TIRANA, May 14 – Despite their breathtaking performances, none of the three Albanians representing Albania, Italy and Cyprus respectively won the 2018 Eurovision song contest, the first prize of which was awarded to Israel’s Netta.
Eugent Bushpepa’s Mall (Longing) ended up winning 11th place after the judges’ vote, which initially placed him seventh, was counted with the public’s vote. Bushpepa collected a total of 184 points.
Netta, whose song Toy was a potential winner even before the contest took place Saturday night, addressed feminism and gender issues with her performance and received a total of 529 points.
Netta was a poll favorite since the first predictions regarding who the winner would be began.
The two other Albanians – Eleni Foureira of Cyprus and Ermal Meta of Italy – won second and fifth place, with 436 and 308 points.
Foureira, meanwhile, was also one of the top three potential winners from what the polls showed before the contest.
Despite the results, Bushpepa’s performance gave the public immense emotions, while he was congratulated for his voice and interpretation; the song received a maximum of 12 points from Azerbaijan, while Albania awarded its own 12 points to Italy.
Meanwhile, this will be remembered as the Eurovision of Albanians because of the three Albanian-origin participants, who also took a number of pictures together during the contest.
Cyprus’ Foureira was even the subject of controversy in the Greek parliament, where a right-wing Golden Dawn Party representative accused her of promoting Greater Albania symbols although she was representing Cyprus, because of a picture Bushpepa posted of him and Foureira doing the two-headed eagle sign with their hands.
