This year's Festivali i Këngës started already on Christmas Eve with the presentation of all songs in the stars section. On the second night, a festival for young talents in the Albanian music scene was held, which was won by Goldi Halili and Irish Hoxha - they gained an additional spot in the show's final.
In the final of Festivali i Këngës, the Albanian representative in the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest was chosen. The show featured a total of 20 entries, two of which had proceeded to the final by occupying the top spots in the youth section of the festival, which took place on the 25th of December.
In the end, an expert jury voted on the songs, which led to the victory of Juliana Pasha. She had already taken part in the Albanian national finals for the Eurovision Song Contest in 2009 and 2008, reaching the 2nd and 3rd place respectively. This year, she finally made it to Europe's favourite TV-show!
See our interview with her below:
Also, see for yourself, how she performs her winning entry.
Who is she?
Juliana Pasha's career started at the Albanian Radio Television Song contest in 1999, and in 2000 she was awarded with the Vace Zela prize as the Best young vocalist, and almost every year she has won different prizes. As an interesting fact, she's working on her first album with Christian songs.
Her song was written by Ardit Gjebrea and Pirro Çako. The first is one of the best-known singers, loved by the public in Albania and abroad. He is also a very well known composer, a host and television presenter. Pirro Çako is an Albanian artist born in Tirana and is known as a composer and singer.
She'll perform twelfth in the first Semi-Final on the 25th of May in Oslo, Norway
