The Festivali i Këngës had already started two days ago, on December 19th, when all twenty entries were presented. On the following evening, all songs were presented again, but in different duet versions, which the artists performed together with other popular, but non-competing singers. Tonight, the final of the festival took place, where all twenty songs were presented again in their original versions.
In the end, a jury of music experts voted on the songs and picked the winner. The top three were as follows:
Kejsi Tola - Më Merr Në Ëndërr (126 points)
Juliana Pasha & Luiz Ejlli - Një Jetë (119 points)
West Side Family - Jehonë (118 points)
Thus, Kejsi Tola won the festival by a quite small margin: only seven points separate her from the second place. Kejsi Tola was the winner of the fourth season of Ethet, the Albanian version of Pop Idol. Her song Më Merr Në Ëndërr (You take me with you in a dream) was written by Edmond Zhulali and Agim Doçi, who had also written the first ever Albanian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest in 2004, The Image Of You. Back then, Anjeza Shahini had come seventh in the Final of the Eurovision Song Contest, the best placing of an Albanian representative to date.
You can watch Kejsi Tola's winning performance on the final night of the Festivali i Këngës here:
