As Eurovision tradition dictates, Albania have given us the first song for the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest.
Lindita Halimi triumphed at the Festivali i Kenges 55 with a song called Botë – which translates as ‘World’. Halimi has since taken to Facebook to confirm she is working on a revamp. The song will have a more ‘universal‘ feel by the time she performs in Kiev. Or in other words, she’s going to sing in English.
Halimi lives in the US, speaks fluent English and made the final 51 in a recent run of Pop Idol. All of which suggests that universal probably also means removing any hint of the song’s Albanian roots.
In related news, Wiwibloggs reports a gloriously bitchy online spat between Halimi and last year’s winner Eneda Tarifa.
Back in March, when Eneda released the revamp of the FiK 54 winner “Fairytale”, Lindita took a Facebook swipe at the song. She called it ‘depressing, dramatic and shouty’.
No sooner had the glitter settled on this year’s show, than Eneda returned the favour, suggesting Botë to be equally old-fashioned.
Albania is traditionally the first nation to pick both singer and song for Eurovision, check out our calendar for details about upcoming national finals.