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Albania: Dates and rules for national selection

04 December 2008 at 21:02 CET

The 2008  Festivali i Këngës will consist of two semi-finals, to be held on 19th and 20th of December, and the final, to take place on 21st of December. All three shows will be broadcast live from the Palace of Congress in Tirana, and they can be watched via satellite on TVSH. This year, there have been some slight changes to the voting procedure compared to previous editions of the festival. On the final night, seven jurors will vote on the finalists, and they will openly announce their votes one by one. In addition to that, the public can give their opinion on the songs by SMS voting, the results of which will be added to the jury votes, making up 25% of the total result.

The  Festivali i Këngës has been taking place every year since 1962, but for more than four decades, it did not have any connection with the Eurovision Song Contest. Anjeza Shahini was the first festival winner to make it to the Eurovision Song Contest stage in 2004, reaching the 7th place with her song The Image Of You - the best placing of an Albanian representative to date. The names of the participating singers of this year's Festivali i Këngës and the titles of their songs will be known early next week - stay with us for more information!