Albania’s representative in the Eurovision Song Contest, Albina Kelmendi and her family gave an emotional performance last night on the Liverpool Arena stage, securing a place in the Saturday final.

In the press conference held after the show, Kelmendi said that Albania and Kosovo are siblings.

“We are one of the same blood, same nationality. Kosovo and Albania are brother and sister and we have a mother, Big Albania,” Albina said during the press conference.

Albania was the first country to be announced as qualified for the final, after the voting ended. Other qualified countries include Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovenia. Meanwhile Denmark, Georgia, Greece, Iceland, Romania and San Marino did not qualify.

These countries will join the ten finalists that came out of the first semifinal night of the contest, alongside “the big five”, Spain, United Kingdom, France, Italy and Germany, as well as last year’s winner, Ukraine.