I’m playing catch-up on That Phil and That Mo, dear Oneuropeans, but fear not, you have not lost my Countdown this year. My musings are a-coming. Oh yes they are.
I do enjoy something rousing in the Balkans. Unfortunately, this year Albania’s offering may be dramatic, but it leaves me only semi-stirred. Local star Jonida Maliqi finally gets a crack at Eurovision on her 10th attempt at Albania’s Festivali i Këngës.
It’s a bleak dystopian vision (there’s a fair bit of that this year), the video depicting a desolate wasteland, where children play whilst fire burns then rain soaks our Jonida. All the while she sings of how the lost, isolated and hopeless will still find a heart waiting for them in the homeland. Goodness me, it’s almost like a blatant call to vote for the motherland for the widely dispersed Albanian diaspora…
It’s never unpleasant though, and this will strike a chord in the Albanian psyche of all those ex-pats living across Europe, but its semi-rousing limitations may be a harbinger of where its potential ends. I’m adopting a RAG rating to assess the likelihood of qualification this year, and by my calculation this is one of 7 amber songs vying for three remaining green light positions in the final.
Monty’s score: 6 points
Welcome back, Monty 🙂