Albania: Elhaida Dani the winner of the 53rd Festivali i Këngës

Elhaida Dani was  the winner of 53rd Festivali i Këngës, the annual music festival in Albania the winner of which  represents the country in the Eurovision Song Contest. After the two semi finals that took part on the 26th and 27th of December, this night the grand final of the 53rd Festivali i Këngës took place  in Tirana. A total of 18 acts ( 9 from each semi final) competed but the golden ticket to Vienna won Elhaida Dani with her song Te kerkoj.

Elhaida comes to succeed  Hersi, last year’s winner of  Festivali i Këngës  with her entry One night’s anger,which represented Albania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Copenhagen and despite her good performance on stage she didn’t manage to qualify to the grand final. Albania participated in the contest first time in 2004 but has never won it. The country’s best placing  was in 2012 in Baku with Rona Nishliu’s Suus and it’s 5th place (146 pts).