ALBANIA – JESC

Albania in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest

Albania
Flag
Member station RTSH
National selection events
  • Junior Fest: 2012, 2017
  • Festivali i Këngës për Femije: 2015-2016
Participation summary
Appearances 3
First appearance 2012
Best result
Worst result
External links
Albania’s page at Eurovision.tv

The participation of Albania in the Junior Eurovision Song Contestfirst began in Amsterdam, Netherlands, at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2012. Radio Televizioni Shqiptar (RTSH) a member organisation of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) have been responsible for the selection process of their participants, since their debut in 2012. The first representative to participate for the nation at the 2012 contest was Igzidora Gjeta with the song “Kam një këngë vetëm për ju”, which finished in twelfth place out of twelve participating entries, achieving a score of thirty-five points. There has only been two absences from the competition, the first being in 2013 and the second in 2014. Albania returned to the contest in 2015, when Mishela Rapo represented them with the song “Dambaje”, achieving ninety-three points and finishing in fifth place out of seventeen participating countries. On 1 June 2016, Klesta Qehaja won the Festivali i Këngës për Femije with the song “Besoj”, earning the right to represent Albania at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2016, in Valletta, Malta. She received thirty-eight points and therefore finished thirteenth out of seventeen participating countries. As of Junior Eurovision 2016, Albania have awarded the most points to Malta, and received the most points from Italy.

History[edit]

On 14 August 2012, the Albanian national broadcaster, Radio Televizioni Shqiptar(RTSH), announced that they would be making their Junior Eurovision debut at the 2012 contest in Amsterdam, Netherlands on 1 December 2012.[1] The mechanism used at the time in order to select their representative was a national pre-selection show entitled Junior Fest Albania 2012.[2]Child-singer, Igzidora Gjeta, was the first participant to represent Albania with the song “Kam një këngë vetëm për ju”,[3] which finished in twelfth place achieving a score of thirty-five points. This was Albania’s worst result in their contest history.[4]

On 27 September 2013, RTSH announced that their withdrawal from the 2013 contest, with the EBU stating that the withdrawal was due to financial and organisation issues.[5] Albania continue to be absent from the contest in 2014,[6] and it was not until 13 March 2015 that RTSH announced their return to the competition.[7] The national selection show which was organised in order to select the 2015 participant was entitled Festivali i Këngës për Femije, at which Mishela Rapo won the right to represented Albania in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015, with the song “Dambaje“.[8] At the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015, Rapo finished in fifth place achieving ninety-three points, and their best result to date.[9]

Participation[edit]

Table key

 1st place   2nd place   3rd place   Last place

Year Artist Song Language Place Points
2012 Igzidora Gjeta “Kam një këngë vetëm për ju” Albanian 12 35
Did not participate in 2013 and 2014
2015 Mishela Rapo “Dambaje“ Albanian, English, Imaginary 5 93
2016 Klesta Qehaja “Besoj“ Albanian, English 13 38
2017 TBA 23 September 2017 TBA 23 September 2017

Broadcasts and voting[edit]

Commentators and spokespersons[edit]

The contests are broadcast online worldwide through the official Junior Eurovision Song Contest website junioreurovision.tv and YouTube. In 2015, the online broadcasts featured commentary in English by junioreurovision.tv editor Luke Fisher and 2011 Bulgarian Junior Eurovision Song Contest entrant Ivan Ivanov.[10] The Albanian broadcaster, RTSH, sent their own commentator to each contest in order to provide commentary in the Albanian language. Spokespersons were also chosen by the national broadcaster in order to announce the awarding points from Albania. The table below list the details of each commentator and spokesperson since 2012.

Year(s) Commentator Spokesperson
2012 Andri Xhahu[11] Keida Dervishi[11]
2013 No broadcast Did not participate
2014
2015 Andri Xhahu[12] Majda Bejzade[13]
2016 Juna Dizdari[14]

Voting history[edit]

The tables below shows Albania’s top-five voting history rankings up until their most recent participation in 2016 and takes into account the new voting system which allows the adult and kids juries each to award a set of points, introduced by the European Broadcasting Union from the 2016 contest onwards.[15]