Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Here they are, the season's first semifinalist with their preview snippets. There is asual a little bit of everything from taylor made Eurovision pop to beautiful ballads, opera pop and even the nuns but mostly the middle of the road radio pop that is hard to say what kind of impact they do in 3 minute versions. Most of the acts have previous experience in the national final but there are some newcomers, too: Karen DeBattista, Lyndsay Pace, Iona Dalli and Minik plus of course the nuns. Nine of the acts competed also in the Februay selection for 2014.... Then we have the Eurovision veterans Glen Vella, Ludwig Galea (in Trilogy) and Gianluca Bezzina (in L'Ahwa), And Alexander Rybak has penned Franklin's song. As for the other songwriters it's quite remarkable there is only one Gerard James Borg-Philip Vella collaboration while Philip Vella has written solo two more songs. But then we have SEVEN Elton Zarb songs with varous co-writers. Malta's selection will take pl...

News from Malta tonight as well. The 134 songs have been shortlisted to 48 (what happened to the news they won't reveal this list at all?) where from the 20 semifinalists will be selected. Many familiar names and previous winners but one is missing, Ira Losco. Her return has been rumoured and speculated for months and she's not in. Yet. Maybe she will be granted a wildcard. Maybe some other wildcards will be granted as well. Anyways previous winners Miriam Christine (1996), Ludwig Galea (2004), Olivia Lewis (2007), Glen Vella (2011) and Gianluca Bezzina (2013) with his sisters and brothers following the example of the Micallefs are in with several previous Malta Song for Europe participants. And hallelujah, there is even a group of nuns! We will see how many of these are included in the end.... Malta's selection will take place already this November 21-22, 2014. 12, Baker Street  – Karen DeBattista Beautiful to Me  – L-Aħwa (aka Bezzina Family) Break All Borders ...

San Marino's TV has managed to keep the secret until the end it seems and the speculations goes wild on internet. The latest "sure" name mentioned is Valentina Monetta - whoever she is as for me she is totally unknown. A few days ago there was the spectacularly managed hint on Nicola Di Bari but what if it is true after all? From this year's Sanremo festival the names of Noemi, Erica Mou and Marco Guazzone have been mentioned. And further more or less unknown names like Antonella Di Coco , Daniela Pedali, Monica Hill, Alessandra Bisignani along with the return of Miodio , with or without Lavika . But also Eurovision veterans Glen Vella and Roberto Meloni have been mentioned. And the always present L'Aura and Paola & Chiara . It's no secret this blogger would love to see the Iezzi sisters in Eurovision but tomorrow we will know... 

An interesting move from the Maltese TV as they ban the winning artists from the past five years from their national selection 2012. Wouldn't it have been better to ban the writers of the winning entries instead?? On the other hand then they would have a drastic drop of songs sent in as they provide some 3/4 of the songs anyway as usual I guess.... Well, joking a bit perhaps but aren't they awfully many every year by certain writers?  Anyways, Malta is waiting for songs until late October and then  a jury will pick up 24 songs for the semifinal on January 27 and there will be 16 left for the final the day after where a jury will mainly decide on the winning song like this year. Will it finally be a year of Micallef/Edwards?

Malta . What to say? Glen does his best and is near to perfection with the vocals. The dancers do their job well. So do the backing ladies. It's supposed to be all up and happy and bubbly and gay, but ... what's wrong? I don't know but something's missing. Maybe that something transmits through TV screens? Otherwise I doubt they will make the final - yet several songs that deserve to be there less will make it. Sigh. He is still wearing jeans, t-shirt and jumper as if he was going out on any ordinary day. Will he change to something more fabulous on Tuesday night? I want to like this just because it is so evident Glen is living his dream come true..... After one Eurovision fan and genuily happy person to be there to another one, Senit from San Marino (or Bologna in Italy actually) is again vocally fantastic, wearing a long grey dress that looks rather casual yet perfect. This doesn't have many admirers amongst the diehard fans but I think it has a small chance to ge...

