Had a quick listen through the 26 songs and I must say that it sounds pretty promising for Albania, there is a bunch pretty good songs in the line-up this time!
I picked out the 5 best though in my opinion.
5th Mirud - Nëse vdes
This song really strucks a nerve with me, I really feel the sadness in this song. The oriental feel to it really fits with the modern beat and feels already like a potential summerhit in May. Really cool song, but I am sure though that this song would need a good translation to work in Rotterdam.
4th Kastro Zizo - Vallja e jetës
Not sure what genre it is...but this mashup of rock and hip hop is very entertaining and catchy. The melody is fantastic, the chorus perhaps slightly repetive, but this can have an amazing performance on stage I believe. Looking forward to see it live.
3rd Fatos Shabani - Ty
This is a surprise in the mix, sounds like a cool 90s unplugged rock ballad, that really takes me on a journey. Beautiful melodically and works surprisingly well in Albanian. Really like this, even if I have a hard time seeing Albania voting this to a high placement.
2nd Gigliola Haveriku - E lirë
This song has immense potential. Gigliolas voice is stunning to this surprisingly electronic song for Albanian means. Still the modern melody, it does feel very typical Albanian, which is always helping in a contest like Eurovision. Would be a really cool entry for Albania, translated or not.
1st Inis Neziri - Pendesë
Yep, already on first listen, I could hear that this is probably the winner. Very classic, yet modern ballad that is a basic copy paste to Eurovision. Inis fits the song beautifully and you can hear, despite that it is now sung in Albanian, that an english version is probably already written, cause it feels very international and popfriendly for sure. If she nails the notes on the night, than it is no questions which songs the juries will go for.
In the end I believe it will be a battle between Mirud and Inis, but that Inis, being so Eurovision-friendly, is probably the right choice for Albania in Rotterdam. But you never know, someone might come out of the blue and snatch that ESC-ticket, so we'll see.