ESC 2012: "Suus" for Albania

Albania's national final was held over four nights in Tirana and resulted in a very clear victory for "Suus" performed and co-written by Rona Nishliu, a 25 year old singer from Kosovo.

The jurors were rather unanimous in their decision, and the audience in the hall audibly agreed that the right song won.

The right song for Festivali i Këngës, that is. This is a prestigious old festival with a history very much of its own, designed for very different purposes than to find a three-minute pop piece to knock the socks off European competition.

Eurovision demands different things from what a contest like FiK would, could or should produce. Most of the FiK winners have lent themselves quite well to the ESC format, but that is more a co-incidence than anything else.

I dare suggest that Rona Nishliu might get a hard time trying to sell "Suus" to the European audience it wasn't designed for.

Maybe it would be time for Albania to let the Festivali i Këngës be what it is and flourish in its own right and find another modus to select their Eurovision entries?

Rona Nishliu - Suus from ESC 2012 on Vimeo.

Rona Nishliu - Suus (Albania 2012)