It is that time of the year again! Merry FiKmas everyone!

This week the Albanian Festivali i Këngës is taking place for the 62nd time and will, in old tradition, determine the Albanian act for the 68th Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö, Sweden.

Ahead of the second semi-final of Festivali i Këngës 62, we got the chance to speak with Gerald Xhari, better known as Big Basta, who will open tonight’s Second Evening, together with his wife Vesa Luma and the song “Mbinatyrale”.

Both Big Basta and his wife Vesa Luma have been big names in Albania and Kosovo for many years. In our interview, Big Basta revealed that he has been in the music industry since 2003 and is among the most succesful songwriters in all of Albania.

He is also a returning Festivali i Këngës winner, as he wrote the song “Botë” by Lindita Halimi, which won the festival in 2016 and went on to represent Albania at the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 in Kyiv.

Big Basta joined Lindita on her journey to Kyiv and talked about his experience at the Eurovision Song Contest in our interview.

Furthermore, he told us about his decision to return to the festival, and to do so together with his wife.

This year is very spiritual to us as a return to the music industry. It is quite tough but at the same time it is amazing to share the stage with your wife, as you already know each other. We have common ideas, common inspirations and so on. And I am quite happy with how the song turned out.

When we asked him to describe his song “Mbinatyrale“, which translates to Supernatural, in a few words, he gave us the following answer:

It’s a very deeply felt song and it is going to bring positive energy to anyone listening to it. It will be a mixture of my usual genre, which is hip hop, and the pop genre that my wife usually does. So that’s it. It’s all about positivity, the world needs positivity right now. We expect and hope to bring that!

Listen to the full interview on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, RSS and every other podcast platform. Make sure to give us a feedback on our social media profiles! @buildingbridgespod

Photo Credit: @emiljoleka