Albania: RTSH confirms Eurovision 2021 participation

The Albanian national broadcaster, RTSH, has confirmed that it will partcipate in the next edition of the Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

RTSH has confirmed to ESCToday that Albania will be competing in Eurovision Song Contest 2021 joining the list of nations that will be present in Rotterdam next May. The Head of the Albanian Delegation has officially confirmed that the Balkan country will be returning for one more participation in the competition.

The broadcaster will be holding the traditional competition Festivali i Kenges. the winner of which will be the one to represent Albania in Rotterdam. RTSH has already kicked off the preparations and the submission period for the next edition of the festival by making an open call to interested acts. The show will unfold in three shows the exact dates of which will be revealed in the following days.

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.

This year Arilena Ara 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 .