X Factor (Albanian TV series)

X Factor
Also known as	X Factor Albania
Created by	Simon Cowell
Presented by	Alketa Vejsiu
Judges	Pandi Laço Alban Skënderaj Juliana Pasha Vesa Luma Altuna Sejdiu Soni Malaj Miriam Cani Bleona Qereti Adi Krasta Arilena Ara Elhaida Dani Young Zerka
Country of origin	Albania Kosovo
Original language	Albanian
No. of seasons	6
Production
Producers	Vera Grabocka Alketa Vejsiu
Production locations	Tirana, Albania
Production companies	Fremantle Albania Syco TV TV Klan
Original release
Network	TV Klan
Release	8 January 2012 (2012-01-08) – 1 June 2015 (2015-06-01)
Release	8 December 2023 (2023-12-08) – present
Related
The X Factor

X Factor is the Albanian television reality music competition, based on the original British series, and an addition to The X Factor franchise, to find new singing talent. The show began airing on 8 January 2012 and was broadcast by TV Klan.

The judging panel for the most recent season consisted of Adi Krasta, Arilena Ara, Young Zerka and Soni Malaj. Other judges from previous seasons consisted of Pandi Laço, Alban Skënderaj, Juliana Pasha, Vesa Luma, Altuna Sejdiu, Miriam Cani, Bleona Qereti and Elhaida Dani. The show is hosted by Alketa Vejsiu. She applied to acquire the rights of the show along with Top Channel and TV Klan. Syco TV gave the rights to her, then she sold parts of the rights to TV Klan. After losing the rights of The X Factor, Top Channel acquired the rights of the talent show, The Voice.

The show ran for 4 seasons, with the last episode airing on 1 June 2015, and then TV Klan announced that there were no plans to air another series of the programme. On 6 June 2022, Alketa Vejsiu announced that after 7 years, the show would return, with his fifth season in 2023 on TV Klan. The fifth season began airing on 8 December 2023.

There have been five winners: Sheila Haxhiraj, Arilena Ara, Ergi Dini, Edea Demaliaj and Alis Kallaçi.

Overview

It was announced that there would be four categories on the show, Males 15 to 23, Females 15 to 23, over 23s and The Groups. Since the fifth season, are only three categories on the show, the Boys category, the Girls category and the Mix category.

Also it was announced that there would be five stages of the competition. The first stage is known as the "Producers audition", the producers of the show choose which of the contestants will have the right to audition in front of the judges. Next the contestants audition in front of the judges where they sing at least one song with instrumentals or A Capella. The third stage of the competition is Bootcamp, where from thousands of contestants only 150 are left. The fourth stage includes the "Judge's houses" or known in Albania as "Vilat e Jurive", where only 32 contestants,8 per category would fight for their place in the live shows. And the last stage of the competition would be the Live shows, where four contestants per category will make it.

In the first live show the public couldn't vote or make a decision. In the second live show and on, only the public had the right to vote and decide which contestants from all categories would end up in the bottom two. The two contestants with the lowest number of votes would end up in the bottom two, then they sing again for survival, the four judges would decide which contestant they want to eliminate. If one of the judges has his or her contestant on the bottom two, he or she usually decides to eliminate the other contestant in the bottom two, so the real decision is in the hands of the two or (if one judge has two of its contestants in the bottom two) three judges that don't have their own contestants in the bottom two. The show goes this way on the live shows every week one or two contestants are voted off, until the grand finale on June 10 when the winner is announced.

The auditions were held in different cities across Albania and Kosovo, the producers auditions included many cities but the auditions in front of the judges were held only in a few. The cities that auditions were held with the judges are Tirana, Vlora, Elbasan, Shkoder and the Kosovan capital Pristina. The first episode aired half of Tirana's auditions on January 8. Vesa Luma wasn't the judge on all of the city auditions, she was chosen as the fourth judge only after all of the city auditions ended. She judged on the Shkodra's audition also. It was reported that more than 7000 people auditioned for the show, which broke a record for the biggest number of auditions in any talent show across Albania, Kosovo and the Balkans.

On the official Facebook page of the X Factor, it was announced that the show would be first aired on January 8, 2012. It was reported that the winner of the show would be signed to the famous label Syco Music, which has signed the likes of Leona Lewis, One Direction, Susan Boyle, Little Mix, Cher Lloyd, Alexandra Burke, Westlife etc. The winner of the first season of X factor Albania was Sheila Haxhiraj.

