Changes regarding Junior Fest 2023, the Albanian selection for Junior Eurovision have been announced.
The Albanian broadcaster RTSH has announced the new changes related to Junior Fest, which will once again become Albania’s selection for the Junior Eurovision this year. Along with this, a new promotional trailer for the contest was released:
For the first time since the founding of Junior Fest in 2017, the logo of the contest was changed. Until this moment, a yellow airship was used as the emblem of the competition, but now on the logo, we see the red inscription “Junior Fest 2023” on a yellow background.
Also, for the first time in the history of the Junior Fest, a slogan was added. This year the slogan of the contest will be “Bëhu hero i vetvetes!” (Be your own hero), which refers to the slogan of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2023 itself – “Heroes”.
The changes also affected the acceptance of applications. The deadline for submitting songs is 10 days ahead of schedule (August 25) is August 15. It has been confirmed that unfinished, semi-finished or demo stage songs are eligible for selection and will be processed by the RTSH team shortly.
It is not known how many songs will take part in the Junior Fest final, which will be held on September 20 in the Radio Tirana 2 Studios.
As for the organization of the competition, there will be rehearsals before the live final. Each participant will also have their own vocal coach. Also, a Junior Fest account was created on Instagram, where RTSH will share information about the competition.
At the 2022 contest in Yerevan, Kejtlin Gjata represented Albania with her song “Pakëz diell”, finishing in 12th place.
The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2023 will be taking place on November 26 in Nice, following France’s win in 2022 in Yerevan. Serbia and Kazakhstan have both announced their withdrawal for 2023, while Germany is returning to the contest.
Image Source: Corinne Cumming/EBU | Source: 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.
