Friday, 2 November 2012

Kejsi Tola


Më Merr Në Ëndërr was the Albanian entry to the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, held in Moscow, Russia. The song was composed by Edmond Zhulali and Agim Doçi. At the ESC the song was performed in English by Albanian singer Kejsi Tola as Carry Me In Your Dreams.

The song was the winner of Festivali I Këngës 47, the festival used to select Albania's Eurovision entry. Albania was the first country to select and publicly present its song. The song was chosen as the winner of the festival on 21st December 2008, five months before Eurovision, to be held on 16th May 2009. The song was performed during Festivali I Këngës in Albanian as Më merr në ëndërr (Take me into your dreams), and the English version of the song, Carry me in your dreams was premiered on 18 March.

Kejsi performed the song at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 semi-final on May 14 2009, performing 16th in the running order. She received 73 points, placing 7th of the 19 competing songs, and qualifying to the final.

At the final on 16 May Kejsi Tola performed 19th in the running order. The song received 48 points, placing 17th of the 25 competing songs.

The staging featured two b-boys dressed as mimes (twin brothers) and a sequined green man (Jenia Evgenios Buli, who has performed with Kalomira in 2008 and Giorgos Alkaios in 2010). If only tele-voting had been used, Albania would have come in 11th.

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Kejsi Tola (February 5 1992, Tirana) is an Albanian singer and the winner of Albanian Idol 2007. In 2008 she was the winning contestant in the Festivali i Këngës competition to find the representative for Albania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow, Russia.

Her career started when she was 11 years old in the Young Voices of Albania Festival where she won the first prize. Kejsi was also a two time winner of the young voices of the Shkodra Festival.

In the first Contest of Young Geniuses she was one of the ten finalists. In 2008 she won the Best New Artist prize in the Friday Fever Song Contest of Albanian modern music, and in 2008  she won Festivali i Këngës with the song Më merr në ëndërr.

Kejsi Tola attempted to enter the Eurovision Song Contest again in 2010, for the second consecutive time, by participating in Festivali i Këngës 2009 on 27 December 2009. But she placed just 15th with her ballad Ndonjëherë.

Kejsi tried once more to represent Albania for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Düsseldorf, Germany. However, her mid-tempo song Pranë did not go through the second semi-final during the selection process.


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