Judges and hosts

Cast	Seasons
	1	2	3	4	5	6
Host
Alketa Vejsiu	Main
Judging panelists
Alban Skënderaj	Main
Pandi Laço	Main
Juliana Pasha	Main
Vesa Luma	Main				Guest
Altuna Sejdiu		Main
Soni Malaj		Main				Main
Bleona Qereti				Main
Miriam Cani				Main
Adi Krasta					Main
Arilena Ara					Main
Young Zerka					Main
Elhaida Dani					Main

Series summary

Season	Originally aired		Winner	Runner-up	Third place	Winning mentor	Presenter	Main judges (Seat order)
	First aired	Last aired						1	2	3	4
1	8 January 2012	10 June 2012	Sheila Haxhiraj Girls	Kristo Thano Boys	Xhesika Polo Girls	Juliana Pasha	Alketa Vejsiu	Pandi Laço	Vesa Luma	Juliana Pasha	Alban Skënderaj
2	28 October 2012	31 March 2013	Arilena Ara Girls	Aldo Bardhi Boys	Natyral Groups	Altuna Sejdiu			Altuna Sejdiu	Soni Malaj
3	15 September 2013	23 February 2014	Ergi Dini Boys	Senad Rrahmani Over 23s	Sarah Memmola Over 23s
4	5 January 2015	1 June 2015	Edea Demaliaj Girls	Genti Deda Boys	Dilan Reka Boys	Miriam Cani			Miriam Cani	Bleona Qereti
5	8 December 2023	19 April 2024	Alis Kallaçi Boys	Jetmir Kanani Mix	Kleansa Susaj Girls	Arilena Ara		Young Zerka	Elhaida Dani	Arilena Ara	Adi Krasta
6	8 November 2024	28 March 2025	Current season						Soni Malaj

Judges' categories and their contestants

In each season, each judge is allocated a category to mentor and chooses four acts to progress to the live shows. This table shows, for each season, which category each judge was allocated and which acts he or she put through to the live shows.

Key:

  – Winning judge/category. Winners are in bold, eliminated contestants in small font.

Season	Pandi Laço	Vesa Luma	Juliana Pasha	Alban Skënderaj
One	Groups Classic Boys X Group Focus Red Roses	Over 23s Lirije Rashiti Besa Breca Gerald Zyfi Matilda Shushari	Girls Sheila Haxhiraj Xhesika Polo Festina Mejzini Savjana Vjerdha	Boys Kristo Thano Anxhelo Miho Amarildo Shahinaj Arianit Bellopoja
Two	Pandi Laço	Altuna Sejdiu	Soni Malaj	Alban Skënderaj
	No Limit Kanita Suma Egzona Ademi Suela Malasi Ina Torba Rezart Saliasi	Girls Arilena Ara Antonela Çekixhi Elisa Salla Xhina Kelmendi Shkelqesa Sadiku	Boys Aldo Bardhi Sardi Strugaj Petro Xhori Herri Beluli	Groups Natyral KSAL Soul Sisters Foxy Ladies
Three	Girls Enxhi Nasufi Laura Kërliu Arissa Rexho Kristina Leka	Boys Ergi Dini Leotrim Zejnullahu Amadeo Gjura Ademir Fresku	Groups Exception Free Spirit Nimfat Dream Girls	Over 23s Senad Rrahmani Sarah Memmola Mia Morina Fatmir Durmishi
Four	Pandi Laço	Miriam Cani	Bleona Qereti	Alban Skënderaj
	Groups Brunetts X Roads Mama Pop Double F	Girls Edea Demaliaj Floriana Rexhepi Lediana Matoshi Mirela Boka	Boys Genti Deda Dilan Reka Matteo Brento Igli Zarka Gerald Celibashi	Over 23s Manuel Moscati Alice Ylenia Iorio Adela Curra
Five	Young Zerka	Elhaida Dani	Arilena Ara	—
	Mix Jetmir Kanani Frank Ibrahimi Ingrid Havalja Alba Dajlani Borana Xhemali	Girls Kleansa Susaj Anisa Shabani Wendy Zylaj Kejsi Jazxhi Luna Çausholli	Boys Alis Kallaçi Niki Zaimi Kevin Malo Gent Disha Aldo Prendushi
		Groups The Chemicals
Six	Young Zerka	Soni Malaj	Arilena Ara
	Mix Albi & Elvi Kapedani Pranvera "Era" Bako Orjald Debinja Salvatore Mete Ergi Hasani	Boys Amarildo Vesho Fortunato Cugilari Petrit "Petro" Fejzo Valdrin Mustafa Lorian Dedaj	Girls Alda "Troy" Cuka Anja Myrtaj Bletisa Karaj Leandra Godaj Rigersa Loka Vashat