Prior to the 2017 Contest, Albania had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest thirteen times since its first entry in 2004. The nation's best placing in the contest was fifth, which it achieved in 2012 with the song "Suus" performed by Rona Nishliu. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the, Albania had, to this point, featured in seven finals. In 2016, Albania failed to qualify for the final and placed sixteenth with the song "Fairytale" performed by Eneda Tarifa. The Albanian national broadcaster, Radio Televizioni Shqiptar, broadcasts the event within Albania and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. The Albanian competition Festivali i Këngës has been organised every year since 1964 and has been used as Albania's Eurovision selection method since its debut in 2004. Details regarding the 55th edition of Festivali i Këngës were announced on 8 August 2016; however, the Albanian broadcaster formally confirmed their participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 on 24 September 2016.
Before Eurovision
Festivali i Këngës
organised the 55th edition of Festivali i Këngës to determine their participant for the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 in Kyiv, Ukraine. The event consisted of two semi-finals on 21 and 22 December, and the grand final on 23 December 2016. The broadcaster had previously confirmed their participation for the following edition of the Eurovision Song Contest in September 2016. On 13 November 2016, it published a provisory list of 24 artists shortlisted to compete in the two semi-finals of Festivali i Këngës.
Competing entries
Shows
Semi-finals
The semi-finals took place on 21 December and 22 December 2016 and were broadcast at 20:30 and 21:00, respectively. On 19 December, Radio Televizioni Shqiptar published the allocation draw of the participating contestants for each semi-final. Twelve contestants competed in each semi-final and fourteen qualified for the grand final. The results of the semi-finals were:
Final
The final took place on 23 December 2016. The final consisted of fourteen competing acts where the winner was determined by a twelve-member jury panel. An additional set of votes were the results from an Internet public vote, which had a weighing equal to the votes of a single jury. Eventually, "Botë" performed by Lindita emerged as the winner, winning the jury vote and coming third in the Internet vote.
Promotion
An accompanying music video for "World" premiered on the official YouTube channel of the Eurovision Song Contest on 13 March 2017. For further promotional purposes, the singer embarked on a small tour with live performances at various Eurovision Song Contest-related events, including in Amsterdam, Madrid and Tel Aviv.
At Eurovision
The Eurovision Song Contest 2017 took place at the International Exhibition Centre in Kyiv, Ukraine, and consisted of two semi-finals held on 9 and 11 May, and the grand final on 13 May 2017. According to the rules, each participating country, apart from the host country and the "Big 5", consisting of,,,, and the, were required to qualify from one of the two semi-finals to compete for the grand final. However, the top ten countries from the respective semi-final progress to the grand final of the contest. In January 2017, it was announced that Albania would be performing in the first half of the first semi-final of the contest. Once all the competing entries had been released, the country was set to perform fourth, following and preceding. At the end of the show, Albania was not announced among the top 10 entries in the second semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Albania placed fourteenth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 76 points: 38 points from the televoting and also 38 points from the juries.
Voting
Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final. Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Albania and awarded by Albania in the first semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:
Points awarded to Albania
Points awarded by Albania
Split voting results
The Albanian jury was composed of the following five members:
