Albania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023
participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, United Kingdom, with "Duje" performed by Albina and Familja Kelmendi. Its entry was selected by a separate voting during the national selection competition , which was organised by  (RTSH) in December 2022. In the second semi-final, Albania qualified for the final on 13 May. Background 

Prior to the 2023 contest, Albania participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 18 times since its first entry in . The nation's highest placing in the contest, to this point, was the fifth place, which was achieved in  with the song "" performed by Rona Nishliu. Albania accomplished its second-highest placing when first participating in 2004, with the song "The Image of You" performed by Anjeza Shahini, finishing in seventh place. During its tenure in the contest, the nation failed to qualify for the final seven times, with the  and  entries being the most recent non-qualifiers. After 2017, Albania managed to qualify for the final in the three following contests. In , the nation failed to qualify for the final, placing 12th and scoring 58 points with the song "Sekret" performed by Ronela Hajati, marking Albania's eighth non-qualification. The Albanian national broadcaster,  (RTSH), broadcasts the contest within Albania and organises  as the national selection format for the contest. Following the nation's debut in 2004, RTSH has consistently selected the Albanian performers and songs through the latter event, which features a competition among artists and songs. The broadcaster confirmed Albania's intention to participate in the 2023 contest on 3 June 2022, with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) reaffirming the nation's participation on 20 October. Before Eurovision

Artist selection 

The Albanian representative in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 was selected during the 61st edition of , an annual music competition in Albania organised by the national broadcaster Radio Televizioni Shqiptar (RTSH). A jury selected the top three of the festival and award two prizes for young and alternative groups and established artists, while a separate televoting selected Albania's entry for Eurovision. RTSH opened an application period for interested artists and composers to submit their applications from 3 June 2022. The provisional list of 26 artists was published on 27 October 2022. On 20 November 2022, host Arbana Osmani confirmed via social media that, unlike in recent years, when RTSH released competing songs ahead of the shows, the songs competing in the festival would not be revealed until the contest. In the first two semi-finals, all 26 artists sang their songs, for the first time. At the end of the second semi-final, five out of ten contestants of the New artists section were selected by a member jury panel, to advance to the fourth and final show of the contest. However, all 16 contestants of the Big artists section advanced to the final with no qualifications taking place beforehand. Final 
The final took place on 22 December 2022. During the show, the Young or Alternative Group Award and the Career Award were handed out. The jury picked their top 3 favourites, with the audience alone voting on who will represent Albania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023. Voting was available from Albania and Kosovo. Elsa Lila with the song "Evita" emerged as the winner, while runner-up Albina & Familja Kelmendi with the song "Duje" was the winner of the separate televote selection and was thus announced as Albania's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2023. Key:  Winner  Second place  Third place

At Eurovision 
According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 31 January 2023, an allocation draw was held, which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, and determined which half of the show they would perform in. Albania has been placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 11 May 2023, and has been scheduled to perform in the second half of the show. Once all the competing songs for the 2023 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Albania was set to perform in position 14, following the entry from  and before the entry from . At the end of the show, Albania was announced as a qualifier for the final. Soon after, it was announced that Albania would be performing in position 10 in the grand final, succeeding Sweden and preceding Italy. Voting 

For semi-finals, each country + rest of the world award from 1-8, 10 and 12 points from televoting. For the final, each country award two sets of points from 1–8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with a diversity in gender and age represented. The judges assess each entry based on the performances during the second Dress Rehearsal of each show, which takes place the night before each live show, against a set of criteria including vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. Jury members may only take part in panel once every three years, and are obliged to confirm that they are not connected to any of the participating acts in a way that would impact their ability to vote impartially. Jury members should also vote independently, with no discussion of their vote permitted with other jury members. The exact composition of the professional jury, and the results of each country's jury and televoting were released after the grand final; the individual results from each jury member will also be released in an anonymised form. The tables below visualise a breakdown of points awarded to Albania in the second semi-final and final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2023, as well as by the nation on both occasions. In the semi-final, Albania finished in 9th place, being awarded a total of 83 points, including 12 by the televoters from Slovenia and Rest of the World. In the final, Albania reached 22nd place with 76 points, including 12 by the televoters from Switzerland. The nation's televoters awarded its 12 points to Australia in the semi-final and to Italy in the final. Its juries awarded its 12 points to the winner, Sweden in final. Points awarded to Albania

Points awarded by Albania

Detailed voting results
The following members comprised the Albanian jury: 
 Haig Zacharian 
 Josif Gjipali 
 Sokol Marsi
 Eneda Tarifa
 Sonila Djepaxhia

References 

2023
Albania
2023 in Albanian music
Eurovision Song Contest