Slimane, France’s Eurovision 2024 representative facing two sexual assault complaints within three weeks, will appear as a guest at Albania’s national selection.
The 63rd edition of Albania’s national Eurovision selection, “Festivali i Këngës 63“, will take place from December 19th to 22nd. The competition’s Instagram page recently announced that a special guest will appear on the first night of the contest. This guest is Slimane Nebchi, who represented France at the last Eurovision with the song “Mon Amour” and finished fourth.
The National Broadcaster and the national selection posted: “Special guest, Slimane, will perform on the first night of Festivali i Këngës 63 on December 19th. He represented France at Eurovision 2024 with the song ‘Mon Amour’. The most streamed French song in the world, reaching over 2 million streams on Spotify in just 24 hours.”
“8 years of career: More than 2 million albums sold worldwide, numerous tours with over 1.5 million tickets sold. An acclaimed artist: One French Grammy and 8 NRJ Music Awards.”
הצגת פוסט זה באינסטגרם
What wasn’t mentioned in the post is that the singer is at the center of a legal storm. Within just three weeks, after a first complaint of sexual harassment was filed against him, a second, more serious complaint arrived, this time for sexual assault and attempted sexual assault. These cases put his professional future in question, especially after receiving international recognition following his fourth place at Eurovision and his song “Mon Amour” reaching platinum status in France.
The controversy began with a complaint filed by a technician who worked with Slimane during his tour. According to the complaint, the 35-year-old singer harassed the technician during a party after one of the performances. It is alleged that Slimane pinned the technician against a wall and later sent him messages and videos of a sexual and even pornographic nature.
The second complaint, filed on November 18th, describes events that allegedly occurred at the same party, attended by technical crew members and the singer, backstage at his performance at the Zénith de Saint-Étienne concert hall. The complaint was filed by a 33-year-old lighting technician who worked for the tour’s production company. The technician claimed that during the party, Slimane approached him on the dance floor, made offensive sexual comments, and touched him against his will. According to the employee’s claim, only the intervention of Slimane’s brother stopped the act.
As per the complaint, Slimane’s brother instructed all attendees at the event to delete videos that documented the incident. Despite this, the employee and some of his colleagues demanded to immediately terminate their work contracts with Slimane. The workers alleged that the production company tried to minimize the incident and downplay its severity.
The public prosecutor of Saint-Étienne in France announced the opening of an official investigation following the second complaint, intensifying the tension surrounding Slimane’s case. While the singer’s entourage continues to remain silent and has not yet responded to the new complaint, these accusations cast a heavy shadow over his career. As the investigation deepens, additional details are expected to emerge that may further shake the music world. One thing is already clear: this storm is not just a legal matter, but an event that will leave a deep mark on Eurovision 2024 and Slimane’s standing on the international stage.
Festivali i Këngës – Everything You Need to Know!
Albania chose its Eurovision representatives between 2004 and 2022 through the long-standing music festival “Festivali i Këngës“. The festival winner, who was selected to represent Albania at Eurovision, was chosen solely by a panel of judges. In the last two years, 2023-2024, the festival production decided to continue selecting the festival winner by a panel of judges, while the Eurovision representative was chosen for the first time by the audience alone. This created a situation where in the last two years, the festival winners did not represent Albania at Eurovision.
The Albanian National Broadcaster, RTSH, previously revealed that 84 songs were submitted to the Albanian national selection this year. A similar number of about 80 songs were also submitted in the previous two years. However, last year songs were submitted by creators from countries such as Kosovo, North Macedonia, Germany, Sweden, Italy, and the United States – while this year only Albanian creators or those holding Albanian citizenship could submit a song to the competition.
This year, RTSH also decided to change again the way the Eurovision representative will be chosen. This year there will be one winner in the festival who will also represent Albania in the Eurovision competition. The competition results will be determined by a combination of a panel of judges (60%) and audience voting (40%). According to the competition rules, contestants must have Albanian citizenship.
In honor of Albania’s 20th anniversary at Eurovision, the Albanian National Broadcaster announced back in May a “nostalgia evening” as part of the festival. Details about this evening have not yet been published, all we can do is wait and see.
The Albanian festival has been held continuously since 1961, when in 2003 the Albanian National Broadcaster decided to turn it into the Albanian national Eurovision selection. In the festival, all contestants are required to sing in Albanian, and the winner of the competition has the option to sing in English at Eurovision, as happened this year with singer Besa Kokëdhima who performed at Eurovision with the song “Titan“.
France at Eurovision 2024
“Mon amour” is the name of the song performed by singer Slimane, who represented France in the grand final of Eurovision 2024. The song won fourth place, after receiving 445 points.
Source: festivali_kenges_rtsh.
Eurovision 2025: This will be France’s 68th participation in Eurovision. France joined the competition in 1956 and has won it five times over the years. France’s last victory was in Eurovision 1977 with the song “L’Oiseau et l’Enfant” performed by singer Marie Myriam.
