Albania is traditionally the first nation to select its entrant for the Eurovision Song Contest and this year was no exception as Jonida Maliqi was selected with her song “Ktheju tokës” before 2019 had even begun. With Festival i Këngës taking place so early, Albania use the time to their advantage to craft a new version of the winning entry ready for Eurovision. It is this new version of “Ktheju tokës” which Jonida Maliqi will be performing in Tel Aviv in May, but first she will be taking to the iconic Café de Paris stage to perform to the intimate London crowd.
Albania returns to the London Eurovision Party
“Ktheju tokës”, meaning Return to the Land in English, has remained fully in the Albanian language whilst the instrumentation to the ethnically-infused pop rock song has been improved and sounds even stronger than before.
Oh Jonida Maliqi will be following in the steps of Elhaida Dani who performed her popular entry “I’m Alive” at the event in 2015 ahead of the contest in Vienna, Austria.
Only a few tickets remain
The final tickets were released from production hold last weekend and only a few are left. Make sure to book your place at the event now!
Jonida Maliqi is the 23rd artist confirmed to perform at the London Eurovision Party 2019. She will be joined at the event by:
- Our headline act, Michael Rice from the United Kingdom
- Miki from Spain
- SuRie who represented the United Kingdom in 2018
- Eliot from Belgium
- Lake Malawi from the Czech Republic
- You Decide star Holly Tandy
- Bilal Hassani from France
- Magdalena Tul who represented Poland in 2011
- Paenda from Austria
- Leonora from Denmark
- EyeCue who represented North Macedonia in 2018
- KEiiNO from Norway
- Darude feat. Sebastian Rejman from Finland
- Jurij Veklenko from Lithuania
- Tulia from Poland
- Carousel from Latvia
- Victor Crone from Estonia
- Sarah McTernan from Ireland
- Anna Bergendahl who represented Sweden in 2010
- John Lundvik from Sweden
- Duncan Laurence from The Netherlands – the first time that the nation has appeared at the London Eurovision Party
- Mahmood from Italy
Stay tuned to ESCXTRA.com for further artist announcements over the coming days and weeks!
