Albania – After Ukraine last week, we have now our second Eurovision 2014 song and it’s from Albania, where the second national final of the season has concluded with the victory of Herciana Matmuja and the song Zemërimi i një nate!
After two presentation shows and many duets, it came down to a long Saturday final with 16 songs fiercy competing with one another. After they were all performed, a very long interval act featuring the Italian band La Voce del Silenzio, Elhaida Dani the recent winner of the Voice of Italy and Emmelie de Forest, came the time for the votes and even though they were very split Herciana Matmuja kept getting top 4 with all juries, and with the last three 12 pts she smashed the voting to a clear victory!
Klodian Kacani who got the biggest cheers on the second semifinal finished second with his song Me ty while Sajmir Braho finished third with the song Grua. You can read more about Festival i Këngës 52 on the article and live feed we made here!
Herci Matmuja was also quite the favorite in the Eurovision Times comment section and she proved that you can win while having a bad draw, as she went first. But the FiK audience, who cheered before she even started her song, were strongly behind her during the vote.
Herci’s win also proves that you need to do Festival i Këngës a few times before winning it. In December 2011, she finished dead last with 0pt singing Aty ku më le (There where you left me) but in December 2012 she finished 3rd with 48pts with Kush ta dha këtë emër? (Who gave you this name?) and is now the winner for the 52nd Festival i Këngës, the one in December 2013, with the song Zemërimi i një nate (One night’s anger).
This is her winning reprise of Zemërimi i një nate:
You can also rewatch the national final on the official Eurovision site here!
The Eurovision Times 
I guess a lot of people are happy with this choice, but for me it’s just another lame entry in what’s looking more and more like another weak edition. :(
Albania didn’t have anything special to choose from this year and so they ended up with some “fan-favourite” winning. It’s an unmemorable and average song with a weird structure and I think it’s boring.
I rushed to read the comments first before hearing the actual entry and I expected something if not a masterpiece at least something as controversial as that overrated vocal exercises Albania 12 was.
And I listen to this entry..and I got almost nothing…Listened to it again..And again got close to nothing..And then again..It’s not that it is bad, for FiK standards its pretty decent…Hercy is an excellent vocalist (she should learn to control her facial expression better though imo) and the orchestration has some interesting moments but as a whole this is building up to nowhere imo.It sounds disjointed at points and Hersy seems to be trying too hard at points. It is just forgettable and a tad dated and all I am left with as a feeling after it has ended is “enthusiastic vocals”.
It’s a mediocre entry at best imo. I will wait to read a lyrics translation since some people suggested that those are interesting.It might get some points from there. If that’s the case a translated version can do miracles here.
I also do not pay too much attention on the 90s aesthetics (including the staging and parts of the orchestration and the involvment of the backing vocals) since this is the trend in FiK and always gets revamped and renewed for esc.
For now it stands lower from Ukraine.The ukrainian entry competes to a totally different field but achieves more in that than Hersy’s song in its respective genre imo.
For now :
1. Ukraine – 7.1/10
2. Albania – 6.5/10
Someone ranking Ukraine ahead of Albania. I’m happy. Not because I agree, but because I didn’t want this to be unanimous. We needed some Ukraine supporters to shake things up.
well i could have named guitar, not because it is guitar but because he was already one of the very rare ones who actually did like ukraine 2014 when it was picked and i know his hatred to anything fik related
I do not “hate” FiK, I just don’t like its standards and general philosophy musically. I admit I did not follow this one since I think I had better things to do these days I admit but I will listen to the competing entries, I do not judge without listening first.
Well considering I find myself to the minority most of the times here it should not come as a surprise ;)
I am not as much a ukraine supporter though, with such a score an entry fails most of the times to enter even my final top 15. Both entries need polishing but ukraine seems to have more potential imo. But this is a FiK product and it is natural to be overhyped imo. I will try to listen to the rest of the entries that competed tonight, tommorow though !
i didnt like Albania 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011 nor 2013, I really like FiK anyway, but it’s not because it comes from Albania that I’d support it you know
You seem kind of frustrated tonight and my comments had no such intention. All I can say is that my favourite albanian entries up to know are 2008 and 2004 with quite some distance from the rest.2005 had potential but did not work live or in english imo. On the other hand I detest 2006,2007 and 2012.
