Albania

Zemrën E Lamë Peng Olta Boka

One of the most interesting aspects of the run-up to Eurovision is witnessing the evolution of its entries and debating how a rearrangement here or a new set of lyrics there will affect the songs' chances. But as the flood of national final winners are revealed, there is always one that can be discounted from the get-go: the winner of Festivali I Këngës. Albania occupies a unique position in the contest by being the only competing country who gets to unveil its entry twice every year. Generally it is the earliest to be decided, in the dark days of winter, and then the last to be disclosed in its competition form, which is almost always the ESC definition of an extreme makeover. It's like discovering a completely new song.

The Albanian entry in Belgrade, Zemrën E Lamë Peng, bears a number of similarities to its predecessors in terms of how it has been redressed for the contest. Each over the last five years has ended up with a higher BPM than its original as a result of the three-minute rule - which has been expedient in its way, since the composers of all of the songs have been forced to look at them and decide how best to restructure (and in some cases rescore) them to convey the same message more succinctly. The 2008 entry has benefitted from this, with a clearer musical focus and a new vocal delivery that are more attuned to the lyrics. While the backing vocals and the harmonies of the original version were lush, stripping them away and placing the emphasis entirely on Olta Boka makes much more sense and adds a certain fragility that suits the song well.

Composer Adrian Hila and lyricist Pandi Laço will be hoping for more success with Zemrën E Lamë Peng than they achieved with their previous entries, 2005's Tomorrow I Go and 2007's Hear My Plea, and if qualification for the final is the extent of their aspirations they may well come away happy. Taking to the stage straight after the somewhat ham-fisted Lithuanian entry, which itself comes after a run of uptempo rock and pop, and immediately followed by a variety of more pedestrian offerings, the Albanian entry stands out. It has very little direct competition in the second semi-final; its nearest rivals - Hungary's Candlelight and Portugal's Senhora Do Mar (Negras Águas) - are both at the other end of the draw and arguably neither as subtle or sophisticated, something juries may notice even if no one else does. A lot of course will depend on the performance and how naturally and sincerely Olta comes across.

There are two factors though which suggest Zemrën E Lamë Peng may be in with a decent chance of a Saturday night encore, with or without jury support: 10 of the other 18 voting countries in the second semi-final have sent double figures Albania's way over the last four years; and Serbia's victory in Helsinki last year proved that you could still sing a powerful [if in this case more understated] ballad in a language other than English at Eurovision and triumph. In the event that they are rewarded for their efforts with one of those ten envelopes at the end of the second semi-final, the makeover will definitely have been worth it.