Prior to the 2020 contest, Albania had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest sixteen times since its first entry in 2004. Albania's first entry was performed by Anjeza Shahini who performed "The Image of You" and finished in seventh place, Albania's second-highest placing to date. Albania's best result thus far was in 2012, with Rona Nishliu placing fifth with "Suus". Albania qualified for the grand final in 2018, with Eugent Bushpepa finishing in eleventh place with "Mall".
Before Eurovision
Festivali i Këngës
Competing entries
The national broadcaster of Albania, Radio Televizioni Shqiptar, organised the 57th of Festivali i Këngës to select their entrant for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in Tel Aviv, Israel. It consisted of two semi-finals on 20 and 21 December, and the grand final on 22 December 2019. It was the sixteenth time, in which, the competition determined Albania's representative for the contest. The country had previously confirmed its participation in the contest in September 2018. The broadcaster opened a submission period between 16 May and 30 June 2018 for artists and composers to participate in Festivali i Këngës. The list of competing artists and songs eventually were revealed on 17 October 2018.
Shows
Semi-finals
The contest featured a change with the two semi-finals: all the acts would perform twice in the semi-finals. During the first semi-final, on 20 December 2018, the competing artists traditionally performed with the Symphonic orchestra, while in the second semi-final, on 21 December 2018, they performed the final version of their entries.
Final
The grand final took place on 22 December 2018 and was broadcast at 20:45. Fourteen songs competed and the winner was determined by the combination of the votes from a nine-member jury panel. Each member of the jury voted by assigning scores from 10–20, 22, 25 and 30 points to their preferred songs. The jury was composed of Agim Krajka, Arta Marku, Dorian Çene, Haig Zacharian, Olsa Toqi, Pali Kuke, Rona Nishliu, Rovena Dilo and Shpëtim Kushta.
Promotion
An accompanying music video for "Ktheju tokës" premiered on the official YouTube channel of the Eurovision Song Contest on 10 March 2019. Apart from the music video, Jonida Maliqi traveled to the Banias Nature Reserve at the Mount Hermon in Israel to film her introductory postcard. In the postcard, she is seen dressed in a 1950s style while walking through her surroundings. She is then joined by four female dancers on the edge of a waterfall, where they perform an interpretive dance choreography. For promotional purposes, the singer embarked on a small tour with live performances at various Eurovision Song Contest-related events, including in Amsterdam, London and Madrid.
At Eurovision
The Eurovision Song Contest 2019 took place at the Expo Tel Aviv in Tel Aviv, Israel, and consisted of two semi-finals held on 14 and 16 May, and the grand final on 18 May 2019. According to the Eurovision rules, each participating country, except 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, although, the top ten countries from the respective semi-final progress to the grand final. The European Broadcasting Union split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 28 January 2019, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Albania was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 16 May 2019, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.
Once all the competing songs for the 2019 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the contests producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other: Albania was set to perform in position fourteen.
Semi-finals
In the second semi-final, Albania performed fourteenth following and preceding. At the end of the show, the country was announced among the top 10 entries in the second semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the grand final. It was later revealed that Albania placed ninth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 96 points: 58 points from the televoting and 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 will be released shortly after the grand final.
Points awarded to Albania
Points awarded by Albania
Split voting results
The following five members comprised the Albanian jury:
In the OGAE Second Chance Contest 2019 Albania was represented by the singer Mirud and his song Nënë. At the end of the voting, Albania finished 15th out of 24 with 36 points. Albania gave 12 points to the band Il Volo and their song "Musica Che Resta" representing Italy
