Albania: Festivali i Këngës 61 - Night 2 highlights and qualifiers

This morning, Australian time, Albania's week-long music event Festivali i Këngës (FiK) had its second night performances.

The festival takes place over four nights and will decide who represents Albania at Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool.

There is a change up to the decision making this year, with a traditional jury picking a song to win the festival while the public will choose the representative for Eurovision separately.

The second night saw half of the 26 participants take part (you can see the highlights of the first night here) and we've picked out some of the highlights.

Additionally, five of the 10 new artists were selected by the jury to compete in Friday's final.

Our Top Picks

Elsa Lila - 'Evita'

A very established artist in Albania, Elsa showed her class with this strong ballad. Her emotional performance was backed up by the best arrangement of the orchestra of the night.

Manjola Nallbani - 'Dua'

In a ballad heavy evening, Manjola was the first to serve us something up tempo. Backed up by four dancers, brought a traditional bop that was enjoyed by fans. Is it the strongest vocally? No... but on night 2 that did not matter.

Vanesa Sono - 'Aroma jonë'

Vanesa ended the show with this more contemporary ballad that would stand out in a more diverse line-up.

Potential

Evi Reçi - 'Ma kthe'

Another strong and experienced artist, Evi performed this well but perhaps the song needed a little more "oomph" to take it to the next level.

Lynx - 'Nëse ke besim'

The only rock number of the evening, Lynx performed it well and it had some nice melodic moments throughout.

All videos are available on the RTSH broadcaster YouTube account: https://www.youtube.com/@RadioTelevizioniShqiptar/videos

Qualifiers

The 26 artists are split between 16 established artists and 10 "new artists".

Only five new artists advanced to the final which takes place on Friday.

The "new" artists who qualified were:

Erma Mici, Melodajn Mancaku, Vanesa Sono, Urban Band and Gent Hoxha

And the ones who missed out were:

Anduel Kovaçi, Sara Kapo, Luna Çausholli, Permit of Stay, Arsi Bako

Established artists all automatically make it through.

The final will be on the morning of Friday 23 December in Australia, Thursday 22 December in Europe.

For continued updates on all Eurovision Song Contest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. All the links can be found at: https://linktr.ee/aussievisionnet