Albania at Eurovision 2008

The selection of participants took place as part of the music festival “ Festivali i Këngës 46 ". Semifinals were held on December 14 and 15 . Of the 30 participants, they reached the final 17. On December 16, the final passed, and Olta Boka won the first place with the song Zemrën E Lamë Peng .

Responsible for broadcasting the semifinals and finals was RTSH , which showed the competition in full. The commentator and, concurrently, the herald was the host Leon Menshi .

The chances of a successful performance in Albania were regarded as low. The author of the independent Internet project Eurovision-Kazakhstan, Andrey Mikheev, noted a good text of the ballad, but criticized the melody, saying that viewers could fall asleep under it. He put the following grades on a 10-point scale: ^[1]

• Music: A ballad in which only very dedicated fans of Balkan music can find something interesting. There is no development in the song. 6/10
• Text: The original text is quite good for a ballad song, let's see what the English version will be. 8/10
• Vocals: Confident. 8/10
• Bottom line: It is urgently necessary to make some kind of dance remix, otherwise Europe will simply fall asleep. 7/10

The chairman of the Russian OGAE fan club, Anton Kulakov, was more positive, considering the song stronger than many ballads by Zhelko Yoksimovich and expecting to see it in the final: ^[1]

• Music: Very, very strong. The Balkan ballad is NOT in the style of Yoksimovich. 8/10
• Text: The theme of the clock with a phase shift is disclosed. Very intelligent. 8/10
• Vocals: Quite nice and unobtrusive. 8/10
• Bottom line: A solid chance of passing to the finals, and not the fact that it makes sense to make an English text. 8.5 / 10

Olta Boka took 9th place in the second semi-final with 67 points and reached the final. In the final, she performed under the 3rd serial number and received 55 points, taking 17th place.

Semifinal

In the finals

• Albania at Eurovision 2008