- By Kozeta Kurti
... because this was not a Festival under the direction of Alketa Weysiu, but a personal show of Alketa where the songs of the 58th edition of the ART Festival were also introduced. I'm not critical, but public (so as a public I hope to be counted, since we don't have a critical institution. That's what the Festival's screenwriter said). The festival is not just a song, but a more than half-century-old institution that is at the service of the public, not an individual (here I am not talking about the presenter, but the festival screenwriter), who turns the institution into a service transforming it, (the festival as an institution), into some copy of international patents, with Alketa appearing for many months, every week, launching each header with: "I". My dream, my sacrifice, my job, my sweat, my beat ... Now, we all live here and we know who is wanted and who is offered. I hope to have some time someday and set the stopwatch for her lectures, her performances, her own hairstyles, and I am convinced that as she quietly, alone in front of herself, she will realize that the song at the Song Festival she directed, it was neither more nor less than an accessory to the festival of monologues and stage performances. I am very disappointed that this festival lacked the duo between Alceta and Eleni Foureira.
This year it seemed to me that the Grabocka-Weiss couple were looking for a "Magic Song" and Gebrea a Balkan-regional-European-international festival. Then, if he returns once more in pencil and paper to the content of the lectures, taking notes, the text he shared with us, he will realize that it is not the evil of this society, the unjustified financial compensation of the artists, but to everyone: doctors, teachers, prosecutors, judges, etc. Perhaps in a more controlled situation, we would not have institutionalized bribery, fraud and fine. Once upon a time the artists' compensation for shows and publicity spots began, then monologues became credible. How was it said, among other things? "Meritocracy is the word"? Now that everything is over, I may ask in the name of which meritocracy, but talk? How the songs were "received"? It has come out of your own ranks (whoever doubts, I try) that the festival has omitted "very good" songs (quoting your trusted people) and entered unfinished, often non-existent songs. The saliva was said to mention the creators, the colossus, of Albanian music, but in the jury, there was only one composer and he, too, was a stranger. What meritocracy are we talking about? About the differentiation you made to the performers tonight on the final night? Do you know how much you have demotivated everyone else, without exception, by "isolating" Elvana Gjata and Arilena Arra in more personal settings? Maybe you didn't, but you let it.
Do authors watch television other than their own programming? If so, they would not have considered opening the final night as they did, because just seven months ago, in the same room, in the same mood, the spectacle of "Miss Universe" opened, only that it was not there Alketa sang, but Irma Libohova. With the winning songs at the festivals I was never taken, because I think they are also personal tastes, but for the correctness that should accompany the process, absolutely, yes. It happened just after the victory of Linda Halimi, for which, among other things, I wrote in an article : "Did I tell you that Linda Halimi would win the Festival?" I don't want to be misunderstood ... I have nothing to do with the singer, the singer or its authors, but I had said this many months before I heard the song performed by Linda. And you know why? For all say that is the Festival of Song, to occupy yourselves more to the song than with other details, but if it was Festival of Song, two years ago, will not lead to grudgingly singer at Eurovision. I believe there is no one who does not remember that Elhaida Dani was presented at Eurovision with a new song and not the one that won the December Festival. After the songwriter is drawn, the list has other names below the winner.
Being at the Festival, of course, is a lot of fun, but it is also a responsibility and this responsibility is reflected not only in what is said but also in what is done. Tonight it seemed like I saw the First Song Festival because: "we are the most beautiful, the best, the most spectacular, the gigantic, the most divine, the most heavenly, the most sunny", made me doubt what I had seen these nearly thirty years. Happy is he who appears modest, except he expresses himself. If so, before the start of television broadcasting, they would not require the cold, "protocol" public to do the "cheerleaders" and to applaud their wills artistic and material numbers that people would say nothing to. . These are easily maneuvered with artificial laughter, which came as contributions from the director, reminding us of a distant era of television in Albania that brings nothing but regression. Let what natural reaction you can get, when trying to humor politics, in a chaotic situation of foreign and domestic politics, moreover, with a figure who is constantly opposed to his decision-making which is nothing less than the prime minister of the country and two other figures who for this country are no more than two "ex" who say nothing more.
I have written all the above lines while sitting down, and now, I will stand up, as I do every year, when I voice, the most beautiful people in ART, the band and the Orchestra, for which I hope and wish, not to be so "rested" at the upcoming festivals, because they are the only ones that whatever happens will make this festival unmatched by other initiatives. Any similar initiative would be just a copy of it.
Among those who will read these lines, there will probably be those who will label me as 'jealous' because I have been part of the festival with another team, but for them too, I have an answer. I was not part of the most unprecedented festival on the planet, I was this, the first morning after that edition: ?This year I saw the Festival at its grinding stage; this is not the best festival of all time, god forbid we say that as this festival will not come anymore, we will have to put the lock on as long as there is no roof over roof ... ".
