Good evening Europe, Good Morning Australia ! Tonight, Malta continues its search for their entry for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest , which will take place in Liverpool,UK in May . There has already been an Eliminatory Phase , where songs submitted were reduced to 40 ( yes , 40!) songs which have been split into 3 Quarter Finals .Tonight,inthe third quarter final 14 acts will compete for 8 places in the Semi Final, with the Grand Final taking place on 11th February, which seems to be a favoured date by many countries for their National selections this year, judging by the long list on the calendar for that day ! Tonight’s host are Ryan and Josmar.

The acts competing tonight are :

1. Andre’ – Broken Hill
2. Bradley Debono – «Blackout
3. Cheryl Balzan – «La La Land»
4. James Louis – «Dream»
5. Dominic & Anna – «Whatever Wind May Blow»
6. Greta Tude – «Sound Of My Stilettos»
7. Ryan Hili – «In The Silence»
8. Jessika – Unapologetic
9. Stefan Galea – «Heartbreaker»
10. Giada – «I Depend On You»
11. John Galea – «Trailblazer»
12. Jake – «Love You Like That»
13. Chris Grech – «Indescribable»
14. Maria Christina – «Our Flame

Public voting will not begin until all the quarter finals have been completed and semi finalists will be announced before the Semi final show on 9th February 2023.

I love your enthusiasm but unfortunately, you’re too early ! Come back at 21.00 CET , 20.00 GMT and join the action from Malta.

Welcome back! In a few minutes., we’ll hopefully be going live to Malta for the 3rd MESC quarter final. Who are you hoping will go through from tonight’s selection ? We’re just being treated to the Maltese news at the moment .

Hopefully we’ll be starting soon, we’re now on the first of what will be many advert breaks!

Here we go, straight into meeting our hosts ,Ryan and Josmar

And we have another advert break, before the show has even got going !!

And we’re back , looking back at past Maltese MESC winners and representatives at the Eurovision Song Contest .Josmar and Ryan giving us the usual introductions. Just to remind you that we won’t know the qualifiers tonight, they won’t be announced until after all 4 quarter finals have been done.The show tonight is a very casual affair , a chat on a sofa with the performers before they perform and then we see them sing

First up is Andre

Andre -Broken Hill

Just to add that you won’t see the actual National final staging tonight and there’s no audience either. Andre is casually dressed in trouser’s waistcoat and shirt with three quarter length sleeves. There’s a bit of the 80’s feel about this song , with some synth background music and Andre just standing alone on stage . It starts off a bit slow then starts to get going halfway through . I do think he needs to engage more with the camera . Fair performance but will need backing dancers /singers in the proper live performance to boost it a bit .

Bradley Debono –“Blackout”

So, after his initial interview with the hosts, we get to hear Bradley’s song .He’s dressed in all black,It’s a ballad and he’s certainly putting a lot of emotion into his song, looking at his facial expressions . I do think he needs to open his eyes a bit more. His vocals sound ok. An emotive performance and it will be interesting to see how he stages this in a proper live show.

We are now getting some flashbacks to past ESC’s .

Lena and her umbrella , haha !

Only two songs in and we have yet another advert break ! This is going to be a long night folks !

And we’re back , with our next two acts being interviewed by the hosts .

Cheryl Balzan “La La Land “

Cheryl has a bit of a rock chick look about her . Very short dress Thigh length black boots. The songs is kind of rock sounding too . I do think that when it comes to the proper live show, she needs a larger stage to move around more and give the song and performance more power.The problem I have with this song is that there is a lack of key change and Cheryl needs to show us she is enjoying herself more .

James Louis– “Dream”

Dream is about working to achieve your dream, according to James .He starts the song perched on a wooden stool. He’s turned to the side, facing down to the floor and not facing what would be the audience to start with which I find a bit off -putting.He then moves away from the stool and turns to face the “audience”. He needs to work on his vocals, they sound a bit strained. There’s a little bit of rap included , which I don’t really see the point of as the song is ok without.

Yet another lot of adverts …..I will never say a bad word about our commercial channels in the UK again ! At least they don’t overload us with adverts . Four songs down, 10 more to go ! sigh !!!

We’re back, with the next two hopeful acts on the interview sofa .

