In our most recent podcast episode, we welcome Kolë Laca and Beatriçe Gjergji who form the duo Shkodra Elektronike and will represent Albania at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest with their song “Zjerm”.

During our interview, the duo told us that they did not expect to make it to Eurovision at all, partly because they do not have a big team behind them.

“We decided to participate in Festivali i Këngës just to present our music. So we did not expect to reach Eurovision. And it’s pretty far away from what we usually do. We always play in clubs or make our music at home and maybe some artists have a big production behind them but we are alone. It is just us two and our manager.”

— Beatriçe Gjergji

Furthermore, they talked about their budget for their Eurovision performance, which they have received in order to create a beautiful scenery on the Eurovision stage in Basel.

“The budget they gave us is especially from the Ministry of Culture. It is just because it’s just the three of us, so we need someone else doing the staging. Even to think about it, we have no experiences with television, with telecamera, how it works. Everything that has to do with television, we don’t know anything.”

— Kolë Laca

Shkodra Elektronike therefore hired the London-based creative agency Ombra, to be in charge of their staging.

So, we have a creative agency from London. Actually, they are Italian, but they live in London and their name is Ombra. Shadow in Italian. They’re making our staging and I think it will be beautiful to watch.

— Beatriçe Gjergji

Shkodra Elektronike recently released their music video for “Zjerm” which you can watch here.

Be sure to check out our full interview with Shkodra Elektronike in the latest episode of Building Bridges (link above)! You’ll hear more about what happened after they won FiK, the help they’ve enlisted to prepare their staging, and you’ll even hear what happened when Beatriçe’s cat Amos dropped by!

In a first for our podcast, you can now watch the entire podcast with Shkodra Elektronike on YouTube!

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We wish Kolë and Beatriçe the very best of luck, as we look forward to what’s sure to be a very artistic and powerful performance of Zjerm during Semi Final 1 on 13^th May! Let us know what you thought of the interview in the comments and on our social media profiles @buildingbridgespod !

Picture Credit: Luca Rossi