Christmas is coming, and as is tradition in the world of Eurovision, us fans have already celebrated FiKmas last week. Albania was once again the first country to broadcast a national selection, after having been beaten to it by Montenegro last year. This time, Montesong respected the traditions of letting its neighbour open the season, only to take place a the day right after the Albanian final.
And what a week it has been. A week of contrasts, and duality: from two very different semi-finals in Albania, to two very different finals over the week-end.
FiKmas semi-finals: two sides of a coin
I have to admit I am not a keen follower of the Festivali, and do not always celebrate Fikmas. By the way, did you know that “Fikmas” was already used among fan circles as far back as 2003? If you know about earlier instances, please get in touch, we like a bit of historical research.
Out of this tangent, let us get back to my first point: I do not enjoy the Festivali i Këngës the same way I enjoy and follow, for example, Sanremo, to take a close neighbour in the “Festivaliverse”. Or the Luxembourg Song Contest, in a very different style. Like many fans, some years I watch it, some years I don’t. But in the turmoil that our community is facing these days, it felt important to switch on the Youtube stream and see what the beginning of the actual selection season had in store for us. And folks, it delivered.
We started with two semi-finals, and here was the first duality: a great first night, a chaotic second one.
Heads: Wonder Wednesday
The first semi-final, on Wednesday, was a great introduction to the season. It was well-filmed and it was a strong show in terms of line-up, with both favourites performing (Alis and Inis Neziri). We knew that coming in, and now that we have the final results, it appears even more clearly: the final Top 3 came from this semi-final, and so did three out of the five “newcomers” qualifiers (one of them, Sheila, finishing third on Saturday). And the only chaotic thing in it was the sudden running order change, in the middle of the show, when “Balukeprera” performed 7th instead of 14th… Scary, but the kind of chaos we enjoy.
It also gave us Elhaida Dani with Céline Dion vibes, a super-positive performance of Albania’s JESC entry “Fruta Perime”, and the first big meme of the season: Sara Kapo’s lipstick act.
Tails: Thorny Thursday
Compared to this, Thursday’s night was… something else. The songs were, in general, less interesting, and the best ones were kept for last, meaning we had to wait a long time before getting to them, with no running order change to save us.
It was also an evening riddled with streaming issues on Youtube, with at least three performances cut short. It seems that TV viewers did not face the issues, only us international dwellers with a fleeting interest in the Balkan music industry. Despite this, we still got some interesting performances, like Endri Kaçaçi acting like an angel in the sky, or dancers hatching live on stage.
In general, while the first semi-final was a very enjoyable evening, the second one felt like a budget version of Sanremo: stairs, monologues, an orchestra, but no dress changes and few interesting songs. I love Sanremo: I want the whole experience, not this. And yes, the stairs and monologues were there in the first semi-final too, but that felt like proper Sanremo. So, RTSH, you have the capacity to do great and you’ve shown it: I believe in you!
Now, I gently mock the budget for the Festivali, but there was a real budget production last week, in Montenegro. Not that it didn’t deliver.
Finals’ weekend: a world of difference
The Festivali’s semi-finals may have been different, but they shared a host, an artistic director, a venue, an orchestra, etc. They were the same selection, just two sides of the same coin. But when you compare the finals from Saturday (Albania’s Festivali) and Sunday (Montenegro’s Montesong), you enter into Yin and Yang territory.
These were opposite in so many ways. The Festivali was live all the way to the music with its professional orchestra, while Montesong showed pre-recorded performances with playback on some of the guest acts (the actual acts obviously had “live” vocals). The Festivali had a large public in a congress centre, very “1970’s-1980’s” Eurovision-style, while Montesong had no audience and used a small TV studio. The Festivali had Tommy Cash as an interval act (3rd in Eurovision 2025), Montesong had Abor & Tynna (15th, but they were also invited to be part of the jury). Albania’s show felt like a huge traditional production, while Montenegro’s felt like a 2021 season lower-scale production, even including social distancing between the hosts.
It may sound like I am mocking RTCG, the Montenegrin broadcaster, for a lower-scale production, but I am not. The truth is that these are two neighbouring countries with different broadcasting histories, different financial means, and different ambitions. My contrasts may have felt disparaging but to me this is a story of how two different worlds will end up meeting in Vienna. Two out of thirty-five.
The charm and creativity of Montesong
RTCG and its teams were creative and aimed to make the evening entertaining and impactful even with less means, less space, no live audience, etc. And I think they managed to do just that.
