Time for me to review the Albanian entry this year 
Elhaida Dani - I'm Alive
Status: Yes, good effort
Song: I'm always looking forward to Albania's entries since they've sent so many great songs recently. To be honest, I didn't like "I'm alive" at first because I listened to it first during the semi... so you may find the explanation by yourselves
But, after listening to it again, I think it's a good song, it's catchy without being generic. The arrangements sound very organic and authentic, the pace and melody are quite interesting too since it implies some slight dissonances made on purpose. But you can tell from the studio version that that is almost impossible to perform it the same way live, I was like: "when does she breathe? how can she hit this note and then this one?" 
I already like it and always want to listen to it (which is a good sign) so I guess it'll grow on me over time.
Voice: Gosh... Elhaida's voice seems quite nice on paper but those performances were beyond awful tbh. As I said, I heard the song for the first time during the semi and I was like "why is this hyped to death? this is so horrible and cacophonous :?". At that time, I was gutted that she qualified since I thought she didn't deserve it and I found the song quite bad at that time. But when I listened to the studio version afterwards... I said to myself "what country is this?", it was like a totally different song and I started liking it from there. It's both strange and ironic that a singer that won the Voice of Italy and that basically won various festivals in Albania, Monténégro, Bulgaria, etc. sang so badly during what could have been just another contest for her...
One can tell she was stressed, and the song was certainly too difficult to perform live. Still she did two bad performances imo and it negatively "stood out" to me since I thought pretty much everyone in the final sang well.
Staging: The staging was simple and not distracting. I don't remember it that well to be honest.
Outcome: I'm glad she qualified at least because the song was good. But I'm glad that she was ranked down by juries because top 10 would have been a disgrace considering how badly she performed. In my personal ranking, Albania is ranked between 11th-15th, it's a grower for me. See you next year Albania, I hope you'll send another great entry
Elhaida Dani - I'm Alive
Status: Yes, good effort
Song: I'm always looking forward to Albania's entries since they've sent so many great songs recently. To be honest, I didn't like "I'm alive" at first because I listened to it first during the semi... so you may find the explanation by yourselves
But, after listening to it again, I think it's a good song, it's catchy without being generic. The arrangements sound very organic and authentic, the pace and melody are quite interesting too since it implies some slight dissonances made on purpose. But you can tell from the studio version that that is almost impossible to perform it the same way live, I was like: "when does she breathe? how can she hit this note and then this one?" I already like it and always want to listen to it (which is a good sign) so I guess it'll grow on me over time.Voice: Gosh... Elhaida's voice seems quite nice on paper but those performances were beyond awful tbh. As I said, I heard the song for the first time during the semi and I was like "why is this hyped to death? this is so horrible and cacophonous :?". At that time, I was gutted that she qualified since I thought she didn't deserve it and I found the song quite bad at that time. But when I listened to the studio version afterwards... I said to myself "what country is this?", it was like a totally different song and I started liking it from there. It's both strange and ironic that a singer that won the Voice of Italy and that basically won various festivals in Albania, Monténégro, Bulgaria, etc. sang so badly during what could have been just another contest for her...
One can tell she was stressed, and the song was certainly too difficult to perform live. Still she did two bad performances imo and it negatively "stood out" to me since I thought pretty much everyone in the final sang well.Staging: The staging was simple and not distracting. I don't remember it that well to be honest.
Outcome: I'm glad she qualified at least because the song was good. But I'm glad that she was ranked down by juries because top 10 would have been a disgrace considering how badly she performed. In my personal ranking, Albania is ranked between 11th-15th, it's a grower for me. See you next year Albania, I hope you'll send another great entry
