Albanian Cougar Town

Albania tends to do best when they send cute, young girls to defend their flag's colors and we like them best when they include ethnic sounds and sing in their native language, like sweet sixteen Olta Boka did with "Zemrën e lamë peng" in 2008. 

From this point of view is this year's entry miles away their usual recipe. Juliana Pasha is an old lady, turning the whopping age of 30 during Eurovision week, she sings in English and there's not one peculiar ethnic string instrument in sight! Still, after listening to it a few times, we have decided to like it. We don't love it, but it's not that bad. Juliana has a cool attitude, a good voice and a groovy song. But is it just us, or doesn't she look a bit ... old for her age? Don't get us wrong, she looks like a million dollars, but we can't help but think in a sort of cougarish way. After all that's a bit early when you have barely turned 30. Oh well, we suppose there's nothing wrong with acting all grown-up and mature when that's in fact what you are, there's enough teenage girls in this year's competition already.  

Albania is always one of the first countries to select their ESC entry and in hindsight it was a really smart move for them to select an up beat party song which will stand out in Balladomania. Should be fairly easy to proceed from Semi Final 1, we predict.