Every year, Spain arrives at the Eurovision Song Contest with the illusion of achieving a great result… Although it doesn’t always reap it. In recent years, our country has hovered around the last positions. Amaia and Alfred, Miki Núñez, Blas Cantó… none of them hit the right note.
Every time the festival is celebrated, there are some countries that, surprisingly or not, vote for the Spanish representation. Portugal or France, perhaps due to proximity, are some of the ones that give us the most points, but also Albania.
20.83% of the points that Spain has received are from Albania, in 8 of the 17 in which it has participated, 47.06%. In total, we have received 55 points2% of what he has given.
Perhaps the most remembered votes of the country to Spain are those of Ruth Lorenzo, who would be ninth. Only one territory gave him the 12 points: Albania. The truth is that Spain is the fourth best valued country in the history of Albania in the festival. Even better than Italy or UK.
To know the connection between Albania and Spain, one would have to look at the factor of Spanish emigration in the 1950s and 1960s. Same reason other countries vote for each other. However, in 1986, Albania was the only European nation with which Spain did not maintain official relations.
But for centuries, Albania has had an important friendship with Spain. And you would have to go back to the fifteenth century to know it. As José Manuel Azcona explains in his book “The Foreign Policy of the Crown of Aragon in the Balkans (1416-1478). Skanderbeg’s Albania and the war against the Turks”, the great Albanian hero maintained important relations of vassalage with the Aragonese monarch, Alfonso V.
In 1451, the alliance was signed by which Skanderberg became Alfonso’s vassal, which benefited both: the Albanians would receive support to continue the fight in the form of money and troops and, for his part, the Aragonese monarch could undermine the supremacy of the Venetians in the Balkans and the Adriatic.
The relationships of interests would continue after the death of Alfonso in 1458, embodied in the figure of his successor, Fernando. Skanderberg’s descendants moved to the territories of the crown of Aragon in southern Italy and received land and titles. A test that shows that the alliance was lasting.
Discussion about this post