since then she has managed to win the Italian version of ‘The Voice’, and gained critical acclaim over at Italy and in her homeland of Albania as well.
Elhaida definitely has ‘The Voice’, she is an amazing vocalist and controls the song ‘Diell’ (translated as Sun) perfectly, the passion can be easily felt from her voice and by watching her performance. However, this song still can be seen as dated, although I see it as a modern version of all the big Eurovision French and Italian ballads of the 70s. The orchestration on this song is simply fantastic (including the must-have electric guitar that all Albanian songs seems to have ;)), and the live version of this song is far superior to the studio one, vocally and musically.
The song is confirmed to be translated to English, a thing that in my opinion usually harms these classic Albanian type of songs, but I hope that with a slightly more modern production, and hopefully good diction English skills from Elhaida it won’t take away from this song, and will even be able to enhance its chances to succeed in the final.
Eurovision Israel 