Eurovision 2010 Malta Song for Europe
On May 29th, an audience of millions will be glued to their TV screens for the Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. Live from the Telenor Arena, Oslo this 54-year old annual song-fest is one of the most-watched live television shows globally, attracting an audience of up to 600 million. The 2009 final broke all tele-voting records, with more than 10 million people calling or texting to cast their vote for the winner. Last year’s winner was Alexander Ryback representing Norway singing “Fairytale”, and the final was held at the Olimpiysky Arena, Moscow on May 16th 2009. The hosts for the evening were Alsou & Ivan Urgant.
Last year’s Malta Song for Europe was performed by Chiara singing “What If We?” a song written and composed by Gregory Bilsen and Marc Paelinck. Although the whole Maltese nation was rooting for her after she went through to the final from the semi, disappointingly, she only achieved 22nd placing at the end of the night. This was Chiara’s third outing to Eurovision; with her two previous attempts she fared much better placing third in 1998, and second in 2005.
On 20th February 2010, 20 artists competed in the “Go Malta Eurosong” competition, battling it out to represent Malta at the Eurovision 2010 Song Contest in Oslo. Each performer sang live at MFCC Ta’Qali, and the event was televised live on TVM and presented by Keith Demicoli and Pauline Agius. The winner was 18-year old Thea Garrett singing “My Dream”, a composition by Jason Cassar and Sunny Aquilina. The winning song romped home to victory with 102 points, well ahead of Glen Vella’s second-placed number “Just a Little More Love”, which ended the night with 58 points.
Born in Malta in 1992, Thea Garrett has been studying with renowned soprano Gillian Zammit. For the past two summers, she studied at The Sylvia Young Theatre School in London, the alma mater of many British singers, such as Amy Winehouse, Leona Lewis and Emma Bunton from Spice Girls fame. Most recently, Thea was the opening act, in Rome, for Gigi D’Alessio’s world tour.
Thea will be taking part in the first Eurovision semi-final in Oslo on May 25th, along with entries from Greece, Russia, Portugal and Estonia.
