Junior Eurovision 2021 Review - Albania: Anna Gjebrea Stand by You
The Artist
Albania’s representative this year is 12 year old Anna Gjebrea from Tirana.
Anna’s Dad is a television host in Albania so she is no stranger to showbiz, and actively watches a heap of international TV shows to learn about other countries and their people. She also plays the piano, owns a turtle called Tasha, and loves being near the water.
Anna won the Albanian National Final Junior Fest 2021 to win her ticket to Paris.
The Song
Stand by You is an upbeat song in both Albanian and English about friendship and standing up for your mates when things get tough. While the song is bop, it’s got a deep message regarding standing up to bullies and helping out anyone who is a target.
Stand by You is written by Adam Watts (High School Musical and other Disney titles), Gannin Arnold (LA based Christian music songwriter and multi-instrumentalist) , Sanni M'Mairura (American Idol), Endi Çuçi (Albanian based songwriter), and Anna herself.
The song is currently available on our YouTube and Spotify playlists.
Albania at JESC
Albania made their debut at Junior Eurovision in 2012 and 2021 will be their 7th participation. Their best result was 5th in 2015 with Mishela Rapo and Dambaje. Albania sat out of the 2020 contest in Poland due to the pandemic.
OGAE Australia JESC Team scores and thoughts:
Ally: 10/10 ✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭
Oh my god I’m in love with this song. It’s a bop that hooks you early, it’s about a great theme and gives me strong ‘Speak Up’ (Aus 2017) vibes, which I for one can’t complain about because that’s one of my absolute favourite songs. This is the strongest song Albania have sent in years, and I really hope they can translate the music video onto stage.
Blake: 6/10 ✭✭✭✭✭✭✩✩✩✩
This is pretty good! I love the verses but unfortunately the chorus is a bit generic and feels a bit disjointed. Overall its good and the message is nice and so are Anna's vocals, definitely one of Albania's stronger entries.
Danie: 7/10 ✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✩✩✩
At any age, friends are important, especially as a tween! This is a bit of a banger with a great message about looking out for others. The music video is great and really conveys the message. I can't wait to see what they do with the staging.
Kurtis: 6/10 ✭✭✭✭✭✭✩✩✩✩
Love the message of the song. The way they convey the messages in the music video is very smart. The music video has a cool storyline where you want to support the boy who was getting bullied. I am hoping they will be able to translate this to the stage. Overall, it is somewhat of a catchy song and feels contemporary.
Raquel: 5/10 ✭✭✭✭✭✩✩✩✩✩
It has a good message. I feel like I’ve heard this song A MILLION TIMES, it’s SO FRUSTRATING! To me this song feels like that basic “Stand up to bullies!” song… It has that basic “wOw mEaN bUlLy bUlLiEs nErD” I find that quite boring. I guess it’s catchy but I’m not a big fan. In my opinion this is a type of song they would show at school. I’m mainly worried about how they will turn this M/V into something on stage… Overall, this song is basic and I don’t like it.
Average Score: 6.8
The JESC Team score does not reflect the views of all OGAE Australia