A point of contention may be the “postcards” for each artist, which clearly looked like generative AI. Of course, if you are against the use of generative AI in this kind of production, it is a disappointment. But I think that most viewers don’t mind it as long as it does not reach a sort of “uncanny valley” level. This is what happened for many fans in Junior Eurovision last year. Personally, I thought it looked good, as it was not instinctively off-putting. It also followed that warm orange visual identity that Montesong wanted to use for the 2025 edition, so it was on-brand. And the music theme was super catchy.
Montesong also brought some very good staging (despite a few cameramen sometimes caught in the shots), and managed to create different atmospheres with a good combination of a few LED screens, lights, outfits and smoke machines. The opener “Rythm Boy” showed us that these acts meant business, and most of those that followed lived up to that promise. I especially liked the atmosphere created for “Doline”, and of course the winning entry “Nova Zora”.
I also enjoyed the voting experience, because we international fans could vote online (while the Festivali teased a form of international voting months ago but apparently scaled down its ambitions). The system was clearly hosted by Once (the Eurovision voting partner) with ESC ressources, but unlike some selections that used the same service last year, it was actually hosted on the RTCG website itself, and felt like a good mix of both worlds. After having voted (and paid 70 cents per vote), you ended up on a page with short “Thank you” videos from the artists you had chosen, which felt like a very rewarding experience.
And finally, although I compared the Eurovision 2025 guest acts of both selections by using their eventual ranking, Montesong did what Chefsache ESC 2025 never managed to do: it gave us a live performance of “Winnetou”, the best song in Abor & Tynna’s album.
United by Zjerm
Two shows, two worlds, “united by music”, to speak like an EBU representative. But there really was one thing uniting these two shows by music: their shared interval guest act, Shkodra Elektronike. The duo performed both “Zjerm” and their new track “Fosforon” in both shows.
And despite obvious similarities between both performances (including Kolë using a Macbook at the back of the stage), the duo almost shared that Yin and Yang theory that I have going on, with Beatriçe dressed accordingly: in a light, beige-white dress on Saturday, and in a dark, flowery one on Sunday. Both performances had live vocals, and both re-used their Basel video assets (for “Zjerm”) on a smaller stage but with great effect. But I preferred the Montesong act: with a smaller stage, they probably gave us the best filming yet of Kolë’s dramatic spoken words part, even more impactful than in Basel itself.
So yes, these were two different experiences, but that’s why we love this world of Eurovision, even in a troubled season like this one. With more limited means, RTCG delivered something that was on par, if not sometimes better, than a grand Festivali. And in the end, despite different budgets, the Vienna stage will have an equalising and uplifting effect on both.
A word on the winners: women’s stories
Beyond these musings on the selection shows and their productions, let’s quickly conclude with a few words on who was actually selected: two artists coming back after participating in the previous edition of their respective show.
They are Alis with “Nân” for Albania, and Tamara Živković with “Nova Zora” for Montenegro. Both are contenders for a spot in the Saturday’s Grand Final in Vienna, although I feel like Alis has a stronger chance for now, and I personally prefer “Nân”.
Both sing dark songs, visually and musically. Both sing about women, lyrically.
“Nova Zora” is a liberation song about women freeing themselves from the shackles of patriarchy and finally finding love for themselves, beauty for themselves (and not for the male gaze), basically finding a “new dawn” (nova zora). Plot twist though, it was written by a man, Boris Subotić.
As for “Nân” (Mother), it is a song about mothers who see their children leave the family home “for a better life”, and the feeling of emptiness and longing that comes with it. It’s sung through the voice of a mother, with the lyrics written by a woman, Desara Gjini, although it is a man who sings them (Alis).
Although the title would make it easy to compare it to “Maman” from Louane, it’s actually much more into the lineage of “De la capăt / All Over Again” (Romania 2015) and “Rim Tim Tagi Dim” (Croatia 2024), adding another perspective to these migration stories. After the parents leaving their children in their home country to work abroad and earn a better life for their family (“De la capăt / All Over Again”) and after the child leaving his rural home for the city, possibly for another country (“Rim Tim Tagi Dim”), it’s time to hear the voices of those left behind, and especially the mothers.
And there goes this Fikmas report. Happy Christmas to all of those who celebrate, happy holidays in any case (if you have any), and don’t forget to check our regular news updates, as well as our traditional ESC250 update on 31 December, where I fully expect “Zjerm” to be the highest ranked 2025 entry.
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