I'm wondering whether I'm a little biassed when it comes to this song. Zemrën E Lamë Peng is a potent reminder of a time when in the run up to the 2008 contest when I found myself working on a special Eurovision-related project myself. I had this track playing in my ears morning, noon and night.
The song is a convincing one, with a heart-wrenching set of chord progressions which communicate pain and suffering even if I haven't looked at the English translation of the lyrics or even bothered to go and look at them now. (I know .. that's shameful isn't it, but I'm going on how it sounds). The bottom line is that when I listen to this I don't immediately think it's a Eurovision song. That means it has a spot of integrity in my book.
Sixteen years old when she participated in the Eurovision semi-final in 2008, Olta Boka was the youngest representative for Albania. Perhaps it's this combined with the inevitable lack of experience relative to her predecessors which means her live performance lacks a bit of punch. There are certainly some intonation problems from time to time.
Those problems to one side, this is still a great song with a satisfactory performance as well but its ultimately disappointing to see it did relatively badly in the final scoreboard coming a surprising 17th place on the big night.
Saturday 7 June 2008
# 39 Zemrën E Lamë Peng
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3 comments:
'Tis a stronger song than you might think, performed quite well - but I'm still perplexed as to how it made the final.
I am happy that the Albanians managed to make the final again, and in their native tongue for the first time. And it does have a pleasing gritty edge to it and stands up as a melody.
But there were more deserving candidates, and given its tricky draw I can't help but wonder whether something more eye-catching would have done better from third spot.
Overall though, Albania's steady approach to the Contest does add something to a mix more usually full of attention-grabbing gimmicks. They just need to rediscover some of the sparkle from their debut entry, and they'll be alright...
Trouble with this performance is that the song has a rather pure feel to it so it needed a convincingly velvet tone all the way through. When Olta gets a bit overexcited (or plain nervous) that velvety tone gets sacrificed and the illusion is shattered.
Nevertheless it's quite nice, he says damningly. But I'm much more of a disco bunny type Eurovision fan really.
The Albanian selection was really interesting this year, there was another really good song in it too, "Mall i tretur" by Mariza Ikonomi, well worth downloading or looking up on Youtube. I liked "Zemren E Lame Peng" but it wasn't one of my 10 picks from the second semi - though if it had been in the first semi, it definitely would have been. Olta Boka has a good voice.
Thanks for the Digg! I need to learn how to use that...
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