2018 will be the fourteenth time Albania competes in Eurovision. The tiny Balkan republic has performed well in the past: its debut song, The Image of You, by Anjeza Shahini, won seventh place back in 2004. Since then, Albania has been consistently scoring well in the competition. In 2012, it reached its peak when the Albanian Kosovar singer and songwriter Rona Nishliu finished fifth with the song Suus.
This year, Albania will be represented by Eugent Bushpepa, a rock singer, songwriter and human rights activist. He has been singing since the tender age of six and he is a renowned celebrity in his country. Here, he has won multiple awards and played support roles to several visiting rock bands, like Deep Purple, Guns N’ Roses, and Overkill.
In December 2017, Eugent participated and won the Festivali i Këngës, the most renown song contest in the country. Since 2003, the professional jury present at the event picks the song which will represent the country at Eurovision. This year, Eugent was chosen to represent Albania with the song Mall, a classical rock song merged with folk rock. Going against the recent trend of the musical entries at Eurovision, this song will be sung entirely in Albanian.
