Malta are one of my favourite Eurovision participants - I look forward to hearing their always enjoyable entries each year.  The last few years have have seen highs and lows (and even bits in between!) for Malta.  They always have benifited from being able to use their native english in their entries throughout their career at Eurovision, but this doesn't matter, considering the free language rule has been introduced.  They saw a disappointing result in 1999 but bounced back in 2000, 2001 and topped their best ever in 2002 with 2nd place.  Unfortunately, 2003 saw a strange turn of fortunes when they finished one from the bottom.  Interestingly, in 2002, Latvia held 1st place, Malta took 2nd and the UK took 3rd, in 2003, UK were bottom, Malta were next up and then Latvia.  2004 saw Malta in the Semi Final, where they then qualified and gained direct entry to the 2005 Final.  The come-back of Chiara was a good move - she placed second, yet when Malta found themselves in the 2006 Final they sent another verteran, Fabrizio, but his poor vocal only mustered up 1 point, and in 2007 Olivia Lewis' poor vocal range only notched up 15 points.

 

 

After two consecutive years of unprecedented bad results, there is a lot of pressure on poor Morena’s shoulders to bring a bit of Eurovision success back to Malta.  Though not doing to well in the past couple of years (last in 2006 and 15 points in 2007), their Eurovision record is fairly good, and they’ve had mixed results since the new format was introduced in 2004 – coming second in 2005 definitely being the highlight.  Morena’s a strong performer, but the song is one of a kind:  it’s like a novelty entry without the novelty.  On first listen I was reminded of last year’s Ukranian entry, but after a further listen they really aren’t very much alike at all.  Apart from all this, as it stands, I think Vodka is another really enthusiastic entry from Malta, and it’s good to see them trying something new.  With such a good draw, this should make a good impression, and I reckon qualification is a strong possibility.

 

 

An initial prediction will appear here soon.

 

 

A prediction will appear here when all 25 songs in the Grand Final are known.