What Does Zjerm Mean? - Let's learn some Albanian History
- LisaLids
- Jan 29
- 4 min read
"Zjerm" (Fire) by Shkodra Elektronike won Festivali i Këngës 63 and will be representing Albania this year.
In the two weeks after their win, I was trying to find the meaning of the lyrics, and every source I found had a different translation that really altered the meaning. Shkodra Elektronike are from a northern minority group in the Shkoda region of Albania, so some of the phrases are Latin and Gheg, not Albanian. On top of this, the artists had deflected on the meaning when asked, simply saying that it was very personal.
But there are a lot of hints. Locals have posted closer translations on youtube and reddit, and in the last month translations have settled a bit. I'm finding that this song is not only a bop, but the meaning is extremely deep and resonates with our times. Hopefully it resonates for you as well. I would love to hear your thoughts.
I really recommend reading the lyrics above. I'm not going to copy/paste but try to summarize and interpret the meaning for myself.
The Performance:
From their staging at the final - Beatrice is dancing and singing in a traditional (Valle) dance. She is just brimming with energy and charisma, dressed in red, and she really looks like a living flame and the embodiment of life.
But she is singing and dancing with trouble looming behind her. Her lyrics immediately talk about paranoia and the feeling that she cannot trust what she is hearing. This moment is calm, but it is temporary. She is told that things have never been bad, but her own eyes tell a different story. She asks us to imagine a world without soldiers, orphans, or pollution. Imagine that freedom of speech is taught in school.
Then she pleads: "*Aman miserere" - Please have mercy. Extend this minute for the good, nameless people. I love my land, I will not forget my heritage, we continue to shine.
Throughout her dancing, there's this guy lurking in the back (Kole), just ominously drumming and causing ripples to disrupt our attention to her. I really thought to myself "why is he here?" Then Kole steps to the mic and truly earns his foreboding persona by speaking in a way that syncopates with the main beat (seems like it's offbeat but it isn't). I didn't understand the words live, but just from the show, it threatened "I'm coming for you".
His lyrics literally call fire down onto Beatrice and her people. The fire is brought down indiscriminately, specifically to harm what they do not know and understand. "...we seek you, in this darkness that is nowhere close to shining."
Beatrice comes back with her theme, Have mercy, I will not forget my people, the good people, the nameless people. "Continue to shine"
PHEW. So this is some pretty heavy stuff.
Totalitarianism:
Beatrice and Kole come from Skoder, a city in the Gegeria Northern Region of Albania. The city has been inhabited since the 4th century BCE, and has its own history separate from the Albanian majority. More recently, it was the seat of the democratic movement that brought the end to the regime established by Enver Hoxha.
Hoxha was a stalinist communist dictator. He outlawed religion, cracking down on Islam and Christianity in Albania, of which Skoder was a major seat. He used totalitarian and isolationist government methods that brought the country down to the third poorest country in the world at the time of his death. Starvation was rampant, he executed political opponents, clergy, the educated, aristocrats and even family and old friends. Mass graves are still being discovered, with an estimated 200,000 people dead at his order at labor camps, and more than 6,000 were still missing 30 years later.
Part of this search is due to the recent reckoning that Albania is having with its past. Files have been made public after decades, communist members of government have retired, and there is a surge of democratic pride in the country after almost 80 years of nationalism. Even in this year's Eurovision, a nationalist anthem was submitted and fairly popular. The past lives on.
"Zjerm" doesn't explicitly call any of this out, but the lyrics make sense in that context. There is, however one big clue that the song is indeed political:
The cover is a floorplan of the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center in Shkoder. You can find it on Google Maps.
I have seen comments and rumors online that this facility was used to hold dissidents who opposed the communist regime. I have not found any sources outside of comments for this claim, but it is a poignant cover for the song.
If the rumors are just that - maybe the plan has a different meaning. Maybe it's about good people healing and overcoming the trauma of a regime of terror and submission.
If you've seen other information about this song, I'd love to see and hear it.
I've been sitting on this post for a long time, but I really am excited about Zjerm. I turn to music to help me through my own emotions and troubles. And it seems Shkodra Electronike and the people of Albania do as well.
Good luck to Albania this year!
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