The idea of Ruth Lawrence was to bring a huge diamond to Eurovision. She wanted to get inside him so that the rain she sang to would fall directly on her hair. Her claim was, to say the least, groundbreaking & mldr; above all, bearing in mind the sober staging that Spain had staged in recent years. However, little of that sketch could be carried out. So the artist decided to bet everything on her voice: with the particular claw that characterizes her, she sang Dancing In The Rain at full throttle in a B&W Hallerne (Denmark) who couldn’t resist her vocal power. The song did not start out as a favorite… but, at least, ridicule this time was not assured. The curious thing came during the votes, when she accumulated 74.
Of these, 12 came from a single territory (the maximum that one country can give to another). Normally, these would have come from Portugal either France. Or even of United Kingdom given the success he accumulated there thanks to The X Factor. The reality is that these came from the hand of Albanian. At that time, a trend that had gone unnoticed until then was brought to the table: the Balkan country is one of our great supporters in the contest and we had not realized.
The land of the eagles has 18 editions presenting songs to the famous contest. He has never won it, although he has tasted the honey after reaching fifth place in 2012 with rona nishliu. Although his pace has been quite irregular, he has been able to make a difference with contemporary proposals sprinkled with his characteristic folklore. Perhaps, for this reason, 58.82% of their candidates have qualified for the final. Among its biggest pillars are North Macedonia, Greece, Montenegro, Switzerland and Croatia. Spain no. Perhaps because here it still feels like a distant destination geographically and culturally.
A cliché that is easily distorted with the following data: our country is the fourth best valued in the history of Albania in the festival. 55 votes compared to 14 in Italy and 18 in the UK in the same period of time. She draws with France and is only surpassed by Portugal. In addition, of these five, it is the one that has given us the most points in 2006 (6), 2007 (12), 2013 (6) and 2014 (12).
The fury that we provoked there does not remain on paper. As a curiosity, its citizens have shared a meme on numerous occasions in which a map is seen where Albania occupies the place of Portugal. Beyond the joke the relationship between both regions goes back a long way. And hence the affection with which they treat us at Eurovision. The connection started with Alfonso V of Aragon. “This king signed the Gaeta agreement in 1452, by which the Albanian national hero became his vassal and installed a Catalan-Aragonese military garrison & rdquor ;, he explains. Anastasi ProdaniSpanish teacher at the University of Tirana.
Talk about Skanderberg, the aristocrat who stopped the attack of the Ottoman Empire, delaying the occupation of the Adriatic by several decades. After his death, his wife went to the kingdom of Naples and she died in the monastery of the Santísima Trinidad in Valencia.
Another link is found in the Albanian volunteers who fought in our Civil War. An ignored reference that inspired one of the most important novels in the country: So longby Petro Marko. In the long run, the opposite happened: the Spaniards from the Revolutionary Antifascist and Patriotic Front found in this republic the ideal place to continue romanticizing their partisan struggle. “Many worked as teachers at the Asim Vokshi institute and as broadcasters on Radio Tirana. Others did the same in the only editorial as stylistic correctors & rdquor ;, continues Prodani.
This place remained closed to the rest of the world for 41 years as a result of the communist dictatorship of Enver Hoxha. Hence, it has been a true unknown in the Old Continent. In fact, at that time, the only three territories to which the entry of Spaniards was not allowed were Albania, North Korea and Outer Mongolia.
The power of Julio Iglesias
“Hispanic culture increased its popularity at the same time that the post-communist crisis was advancing, a time when people spent hours in front of television and radio & rdquor ;, he maintains Miguel Roan, political scientist, writer and expert on the Balkans. The boom it took place thanks to literature and, of course, series. “From the 1990s onwards, numerous Latin American novelsWhat Ruby either Rebel. This generated a colorful approach to Spain that is still maintained & rdquor ;.
Part of the blame was also played by football, which moved fans of Real Madrid and Barcelona for the thousands of bars that run through the cities of Vlorë, Durrës, Berat, Shkodër, Sarandë, Gjirokastër… To this day, he continues to do it en masse. almost the same as the Pedro Almodovar film and the Julio Iglesias music. His Latin rhythms are danced at any wedding and there is no restaurant that does not put one of his songs up to date. Also, they know Miguel de Cervantesthen The Quijote It was studied as a compulsory work in Baccalaureate and, sometimes, it even fell in the Selectivity exams.
The love for this book is so great that its citizens say that Dulcinea was from Ulcinj, a city that today belongs to Montenegro. They even assure that his creator was captive there and fell in love with a young woman who would later inspire this character.
As for the theatre, Fortunate and Jacinta She was one of the regulars at the National Theater and the Academy of Fine Arts. Without forgetting the enormous success that Bernarda Alba’s house It is enough every time it is programmed, since the protagonist is quite reminiscent of the Albanian woman. Regarding gastronomy, despite its proximity to Italy, it is more similar to the Spanish. It is a mix between East and West that is reflected in almost identical dishes such as bean stew, rice pudding or black pudding with rice.
Rita Ora, Dua Lipa, Ava Max…
There is no doubt that culture is one of its great pillars. It is a way of expressing who they are and of banishing the prejudices that, over several decades, have unfairly fallen on them. For this reason, his entry into Eurovision was received with such fervor. “The dictatorship left us isolated and poor. We were the Europe’s great unknowns. We have had to fight in every way to recover & rdquor ;, he assures Roni Klein, forerunner of the festival in Albania. “It is a great platform to show our identity. We have a lot to offer the continent’s music scene.”
Just take a look at some of today’s big names to see. All of them from an Albanian family: Rita Ora, Dua Lipa, Ava Max, Bebe Rexha, Eleni Foureria, Ermonela Jaho, Elhaida Dani…
The republic debuted in the contest with Anzeja Shahini and The Image Of You. The singer was chosen through the Festivali i Këngësa contest similar to the Italian San Remo that has been held every December since 1962. Since 2004, it is the official means of choosing the Eurovision representative.
“We take this opportunity very seriously. We work so far in advance to try to get the best out of ourselves, without waiting to see what other delegations do & rdquor ;, adds Klein, who emphasizes one final piece of information. “We always compete with songs written and produced by national artists. We do it this way because it is a way of show our originality. Something that also happens with Spain… And we love that & rdquor ;.
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