“Eurovision 2008” Albania and Macedonia promote representative songs

The Albanian representatives, participants in the Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Belgrade this year, were present in their first press conference on Tuesday. They are the young Albanian singer Olta Boka who won the national song festival of Albania with the song “Hearts held Hostage” and the well known Albanian singer from Macedonia Adrian Gaxha who won the Macedonian Festival with the song, “In the name of love” both accompanied by the Macedonian singer Tamara. During this press conference, both singers appealed to the Albanian speaking public for their support during the days of the festival. Avni Qahili, journalist of Albanian Program of the Macedonian Radio-Television is the author of the Albanian version of the song, “In the name of Love,” which Macedonia is to contend at the contest with. He said, “this is the first time in Macedonia’s history that an Albanian singer wins and introduces the State as multi-ethnic. Adrian Gaxha is a very well known singer in Macedonia, who will be accompanied by the singer Tamara, who has one of the finest vocals in Macedonia and also by a local well known rap artist. The song is entitled, “In the name of Love,” and we have translated the lyrics into seven languages such as Albanian, English, Croatian, Russian, Turkish, Macedonian and Bosnian. This is beautiful song and we do expect the votes of the Albanians, we expect maximum votes from Albania, which will be reciprocated by the public of Macedonia for Albania.”
“This promotional tour will continue throughout Macedonia and then on to Montenegro. During the five years that Albania has competed in the Contest it has been noted that the ones who have won have not conducted a promotional tour like this; this is the first time that we go on tour in other countries prior to the Eurovision Song Contest,” said representatives of the Albanian Radio-Television.
The representatives of Albania and Macedonia will be in Belgrade on 12 May to continue with rehearsals in the lead up period to the Song Contest. But this time they earnestly appealed to the Albanian public for their all-out support more than ever before.