Since 1971 Malta has taken part in the Eurovision Song Contest - only between 1976 and 1990 the country didn't participate. They usually did quite well - maybe due to the fact that English is their official second language - so before the language barrier fell they had a certain advantage compared to other countries. The most successful songs were "7th Wonder" sung by Ira Losco (Tallinn 2002) where they became 2nd, "The One That I Love" by Chiara (Birmingham 1998 - 3rd place) or "Little Child" sung by Mary Spiteri which also became 3rd in Malmö 1992.

They didn't do quite so well last year in Riga though - this being the reason for Malta's participation in the qualifying round. In this years Maltese national final Ralph Siegel (who composed Germany's only winning song so far - "Ein bißchen Frieden" 1982 sung by Nicole) took part as a composer and became 5th. Julie & Ludwig won the national final well ahead of their rivalling competitors with the song "On Again… Off Again". Both are well known artists in Malta. This song is probably one of the more strange kind of songs the contest has to offer this year - you'll either hate it or love it, we guess. There is also a classical element in the song - but, hey, hasn't the Song Contest always been especially popular for its sometime weird entries? Remember, Alf Poier went straight into the Top 10 last year… So we'll have to see.