The date of the final of Junior Fest 2023 has been announced as September 20, with RTSH announcing additional details of the contest.
Speaking to RTSH today, Bojken Lako the Director of Programs at Radio Tirana explained his plans for this year’s edition of Junior Fest. The contest is planned to be more expansive this year and will take the singers through more of the music industry.
The singers will be working with young composers to create their songs for Junior Fest, with Radio Tirana helping to produce the songs. These singers and composers will be collaborating with established producers and composers in Albania to refine their songs.
In addition to the final in September, the singers will be invited to perform on Radio Tirana 2 and participate in additional social media content around the contest. Mr Lako added:
“The young people who will be selected will have the opportunity to rehearse in the studios of Radio Tirana to improve their ‘live’ performance, where they will work with a vocal coach to perform as well as possible on the final night.”
Applications for Junior Fest 2023 are open until August 25. Junior Fest has been used to select the Albanian representative for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest since 2017. At the 2022 contest in Yerevan, Kejtlin Gjata represented Albania with her song “Pakëz diell”, finishing in 12th place.
Junior Eurovision 2023
France won the 20th Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Yerevan, Armenia with Lissandro and “Oh Maman!”. He scored a total of 203 points placing ahead of second-placed Armenia.
France will be hosting the Junior Eurovision Song Contest for a second time, having first hosted the contest in 2021 in the French capital of Paris.
The following countries have already confirmed their participation:
- Albania
- Armenia
- France
- Georgia – Anastasia Vasadze
- Germany
- Ireland
- Italy
- Malta
- Netherlands
- North Macedonia – Tamara Grujeska
- Poland
- Portugal – Júlia Machado
- Spain
- Ukraine
Image Source: Corinne Cumming/EBU | Source: ESC Plus, RTSH
Albania debuted in the Junior Eurovision Contest in 2012, and to date have had seven entries. The country is still yet to win the contest, and their best result was in 2015, when Mishela Rapo performed her song “Dambaje”, which scored a total of 93 points and ended on 5th place. Albania were absent from the contest in 2013 and 2014, before returning again in 2015.