Dominic & Anna –“Whatever wind may blow “

Why is it that I am thinking that Dominic looks a bit like Pep Guardiola , the Manchester city football manager ? 🙂 he’s accompanied on stage by Anna . Black and grey is the dress theme here. Now duos tend to either be very good or not work quite so well, depending on whether they can show some chemistry in their stage act and their singing and most importantly singing in time with one another. Vocally they are both not bad and they do at least make some effort . I do think they need a little more chemistry but that may improve on a larger stage and when they have an audience to engage with .

Greta Tude “Sound of my stilettos”

Greta is a drag queen and artist , who confesses to Loreen and Euphoria being their favourite Eurovision act. The song is “Sound of my stilettos” and indeed Greta is wearing sparkly red stiletto shoes on stage . Wearing a short sparkly red and cream dress , Greta treats us to an electro , pop , dance track , lots of seductive moves on stage . It’s quite lively and may appeal to the younger voters, the vocals are a bit shaky in parts .Reminds me a bit of DQ who represented Denmark in 2007 .I am not sure about Greta’s chances, could go either way with the voting public.

Yet another advert break !

Ryan Hili -“In the Silence “

His favourite eurovision song is Chiara , “The one that I love ” from 1998. He does look a bit like a larger version of Duncan Laurence ( Netherlands 2019). His style is a bit like Duncan too. Again black is the dress colour , black trousers and black jacket and shirt . Like Duncan Laurence, he sings with emotion and he is at least engaging with the camera . With an audience and larger stage plus some backing vocals, this could be a good act

Jessika-Unapologetic

Sharp eyed viewers may recall Jessika being part of the San Marino act along with Jenifer Brening in ESC 2018 , in Lisbon , where they failed to make the Grand Final. She’s back for another try , this time representing her home country .At least we have a change of dress colour with Jessika in turquoise spangly all in one trouser suit. I have to say I was expecting a bit more from this . It’s a pleasant enough song but nothing that really jumps out at me and says “vote for me” .It’s repetitive and doesn’t really go anywhere .Sorry Jessika but I even preferred your 2018 song to this .

And we have now……….yes, you guessed it! Another advert break !

Stefan Galea –“Heartbreaker”

We’re back to black as the outfit choice again but with a white shirt under the black jacket. Heartbreaker is an uptempo song and Stefan is really putting some effort into this, giving us some movements, and actually looking as if he’s enjoying performing. I would like to see how an audience would take to this . On a larger stage, this could do well . Good performance.

Giada -“I depend on You “

Giada is in white , with red boots. I can see a bit of Lena Phillipsson ( Sweden 2004) where she stands and moves her standing microphone around . Great vocals but the song really doesn’t do anything for me .

John Galea “Trailblazer”

John is Maltese and English , who spends his time between the UK and Malta .He has a red jacket on with gold coloured braids on the front . Again it’s nice to see some engagement with the camera and some movements in the performance. I would really like to see this transferred to the larger stage and to see how he would stage this . Good performance again.

Yet more adverts……at least we only have three more songs left!

Jake “Love you like that “

We have more electro pop, reminds me a bit of the 80’s again with the silver , spangly jacket and black leather trousers . It’s a bit repetitive in parts but at least there is a key change and there’s a high note . Some taped backing vocals add to the performance .

Chris Grech-” Indescribable”

We have a casually dressed Chris, not looking too unlike Sam Ryder , who came 2nd for the Uk in Turin last year. However , vocally he’s not quite at Sam’s level but is still quite good . He does sing with some emotion . However, again the song doesn’t really do anything for me .

And we are finally onto the last act !

Maria Christina ” Our Flame”

Maria is dressed in an all black suit, short skirt and short top , with black , thigh length boots Some efforts to engage with the camera, again, the song is one of those songs that really needs to have a good staging and an audience to see how well it would work at Eurovision .

And that’s it! You’ve heard and seen them all. Which acts do you think should go through to the semi final? Remember , only 8 will go through from this quarter final . The voting doesn’t start until all four quarter finals have been shown and the results announced before the semi final on 9th February . With this in mind, we will leave the show and this blog now . I hope you have enjoyed following our blog tonight . Goodnight and tune in again next week for the final quarter final .

Author: Sarah Rudman

Source : TVM