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Anjeza Shahini is an Albanian
singer, born on the 12th August 1986, who in
2004 represented Albania in its first appearance
in the Eurovision Song Contest, with the song
The Image of You, originally known as Imazhi Yt
(Your Reflection).
The then 17-year old schoolgirl was plucked from
obscurity in 2003 when she competed at the
three-day "RTSH" song festival (Festivali i
Kėngės) at the Tirana Palace of Congress in
December. Along with 29 other singers, she vied
to win the public vote to represent the Balkan
state for the first time at the Eurovision Song
Contest in Istanbul in 2004, singing the song "Imazhi
Yt" (Your Reflection), a synthesised pop tune.
After two preliminary rounds, the singers faced
a final vote by jury and Albanian television
viewers' televote. The interval act at these
national finals was actually the previous winner
Sertab Erener.
At the end of the final on 20th December, hosts
Adi Krasta and Ledina Celo presented Anjeza with
her special ticket for 12th May: a place in the
Eurovision semi-final in Istanbul. The victory
was well received by the Albanian public,
although some comments were made about her gypsy
descendency, something which was queried almost
daily in the country's media.
The song, originally four and a half minutes in
length, was translated into English and re-named
"The Image of You", and Anjeza Shahini was also
forced to sing the song at one-and-a-half times
it's original tempo to bring the song in at the
time of three minutes, as stipulated by the EBU,
controllers of the Eurovision.
Anjeza sang in the semi-final first, using
singers which had lost out at the original
selection procedure for backup, and finished
fourth out of twenty-four (a top ten finished
would secure a place in the final). She was,
therefore, qualified, and she sang live on the
Final night in May, alongside twenty-four other
countries. The performance was well received by
the Turkish audience, although there was reputed
to be problems with the microphone during the
first verse leading into the bridge ("Slave of
my love, of my emotions, you're in my acts..."
instead of "[...] you're in my eyes").
Anjeza Shahini finished a respectable seventh on
the night, with an excellent total of 106
points, behind Eurovision veterans Ukraine,
Sweden, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, and newcomer
Serbia and Montenegro, and just before
Bosnia-Herzegovina. She was helped by extensive
block-voting between the Balkan nations,
particularly a surprising twelve points from
Macedonia (attributed to the large number of
ethnic Albanians living there).
Since then Anjeza Shahini has been working on an
Albanian language album, although she has
struggled to match the huge domestic success of
"Imazhi Yt" in terms of sales yet. In late 2005
she announced her intention to enter the
national finals to compete in the Eurovision at
the Greek city of Athens. With the song "Pse
Ndal" Shahini made it through the two
semi-finals to the last twenty at the National
Final. The show aired on New Year's Eve 2005,
where the winner was announced as the song "Fire
and Cold", by Luiz Ejlli. The result provoked
something of an outcry in Albania, as other
well-known domestic singers failed to win, and
even prompted accusations of jury bias.
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