Albania participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Düsseldorf, Germany, selecting their entry through Festivali i Këngës 2010, organised by Albanian broadcaster Radio Televizioni Shqiptar (RTSH).

RTSH, the Albanian broadcaster has officially confirmed the participation at Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in September 2010, when denied rumours in the Albanian media about Albania pulling out of the Eurovision Song Contest and the new system to choose the Albanian representative.

Unlike previous years, RTSH decided to start this year earlier with the preparations of the Albanian national final, Festivali i Këngës 2010 introducing changes in the format as well as the voting system:

This year, 28 songs will be selected by the professional jury to compete in the two semi finals with no division between newcomers and established singers. The semi-finals will be held on 23 and 24 December and the grand final will be the 25 December. There is still a possibility to add the duet night on 25 December. In that case, the grand final will be replaced on Sunday 26 December. There is no newcomers category. This year, a professional jury will select 28 from the total of songs submitted to the broadcaster's open call. In each semi final, 14 songs will compete and from each semi final 5 songs will be eliminated and only 18 songs will enter the grand final.

Also the voting system will be different this year. In the grand final, the songs will be judged by two juries, the central jury and the alternative jury with the representatives of local Radio Televisions. For the first time the votes were given in Eurovision style: 12, 10. 8 and 7 to 1 point.

As customary, the singers will sing live. Because of some technical problems, the orchestra won’t be fully live though. The basic music will be playback. Bojken Lako, Albanian singer and songwriter, is the new producer of this event.

The deadline for the submission of the songs was 20 October but RTSH extended this deadline till 6 November. With this extension, RTSH gave the singers who are participating in the other popular music festival, Kënga Magjike, more time to work on their songs.

The whole show will be hosted by singer and songwriter Jonida Maliqi.

Juliana Pasha, Albanian representative in 2010, and maNga, Turkish representative in 2010, were guest performers.

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Wikipedia