And once again really bad start of the season..Ukraine is wannabe trash..and this is I dunno what really? A song from 20s or what? I really dunno who on the Earth lostens to this, I want to believe that they do not exist actually! :?
There you are.
I hope Croatia are changing their minds about ESC, theres been rumours recently that they’re going with balkan boy band ‘colours and lines’, both Eurovoix and Oikiotimes have reported it.
I actually think it’s quite good… It does need some arrangement so I’d wait to hear the final ESC version to make my final thoughts
A video worth watching from the final.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nBdrbg_n6I
Venera can certainly walk away with her head held high, and she gained some great experience this weekend that will only make her better, and hungrier. We have been introduced to the future of Albanian music, and the future is bright. The sky’s the limit; she looks like a star, she sings like a star, and she carries herself on stage like a star.
I’m so impressed with this talent that I am going to something unprecedented: I’m going to give her a nickname even though she didn’t win. And its an easy one, “The Starlet.”
Hopefully, as The Starlet continues to grow, she will start refusing to share the stage with people not at her level.
I’m very happy to see Herciana, my personal favourite of FiK 2012, win this year. Hopefully the song is as impressive as “Kush ta dha këtë emër?”
I will catch up on the songs some time next week. Hope everyone in ET land is well :)
we are, how are you? you were missed during the fik final ;)
I still haven’t gotten around to listening to the song yet, LOL, I’ve been insanely busy.
There are 3 more Eesti Laul hopefuls.I don’t know,if you’ve already listened to them.
Ooh, which would they be?
I have heard MiaMee and State Of Zoe, if that’s who you are talking about?
Yes,And Maltised have released their song.
Just got back home after 48hrs (haven’t even taken my shoes off :P :D ), and rushed into switching on my p/c on ET and the article on Albania 2014. I like it after having listened to it a couple of times. It’s even better than her 2013 entry, and, lightyears better than Tak-Tak.
Best of luck neighbours.
I am confused now … Didn’t you take your shoes off for 48 hours or didn’t you take your shoes off before running to your pc? :)
…the latter :P :D
how was it, opening ET and reading the title “Herciana Matmuja to Copenhagen”? must have felt great :D
however, I am still annoyed at the song, I seriously cant remember its tune once it’s over, it needs quite a make over to stand a chance to qualify to esc final, and Herci so much deserves to!
It sure felt great, because I remember Herci, from last year’s FiK, being a great vocalist (although I was not very enthusiastic re: the song itself (FiK 12). This one is better, methinks.
As for the chances of Albania 2014 qualifying to final, I think it’s way too early, but I can see your point on being sceptic since this kind of songs usually don’t do well in esc.
unlike suus and identitet i actually wouldn’t mind if this one switches language
I usually don’t like it when countries change the language of their entry, and this one sounds fine to me; I’ll have to see the lyrics’ translation first though.
oh, i agree
i’d rather it didn’t, i just don’t think it’d annoy me too much
Its better than the tacky crap from Ukraine and the musical apocalypse that will be revealed from Austria. But this entry as some has said is a tad dull, and could definitely do with been changed into English, I think it has potential.
oh and good news everyone from what it seems Slovenia has now confirmed, an article about it was on Eurovoix, surprises me how quick Anthony Granger from that site finds out all this Eurovision knowledge and posts his news articles. It was the only English Eurovision site that fully covered turkvysion this year.
This. This is the type of music she should be singing, songs that bring out the fire and passion she possesses. And she speaks English! One day she will get the Esc ticket and use that fire to set Europe alight. One day.
These videos say it better than any words. Or just search for any of her voice Albania stuff. It’s all great.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aknq2FKcbw8
there you go again
Lol. Indeed, here I go again. It’s a new season and new names and new faces.
The names may change, the countries may change, but my enthusiasm for discovering and supporting new talent will always remain. The Starlet from Albania certainly is a talent.
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Not very interesting here. A very mediocre but still decent entry.