Albania

Albania has participated in the Eurovision Song Festival 17 times since making its debut in the first edition. The country is one of the few countries, along with Hungary, Lebanon and Ukraine, which has qualified to the final for every edition, maintaining a 100% qualification streak. The country ended up in the top 10 for a total of 13 out of 16 participations, and also ended up in the top 5 a seven times of which three times in the top 3. Albania managed to win one time, with Rita Ora and the song "Anywhere" in edition six. The nation never placed lower than fifth in a semi-final which is a record.
==History==
Albania was one of the 43 nations that took part in the first edition of the Eurovision Song Festival. The country selected Lindi & and Venera with their song "Nata e pare" as their first entry. The song proved to be very successful, as the country ended up in seventh place. The entry was selected by the country's national final Jeta e muzikës, which has been used for every edition up until now.
For the next two editions, Albania selected songs in the Albanian language, namely "A do si kjo" performed by Ronela Hajati and "Vegim" performed by Arilena Ara. Then the country entered a long streak of five editions where they entered with English-language songs performed by renowned members of the Albanian diaspora from the United States or the United Kingdom. Entrants included Rita Ora, Dua Lipa and Bebe Rexha. While this brought Albania's first win and two other top 3 placements, these entries caused huge uproar in the country. Many Albanians aksed RTSH, the Albanian broadcaster responsible for the country's participation in the contest, to start sending songs in Albanian again. This led to the introduction of the rule that entries in English have to be alternated by entries in Albanian. This rule has worked so far, as English and Albanian language entries are now being alternated while still bringing the country great results.
Albania's entrant of edition 14, Dafina, caused some uproar amongst Albanian nationalists and parliamentarians. Dafina, a member of the Albanian diaspora in Sweden, openly supports LGBT+ rights, what was met with huge criticism by Albanian nationalists and parliamentarians. In the fifteenth edition of the contest, the country sent Elvana Gjata for the second time, as she also took part in edition nine. Initially, RTSH decided to only accept Albanian language songs in the competition, but a last-minute rule change in the national final allowed singers to send in English songs as well. Elvana Gjata announced that she would still enter Jeta e muzikës with an Albanian language song. She won the national final and finished fifteenth in the final, Albania's worst result to date. In edition 16, Albania placed 14th, after finishing third in its semi-final.
==Contestants==
;Table key
Year	Artist 	Language	Title 	Final	Points	Semi 	Points
#01 	Lindi & Venera 	Albanian	"Nata e pare" 	7 	300 	1 	316
#02 	Ronela Hajati 	Albanian	"A do si kjo" 	9 	278 	1 	313
#03 	Arilena 	Albanian	"Vegim" 	4 	391 	2 	281
#04 	Dua Lipa 	English 	"New rules" 	3 	491 	colspan="2" rowspan="3"	
#05 	Bebe Rexha 	English 	"I got you" 	4 	317 	 	
#06 	Rita Ora 	English 	"Anywhere" 	1 	663 	 	
#07 	Dua Lipa 	English 	"Blow your mind (Mwah)"	7 	221 	colspan="2" 	
#08 	Liam Payne ft. Rita Ora 	English 	"For you" 	2 	628 	1 	330
#09 	Elvana Gjata 	Albanian	"Njesoj" 	8 	227 	colspan="2" 	
#10 	Silk City & Dua Lipa ft. Diplo & Mark	English 	"Electricity" 	4 	404 	2 	296
#11 	Ronela Hajati 	Albanian	"Lage" 	4 	362 	colspan="2" rowspan="2"	
#12 	Dua Lipa 	English 	"Don't start now" 	7 	265 	 	
#13 	Dhurata Dora 	Albanian	"Shume ON" 	11 	204 	4 	161
#14 	Dafina 	English 	"Baby not tonight" 	7 	255 	1 	254
#15 	Elvana Gjata 	Albanian	"Mos u ngut" 	15 	175 	5 	169
#16 	Tiësto & Ava Max 	English 	"The motto" 	14 	181 	3 	256
#17 	Xhesika Ndoj ft. Kallashi 	Albanian	"Shoqe bitch" 	6 	267 	5 	186
#18 	 	 	 	 	 	colspan="2"