Albania in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2017

Albania participated in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2017, which took place in Tbilisi, Georgia on 26 November 2017. The Albanian broadcaster RTSH was responsible for the organization of their representative at the contest. Their entry was selected through Junior Fest 2017, a national selection process consisting of sixteen artists who competed to become the Albanian representative on 14 October 2017. Ana Kodra is an Albanian singer who won the selection with the song "Mos ma prekni pemën", meaning "Don't Touch My Tree".

Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2017
Country Albania
National selection
Selection processJunior Fest 2017
Selection date(s)
  • 14 October 2017
Selected entrantAna Kodra
Selected song"Don't Touch My Tree"
Finals performance
Final result13th, 67 points
Albania in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest
◄2016 2017 2018►

Background edit

Prior to the 2017 contest, Albania had participated in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest three times since its first entry in 2012, only opting not to participate at the 2013 and 2014 contests. Albania has never won the contest, with their best result being in 2015, with the song "Dambaje" performed by Mishela Rapo, achieving fifth place with a score of 93 points. In 2016, Klesta Qehaja represented Albania in Valletta, Malta with the song "Besoj".[1] The country ended in 13th place out of 17 countries, achieving 38 points.

Before Junior Eurovision edit

Junior Fest 2017 edit

The national final Junior Fest 2017 took place on 14 October 2017. It consisted sixteen competing acts participating in a televised production where the winner was determined by a jury panel.[2] Sixteen songs took part in Junior Fest 2017, which was held in the Palace of Congresses in Tirana. A three-member professional jury, made up of Fatma Methasani, Andi Bajgora and Lum Veseli, selected Ana Kodra as the winner of the selection with the song "Mos ma prekni pemën". The song was later entitled "Don't Touch My Tree" along with the release of the official video on 14 November 2017.

Draw Artist Song Language
1 Kristiana Veshaj "Profesioni" Albanian
2 Amela Agastra "Dance Up" Albanian
3 Sara Bajraktari "Flas me ëndrrën" Albanian
4 Auron Ismaili "Shkolla e vjetër" Albanian
5 Ana Kodra "Mos ma prekni pemën" Albanian
6 Valeria Cara "Kohën pas ta kthej" Albanian
7 Kleansa Susaj "Melodi" Albanian
8 Vivjan Kokeri "Historia që nuk flet" Albanian
9 Jana Shala "Si një melodi" Albanian
10 Argisa Sako "Hola" Albanian, Spanish
11 Diana Tahiri "Një sekret" Albanian
12 Alina Jani "Yjet" Albanian
13 Uendi Goga "Të japim ty një shpresë" Albanian
14 Vivian Biagioni "Si në përrallë" Albanian
15 Klaudia & Eliza Thartori "Garderoba" Albanian
16 Ajla Buzi "DJ Pom" Albanian

Artist and song information edit

Ana Kodra edit

Ana Kodra
Born (2007-03-23) 23 March 2007 (age 17)[3]
Albania
Occupation(s)Singer
Instrument(s)Vocals, piano
Years active2015–present
"Don't Touch My Tree"
Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2017 entry
Country
Artist(s)
Ana Kodra
Languages
Albanian, English
Composer(s)
Kristi Popa
Lyricist(s)
Jorgo Papingji
Entry chronology
◄ "Besoj" (2016)
"Barbie" (2018) ►

Ana Kodra (born 23 March 2007) is an Albanian singer. She represented Albania in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the song "Mos ma prekni pemën". She finished in 13th place with 67 points.

Ana began performing at the age of eight years old when she participated in the TV show Tú sí que vales. Despite her young age, she managed to go to the final and to create her own fan base. At the age of nine, Ana became part of the TV show Gjeniu i vogël. In addition to that, she won the second prize at the National Children's Festival in Shkodër.

Ana participated in the second series of The Voice Kids Albania where she gave a very impressive and confident performance in the Blind Auditions of the song Evil Like Me from the Disney movie, Descendants. All judges turned their chair, and she picked Miriam Cani as her coach. She finished in the top 6.

In 2019, she auditioned for Britain's Got Talent.

Don't Touch My Tree edit

"Don't Touch My Tree" (originally Mos ma prekni pemën) is a song performed by Albanian child singer Ana Kodra. It represented Albania in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2017.

At Junior Eurovision edit

During the opening ceremony and the running order draw which took place on 20 November 2017, Albania was drawn to perform tenth on 26 November 2017, following Georgia and preceding Ukraine.[4]

Voting edit

In 2017, a new voting system was introduced, in which the results were determined by 50% online voting and 50% jury voting. Every country had a national jury that consisted of three music industry professionals and two children aged between 10 and 15 who were citizens of the country they represented. The rankings of those jurors were combined to make an overall top ten.[5]

The online voting consisted of two phases. The first phase of the online voting began on 24 November 2017 when a recap of all the rehearsal performances was shown on the contest's website Junioreurovision.tv before the viewers could vote. After this, voters also had the option to watch longer one-minute clips from each participant's rehearsal. This first round of voting ended on Sunday 26 November at 15:59 CET. The second phase of the online voting took place during the live show and began right after the last performance and was open for 15 minutes. International viewers were able vote for a minimum of three and a maximum of five songs.[6] They were also able to vote for their own country's song. These votes were then turned into points which were determined by the percentage of votes received. For example, if a song received 10% of the votes, it received 10% of the available points.

Detailed voting results edit

Detailed voting results from Albania[7]
Draw Country Juror A Juror B Juror C Juror D Juror E Average Rank Points Awarded
01   Cyprus 12 13 10 14 12 14
02   Poland 3 3 2 6 4 3 8
03   Netherlands 13 12 13 3 13 13
04   Armenia 2 7 3 1 3 2 10
05   Belarus 9 2 12 9 5 6 5
06   Portugal 14 15 15 15 15 15
07   Ireland 10 14 6 5 8 8 3
08   Macedonia 6 6 8 4 7 5 6
09   Georgia 1 4 1 2 2 1 12
10   Albania
11   Ukraine 11 5 14 8 6 9 2
12   Malta 15 9 7 7 11 12
13   Russia 4 1 11 12 1 4 7
14   Serbia 5 10 5 13 10 7 4
15   Australia 8 8 9 11 9 10 1
16   Italy 7 11 4 10 14 11

References edit

  1. ^ Malaj, Eris (1 June 2016). "JESC 2016: Klesta Qehaja to represent Albania with Besoj". eurovisionary.com. EuroVisionary. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  2. ^ Granger, Anthony (23 June 2017). "Albania: selects for Junior Eurovision on September 23". Eurovoix. Retrieved 28 July 2017.
  3. ^ About Ana Kodra (in Portuguese)
  4. ^ "The running order for Junior Eurovision 2017 is revealed!". European Broadcasting Union. 20 November 2017. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  5. ^ Granger, Anthony (15 November 2018). "Junior Eurovision 2018 – How Does The Voting Work?". Eurovoix.
  6. ^ Farren, Neil (10 November 2017). "Voting in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest". Eurovoix. Archived from the original on 11 November 2017.
  7. ^ a b c "Results of the Final of Tbilisi 2017". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 1 June 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2021.