Thursday 30 December 2021

Albania 2022 - Kastro Zizo - Kujë

(Click here for the strangeness if you can't see the panel above…)

So we've had our first national final of the year, and as tradition dictates it was the Albanians. But while many folk are celebrating a Happy FiKmas as a fan-favoured bit of derivative Fuego-lite took home the golden statuette, we lovers of the more esoteric entries will be mourning the loss of our old mate Kastro Zizo here.

Never known to undersell a song, this cultural polymath is known in his own land as the presenter of a philosophical talk show (alongside all his other showbiz side hustles), and he brought a deep, yet still fairly ambiguous lyric to sit alongside all the songs about the motherland, while dressed in a sharp suit and minimal corpse paint. Maybe this kind of thing makes perfect sense in Albania, but the levels of Twitter bewilderment from fankind throughout his performances this week was a joy to behold, as he seemed to deeply unsettle a continent of pop fans.

More of this kind of thing please, Albania. And everywhere else, for that matter.


 

2 comments:

  1. Well, Nick did say you will be writing about Kastro. I was not convinced. Nick was right. I was wrong. As for the song (as there definitely was one) - it's not my thing, but I had no issues with it being there. It's a no from me nonetheless.

    As for who won it - it was undoubtedly the winner. Produced within an inch of its life, fully blown choreo (I managed to count somewhere between 13-18 dancers) and very Albanian stage (did someone say nationalistic red & black backdrop? I'm surprised they didn't add a few eagles as well to the mix).

    And what the actual fuck with the whole Wiwiblogs fiasco??? I'm not even sure who paid who to be there.

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  2. I’ve got a suspicion that Will offers himself as a package to all the national finals - although not many seem to take him up more than once. Can’t knock the bloke for trying, though. There’s not many among the fan press with the confidence and moxy to try it. That’s not saying it wasn’t utterly cringeworthy, though. Making reference to Greek dancing, for instance, was only just a tad tone deaf.

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