After months of waiting and after a few intense weeks for the Eurovision fandom, the 2026 Eurovision season is finally here, with the coming of what fans have been dubbing “Fikmas” for many years, as Albania’s selection for Eurovision 2026 begins tonight. It is the first evening of a festival of four shows, which will close on Saturday.
🇦🇱 Albania – Festivali i Këngës 64 – Night one (Semi-final 1)
When?
21:00 CET, until 00:00 CET
Where?
- Online, on Youtube
- Physically, at the Pallati e Kongreseve in Tirana
Who?
Fourteen songs will perform tonight, half of the line-up of the Festival, with the second half performing tomorrow evening.
The running order for tonight:
- Rigersa Loka – “Albanian Heart”
- Lorenc Hasrama – “Lamtumirë”
- Sara Kapo – “Të dua shumë”
- Sheila – “Zemra e Tokës”
- Kleansa Susaj – “Hije”
- Gresa Gjocera & Bledi Kaso – “Busulla e zemrës”
- Ghiti – “Okej!”
- Lynx – “Nuk kthehem pas”
- Erand Sojli – “Të kam në fron”
- Inis Neziri – “Ta kam fal”
- Kimi – “Prap diell del”
- Alis – “Nân”
- Enxhi Nasufi – “Dritë”
- Rezarta Smaja – “Balukeprera”
The show will be hosted by Salsano Rrapi and Arilena Ara, Arilena being the winner of Festivali 58 back in 2019, which made her Albania’s representative for Eurovision 2020 until its cancellation.
Among the guests artists, the script author Belioza Çoku has revealed that Elhaida Dani (this year’s artistic director, who also represented Albania the last time the contest was in Vienna, back in 2015) will open the evening. She also teased the presence of Kroni Pula, the Junior Eurovision Albanian representative who earned the 6th place in Tbilisi only a few days ago, and other Albanian guests, for this evening and the coming ones.
Format
A jury, led by tenor Ramë Lahaj, will watch the performance closely, and will vote on the entries, alongside the public, in a classic 50/50 ratio. A few months earlier, Elhaida Dani explained that the public vote would be split between a local vote (with SMS from Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro and North Macedonia) and a worldwide online vote, called the “diaspora vote”, which would be submitted through a special Festivali app.
There has not been any news about this online voting recently, and the official regulations only mention SMS voting. Thus, it is unclear as of now how the voting will proceed.
According to the regulations, votes will be published after the show, but the final list of finalists will only be revealed after the third night of the Festival, with a maximum of 18 entries making it to the Saturday, final Night.
And don’t forget to make your predictions on the winner with Eurovision Prediction.
Even if you’ve played before, you will need to register again for this season.
You can do it with this link.
Predictions for the Festivali i Këngës will close at midnight CET between Friday and Saturday.
Will you watch the first night of the Festival? Who do you think will qualify from this semi-final? Who are your favourites? Tell us more in the comments below!
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