Albania 2026: Alis with ‘Nân’
Albania’s annual Festival i Kenges took place over the Christmas period with Alis coming out the winner with this heartfelt ode to his Nan:
OK, so this isn't about our man's Granny and instead another in the increasingly long line of entries touching on migration and home, one conveyed through lines including
”And your mom is sending you off” With “Nân” actually meaning “Mother”. Hmm, what started as a deliberately dumb misunderstanding of Albanian for a cheap joke has kind of come full circle. Coincidence or not? Linguists let me know!
Anyway, It's been a message that has resonated in the past and lifted songs such as last year's 'Deslocado' from Portugal beyond expectations. Albania have a strong and consistent diaspora vote and this should help them to continue that, as does the song itself. Nan is a very FiK song and a very Balkan song which works for the core demographic well as proven by a strong win in it’s National Final. I don’t know if it quite goes beyond that and breaks through to a wider audience and I’m personally not as moved or invested in this performance or song as I should be.
Concerns are mainly limited to how this works without the live orchestra and it does seem pretty likely that some impact will be lost no matter how well this is staged in Vienna, as seen a little with last year's 'Zjerm'. Overall, whilst another good entry this will struggle to achieve a similar result with less Televote Potential and the jury side of this looks a tad uncertain again: sometimes the votes just don't come as expected for these rousing ethnic entries. Eugent Bushpepa managed to get his ‘Mall’ to 7th place with the juries in 2018 amassing an impressive 126pts which I’m sure many will argue is achievable here, if we scale down for the much smaller number of overall points on offer. Still, that feels like more of an exception to the general rule and Alis doesn’t quite compare vocally for me, though there is plenty of time to work on that and improve from good to great.
I'd say this is a guaranteed qualifier even at this stage unless there's a perfect storm of misfortune between now and May which would have to begin with a semi final draw separated from their usual points sources. In the final, I could see this being an outsider to grab a top 10 spot in a typical year but in all likelihood I think we’re starting this year’s reviews with a very respectable mid table position.
Personal Rating: 14/20
Staging Potential: 17/20
Televote Potential: 13/20
Jury Potential: 13/20
Track Record: 14/20
Overall Rating: 71/100
Early Prediction: Semi Final 5th-7th, 12th-16th in the final.
Volatility Factor: 2/5 (How confident I am in the above prediction)