Albania participated in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2021 in Paris, France, with the song "Stand by You" performed by Anna Gjebrea. Its entry was selected through the national selection competition Junior Fest 2021 organised by Radio Televizioni Shqiptar (RTSH) in October 2021. The country returned to the contest after an absence of one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prior to the 2021 contest, Albania had participated in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest six times since its first entry in 2012, only opting not to participate at the 2013, 2014 and 2020 contests. Albania has never won the contest, with their best result being in 2015, with the song "Dambaje" by Mishela Rapo achieving fifth place with a score of 93 points.[1] The country did not participate in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic,[2] but on 18 August 2021, RTSH announced that Albania will participate at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2021 following their one-year absence.[3]
Before Junior Eurovision
Junior Fest 2021
Despite reports that the Albanian entry for the competition would be chosen internally,[4] the Albanian broadcaster Radio Televizioni Shqiptar (RTSH) revealed in September 2021 that the Albanian representative will be chosen via the national selection competition Junior Fest 2021.[5]
Interested artists were able to send in their applications, starting from 29 September until 15 October.[5][6] Only the final versions of the entries were accepted.[5] Eventually 19 acts were selected to compete in the final, which was broadcast on 23 October 2021 on 18:00 CET, but filmed earlier in RTSH Studios in Tirana.[7][8] The winner was selected exclusively by jury vote, with the members of the committee not being revealed publicly.
Final – 23 October 2021
Draw
Artist
Song
Songwriter(s)
Place
1
Adea Rreshka
"Botën ndal"
Erdit Shani, Taulant Skënderaj
—
2
Viola Gjyzeli
"A më njihni"
Kristi Bello, Mimoza Bici
—
3
Iris Çarçani
"Per ty mam"
Lambert Jorganxhi, Moza Bici
—
4
Sergita Varfi
"Tek një flutur krahët marr"
Edmond Rrapi, Leidi Shqiponja
—
5
Kristel Qarri
"Nesër"
Alfred Kacinari, Ana Kacinari
—
6
Violeta Beshiri
"Mbi krahët e tu"
Ylli Ramzotti, Mimoza Tola
—
7
Sajana Kodheli
"Si ty"
Sokol Marsi
—
8
Stelios & Artemis Tollkuci
"Këngë e klases tonë"
Miron Kotani, Jorgo Papingji
—
9
Dea & Eva Çutra
"Mesazh nga e ardhmja"
Elvis Peçi
—
10
Ajlis Disha
"Një këshillë"
Liman Maloku, Petrit Koci
—
11
Klara Leti
"Ëndrra ime e vërtetë"
Edmond Mancaku
3
12
Dea Moniku
"Dhurata më ë bukur"
Edmond Zhulali, Arben Duka
—
13
Marina Daka
"Shoqja ime"
Enis Mullaj, Eriona Rushiti
2
14
Altea Kamberi
"Atdheun kam"
Voltan Prodani
—
15
Anna Gjebrea
"Stand by You"
Adam Watts, Gannin Arnold, Sani M'airura, Endi Cuci
1
16
Uarda Dibra & Rosela Gropaj
"Qeni i rruges"
Roland Guli, Meri Guli
—
17
Sibora Teqja
"Jemi ne e ardhmja"
Petrit Terkuci, Mimoza Tola
—
18
Keit Hitaj
"Sekreti është sekret"
Artur Dhamo
—
19
Eizhen Qinami
"Mom"
Eriona Rushiti
—
Promotion
On 20 November, Anna Gjebrea travelled to North Macedonia to perform "Stand by You" on MRT 2, along with the Macedonian entrant Dajte Muzika.[9]
At Junior Eurovision
The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2021 took place at La Seine Musicale in Paris, France, on 19 December 2021. After the opening ceremony, which took place on 13 December 2021, it was announced that Albania would perform eleventh on 19 December 2021, following Kazakhstan and preceding Ukraine.[10]
At the end of the contest, Albania received 84 points, placing 14th out of 19 participating countries.
Voting
The same voting system that was introduced in the 2017 edition was used, where 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.[11]
The online voting consisted of two phases. The first phase of the online voting began on 17 December 2021 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 17 December 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 three songs.[12] 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.
