Featured Artist
Eleni Fouriera - born 7 March 1987 in Fier, Albania.
Eleni Fouriera performed the song "Fuego" (Fire) written by the swedish-greek composer Alexander Papaconstantinou . The song represented Cyprus, at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal, ranking 2nd on the Grand Final and achieving the best result ever, for Cyprus, in this contest. Born in Albania, at a very early age, Eleni and her family relocated in Greece a country that she has spend almost her entire life. Her music career began as a member of the greek girl group Mystique. In 2010, Eleni went solo, after signing a contract with Universal Music Greece and since, she has released many albums and single hits, making her one of the most successful artists in Greece.
The festival started in 1961 and it was transmitted first by
radio and shortly after also on TV. At that time in Albania,
the rock bands or singers were an unknown concept, so
Festivali i Kenges gave composers, poets and singers to
finally express themselves through the new songs once
a year. The festival became very much popular as it was
the only pop music event of the year in Albania.11 years
from the beginning, the contest became more and more
popular and the music was trying to follow the European
standards but the communist regime was so much
against the western culture so they arrested the
composers, poets, singers and hosts of the Festivali i
Kenges11 under the motives "Western culture does not
belong Albania". Being charged with this kind of
accusations was almost the same as getting charged for
being a murderer.The year later, the festival got back but
it wasn't colorful anymore as the communist censure
didn't allow anything "western".
Anyway, the quality of the music got better again, but the
lyrics were always about the working class, the corn on
the marks and for Albania, claiming our country as the
most rich and beautiful country on Earth.Year 1990
brought to Albania the wind of change in politics and in
music as well. The songs finally were sung about love.A
new era had begun. The competition got higher, the
music got better because the "forbidden tunes" were
finally allowed.When Albania finally applied on EBU to
enter the Eurovision Song Contest, I'm sure that back
then many Albanian people were convinced that sending
the winner of the festival to
ESC was the best idea ever. Now this kind of thinking has
changed, because of the many other festivals being hold
in Albania.
But still, Festivali i Kenges manages to keep the image
and live up to the expectations as well being the biggest
music event of Albania and one and only music competition
where every element of the song is performed live.