As much as I would like to like Malta it leaves me pretty indifferent and cold. Glen is bubbly and happy living his Eurovision dream with an interesting voice but the song itself just isn't up to it; the verses and chorus just keep going on like a long distance train and that's it. Shame as the song's message is worth mentioning. Still... I don't know. Glen has three statuesque female backing singers and two dancing boys and colorful set. Yet. There isn't much to write home about. Somehow this is very amateurish perhaps? I doubt there will be enough people liking this enough to vote for it and push it to the final. Here are the videos: AKOE , Escdaily , Official.

Glen Vella has taken his bubbly personality to UK ESC party where she met Dana International and Nikki French amongst others and visited also Italy with a performance in Top of the Pops following Blue 's footsteps a few weeks ago. And before heading to D ü sseldorf he met his fans in Valletta signing his Cds.... Busy boy. But after all he's only got One life. ...

After UK's Blue Malta's Glen Vella visits Italy and performs One life in Top of the Pops tv-show. Glen will stay in Italy for a few days and do some promo for himself. Which raises a question why? As he performs in the first semifinal that will not be seen in Italy and Italians cannot vote in. Or is he simply confident he will make it to the final? Or is he pleasing the Italian and Sammarinese jurors Riccardo Cocciante, Leonardo De Amicis and Carmen Lasorella whose votes turned Glen a winner in Malta instead of Richard Edwards with Finally .

And here is the Maltese video for Glen Vella's One life . Very colorful pointing out the fact we are all the same in the end.  Very nice video indeed.

Riccardo Cocciante - I hate you! Well, I don't but I'd rather had fantastic Richard Edwards instead of remake of Albania's last entry - can't anyone else hear that? - performed by ADHD Glen Vella. Sigh... It looked like it was Cocciante who pushed Richard to the second place but it seems it was the televote after all... Congrats Richard and Wayne, too! You were fab! Here are full results (jury/televote) 1. Glen Vella - One life 90 (54/36) 2. Richard Edwards - Finally   88 (64/24) 3. Kurt Calleja - Over and over   69 (54/15) 4. Fabrizio Faniello - No surrender   57 (36/21) 5. Raquela - If I could do it all again   46 (28/18) 6. Baklava - Moon dance   45 (15/30) 7. Klinsmann Coleiro & Benjamin Darmanin - This love   32 (23/9) 8. Wayne Micallef - Everybody sing   23 (23/0) 9. Claudia Faniello - Movie in my mind   19 (19/0) 10. Eleanor Cassar - Hypnotized   15 (12/3 11. J. Anvil - Topsy-Turvy 15 (3/12) 12. Ally - Numb   15 ...

As it often happens the minor festivals are strongly influenced by the one and only Eurovision song contest. The troubled Golden Stag or Cerbul de Aur seems to be back for another year. Started back in 1968 it lived only 4 years (with winners coming from Belgium, Romania, the Netherlands and Sweden) before being relaunched in 1992 (with winners from Indonesia, Lithuania, USA, Russia and Romania) before hitting another break until 2001 when Romania won it again as it did in 2002. China, Malta and Italy won the next editions. In 2008 the festival was relaunched again with a Romanian win and so this 2009 is the 16th edition. And the list of singers is mainly very familiar reading from national selections or Eurovision itself: Sergey for Armenia, Raffaele for Belgium, Orlin "Kaffe" Pavlov for Bulgaria, Marios Tofi for Cyprus, Rolf Jr for Estonia, Laura Voutilainen for Finland, Antonino and Massimo Bertacci for Italy, Roberto Meloni for Latvia, Claudia Faniello and Glen ...

I was wondering where are Glen Vella and Pamela, two Maltese regulars in their national finals and how come they're not participating again. Well, they are. They form Q together with Fiona, Leontina and Luca. All of them have been participating solo before. Glen has represanted Malta already in several international festivals from Bulgaria to Kazakhstan. Here are some of their previous entries: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HnxH6s9ssk , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPqHp6za0cc , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7n-JicNQcE , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf7ymV-wg00