Introduction

Like every year Malta is celebrating a big festival with Semi Finals and a Grand Final to choose the entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. As one of the first countries, Malta has already had its national final in December 2014. It is always great to see that in such a small country the general interest is so high and the TV viewing rates are the highest of the entire year. This all shows the Maltese’s love for music and the competition.

This year’s representative for Malta is named Amber Bondin, who was born in Kalkara, Malta in 1991, when Malta just returned to the contest after an absence of 15 years. Amber has received the highest votes from the juries and televoters.

For many people, a performance at the ESC is a once in a lifetime experience, for Amber it will be her second already. She has already performed as background singer for Kurt Calleja in 2012. Furthermore, she had three other attempts in the Maltese finals.

The 23 years old Amber had her first singing lessons in the age of 16, beside of singing she was also interested in judo. Due to a tragic accident she was not able to continue her sports and followed her second passion - singing. Since then she has been participating in several contests. Her music style can be renowned for jazz and blues.

The song Amber is going to sing for Malta is called “Warrior”. It’s a song about courage, strength and not looking back to the past. Amber is singing this song with all her passion and confidence, as she can identify with the song for 100% which may has to do with her own story. The new rule in Malta says that it’s possible to change parts of the song after the winning announcement, so let’s wait and see if the song stays like this or if it will be changed.

History

Debut: 1971
Participations: 28
Finals: 23
Top 10: 13
Chance for Top 10: 46%

Malta had its debut in 1971 with a sung in the Maltese language called "Marija L-maltija" by Joe Grech. The Maltese have only used their native language twice, due to the fact that English is the second official language it has always been seen as advantage. Nowadays every country can chose the language of their entries by preference. So we already heard Latvians singing Italian or Cypriots singing French. But English has been the main language in the Eurovision Song Contest for most of the countries. That's why Malta does not enjoy the language advantage anymore.

There has been a long pause in the Maltese participation between 1976 until 1990. Then Malta returned in 1991 with "Could it be” by Paul Giordimaina and Georgina and achieved a good 6th place. With this new enthusiasm and energy the Maltese reached a lot of good positions. Out of 28 participation, Malta reached the Top10 13 times, so the chance to reach a Top10 position for Malta is 46%, statistically.

Unfortunately, Malta has never won the ESC, but made a second place two times and a third place two times as well. Malta is so eager to win the contest one day. At least Malta won and hosted the Junior Eurovision Song Contest last year. In the same shipyard arena the Maltese final for the real ESC took place as well.