Image Credit: Renuar Locaj
Ronela Hajati won the right to represent Albania back in FiK in December 2021, and has since revealed a new version of “Sekret“, that will be her entry to Eurovision 2022.
Ronela has had great success in Albania, becoming one of their most popular modern artists to date. Let’s find out more about her!
Who Is Ronela Hajati?
Ronela Hajati was born on September 2nd 1989 in Tirana. As a child, she gained a passion for performing, taking up piano playing and ballet classes, as well as entering local music competitions.
Ronela became known to the Albanian public after appearing in multiple Albanian festivals form 2009-2012. Her TV debut came in 2018 when she participated in the TV contest Kenga Magjike, which has previously been won by Eurovision entrants such as Jonida Maliqi, Anxhela Peristeri, Juliana Pasha and Eneda Tarifa. Despite not winning the contest, her entry ‘Vuj‘ became a big hit with her fans within Albania. Since appearing on the show, Ronela has also gained a big following due to her promotion of self-love and body image-related positivity.
FiK60
Ronela was announced as one of the 20 artists taking part in FiK60 on November 9th 2021, and her song ‘Sekret’ was released alongside all other entries on December 3rd 2021. She instantly became a favourite, not only due to her star power but also due to the style of song she was presenting. In recent years, Albania has opted to send women with slower, powerful ballads (Jonida Maliqi, Arilena Ara, Anxhela Peristeri), so fans were looking for something different – which ‘Sekret’ provided. The song still had all those cultural elements, whilst also upping the tempo and bringing a modern pop sound to Festivali I Kenges 60.
Her biggest competitor was Alban Ramosaj, with his song ‘Theje‘ – and it was truly a two-horse race from the song reveal day until the final. On December 29th 2021, Ronela was announced as the winner, with Alban in second. Her version of ‘Sekret’ at FiK is different to the revamped version, and you can hear the original song below.
How Will Sekret Do At Eurovision?
Opening Eurovision 2022, ‘Sekret’ should get the show off to a great start. We have seen Ronela is a strong performer from her performance at her national final, so she’ll definitely be bringing the energy to the stage in Turin.
She’s also one big favourite with fans of the contest, who’ll all be hoping she can take Albania back to the top 10 of the contest for the first time since Rona Nishliu’s top 5 result all the way back in 2012. There’s also hope that a successful result for ‘Sekret’ will encourage Albania to open up to sending more upbeat style entries to the contest, so all eyes will be on Ronela to deliver.
We wish Ronela & Albania the best of luck at Eurovision this May!
