# 35 Image of You

The Albanians certainly went to a great deal of effort selecting their artist to represent the country at their first ever Eurovision in 2004. Seventeen year-old Anjeza Shahini beat twenty-nine other hopeful representatives in the RTSH (Albanian TV) song festival (Festivali i Kenges) with her song "Imazhi yt".

What makes the Albanian song quite interesting is that it began life as something a little different from the usual Eurovision entry. The version of the song Anjeza won the Albanian national final with was a non-EBU compliant four and a half minutes long, inevitably demanding a certain amount of rehashing on the part of the composers.

The result was the song translated into English with the title "The Image of You", one verse jettisoned and the whole sung at a faster tempo. (Liking the detail? Don't think I've absorbed this into an especially reserved area of my brain marked "Eurovision" - I just went trawling around on the internet.)

Having listened to the different versions on the internet today, I'm still certain that the original comes out on top in comparison.

Come the Eurovision semi (above video) in 2004, the performance had already gone through quite a drastic change too. Gone was the dubious choreography seen in the preview video, replaced by a group of singers who remained relatively static behind their microphones.

In a slightly gay-way I can't help thinking that the backing singers general attire on the night of the final looks like they'd just been pulled from an office somewhere to take part. They were, in fact, a collection of singers who had also competed national final Anjeza had won. There's a strange spirit in their performance which combined with Anjeza makes it seem like I'm watching a Eurovision from sometime in the 1980s. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, I hasten to add.

I wasn't absolutely convinced about the rehashed version in the final when I heard it again today for the first time in nearly four years. It doesn't really feel like it goes anywhere before eventually just grinding to a halt.

Anjeza gave an undeniably perky performance and could clearly belt out her song. The semi-final performance clearly showed what a hit she was in the hall and won through the semi.

Come the final, her obvious popularity and what by then seemed like a reasonably good song saw her and Albania finish in seventh place with a very respectable 106 points. In the final analysis it's just very difficult not to like it although it doesn't make me want to love it.

The ultimate indicator of a popular act must surely be a spot of imitation, courtesy of one obvious fan in Germany who shows himself as a potential performer himself. Don't deny it, each and every one of us has done a spot of this. Although, really and truly, I usually stick to doing it in front of the bathroom mirror.