Albania first participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2004, in Istanbul. It was the same year in which the Semi-Final system was introduced. Anjeza Shahini carried her nations debut hopes, and ended up delivering a very respectable 7th place in the Final.
Albania's record at a glance
- First participation - 2004 - Anjeza Shahini - The Image Of You
- Best result - 5th place in Final (2012) - Rona Nishliu - Suus
- Semi-Final record - 5/8 attempts successful - 62.5% qualification record
- Highest score in the Final - 146 (2012) - Rona Nishliu - Suus
You can see the full information about all of Albania's participants and entries here in the history section of Eurovision.tv
2012 was Albania's most successful attempt to date. Rona Nishliu took the highly emotive ballad Suus to the top five in Baku. You can see her performance in the video below.
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Albania facts and figures
- Albania have tended to prefer the female soloist for their Eurovision Song Contest entries, and have opted for this format on seven of their nine entries
- The Albanian entry is always one of the first chosen for Eurovision during their annual Festival I Këngës competition in December. This means that the winner has almost six months to perfect their entry
- Over their nine years of participation, during the voting in the Final, the Albanian juries have awarded Greece the maximum 12 points on six occasions. These being 2004,2005,2008,2009,2010 and 2012
- The country which has voted for Albanian entries the most times is F.Y.R. Macedonia, awarding 12 points to Albania four times
