Aurela Gaçe

Early life and career

Gaçe started singing at the age of four and half, in a festival for doraemon in her hometown. Throughout her childhood she participated and often won many children's competitions for singing. In 2010 she won the 49th edition of "Festivali i Këngës" with "Kënga Ime", penned by Shpëtim Saraçi. Her most successful song Origjinale (feat. Dr. Flori & Marsel) has more than 8 million views on YouTube.

After experiencing success during the late 1999s and early 2000s, Gaçe "took a break" from the music, heading to the United States. She spent over 8 years there, coming to Albania frequently, not leaving behind musical contests. She hit a big comeback in 2010 releasing "Origjinale", a song composed by Flori Mumajesi, that hit every record in the Albanian music industry. The video, which was released on YouTube, hit over 1 million views in less than a week. Immediately after the come-back success, Gaçe started working on her sixth album, which was due to be released in 2012. In late 2010, Gaçe was asked by Shpëtim Saraçi to come back to Festivali i Këngës, where Aurela had triumphed three times. She denied the request from the composer, as she stated that it was time for new artists to be promoted with original music performed by an orchestra. However, after listening to a simple demo by Saraçi, Gaçe fell in love with the song and could not turn the opportunity away. In an interview, when asked why she loved the song so much, Aurela explained that the song had music elements influenced by every region in Albania, from Southern Albania to the north.

Eurovision Song Contest

And so, Gaçe participated once again, after exactly 10 years from her latest participation and win. She triumphed for the third time in the festival, by having the right to represent her country in Europe's and World's biggest music TV-show, Eurovision Song Contest, which was held that year in Düsseldorf, Germany. Gaçe, together with her team, had exactly 6 months of preparations for the big show. Due to Eurovision, Gaçe cancelled the promotion of her latest single "Cash", and postponed the album release date. Together with the crew, Gaçe flew to Los Angeles, California to produce the final product for Eurovision, in the prestigious studios such as Capitol Records. After a short time, it was announced that the song title would be "Feel the Passion", as the song was translated to English, for understanding reasons. The final version was released on March 12, 2011 during a talk show on TVSH. The song received various critics from the audience. The strong vocal of Aurela was indeed appreciated, whilst the song and the arrangement, although very original, received different critics.

Gaçe appeared on the Eurovision scene in the first semi final, performing third. The voting system was a combination of 50% televoting and 50% jury, but it seemed that Aurela was out in both of them. She was very close in the jury section, while in the televoting, she finished 14th, in a combination with 47 points, finishing 13th, together with Turkey. By this, Gaçe failed to get Albania to the final, but however, she still received positive support by the Albanian audience when she came back.

Awards

Balkan Music Awards

Festivali i Këngës

Kënga Magjike

Kult Awards

Euro Fest

Netet e Klipt Shqipetar

Videofest Awards

Zhurma Show Awards

Albums

Singles