Introduction

• Participant(s): Ira Losco
• Song: Walk On Water
• Writer(s) / Composer(s): Lisa Desmond, Tim Larsson, Tobias Lundgren, Molly Pettersson-Hammar & Ira Losco
• Broadcaster: TVM
• Social media: 
• Team review: 

The Maltese broadcaster PBS is proud to arrange a yearly Maltese Song Festival with several shows. In this festival, the representative for the Eurovision Song Contest is being determined. Among the contestants there was no less than former Maltese singer Ira Losco. She has been in the final of the show with two songs. Ira Losco made a wonderful 2nd place with “7th Wonder” in Tallinn 2002. At the end Ira Losco has won with the song “Chameleon (Invincible)”. According to the rules of the Maltese Song Festival the announcement of the winner is only applying to the singer that means that the chosen song can be changed completely. And exactly this happened, which has urged a lot of bad critics. As long as the official deadline of submitting songs is not being exceeded every country can chose its entry with own rules. The new song is now called “Walk On Water”. It has never been communicated why the change has been made, maybe the old song has been seen too chanceless.

Ira Losco was born in Sliema, Malta in 1981. As a teenager she joined the band Tiara with biggest hit “Basketball”. The band split up, when Ira participated in the ESC 2002 in Tallinn, Estonia. Ira has had several tries in the Maltese national final before: in the year 2000 “Shine” 6th place, and “Falling In Love” 7th place. The year 2001: “Spellbound” 2nd place, “Don’t Give Up” 4th place, “Deep Inside My Heart” 7th place  and “We’ll Ride The Wind” 11th place. By now Ira Losco has received over 20 music awards. Her music style has become more contemporary and sophisticated. Have a look at her song “Me Luv U Long Time” from 2013. In her 15 years long career Ira has sung with great singers like Katie Melua, Maroon 5, Akon, Enrique Iglesias, Ronan Keating, Tokio Hotel, Gigi D`Alessio and many more. Beside her music she is also an advocate for LGTB rights.

The ESC song “Walk On Water” has been co-written by the Swedish composer guru Molly Pettersson Hammar. It’s a modern pop song with an interesting and danceable rhythm, some exotic sounds and an eclectic striking chorus, which will push Ira into the Grand Final. This song is totally different form “7th Wonder”- there are 14 years in-between. And of course it’s a strong declaration of love. This is a strong Grand Final candidate!

History

• Debut: 1971
• Participations: 29
• Victories: 0
• Finals: 23
• Top 10: 13
• Chance for Top 10: 45 %

Malta had its debut in 1971 with a song 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 used as advantage. Nowadays every country can chose the language of their entries by preference, this year Austria will send a song in French and 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 29 participation, Malta reached the Top10 for 13 times, so the chance to reach a Top10 position for Malta is approx. 45%, 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, rumours said it should be the first open air contest in history. At least Malta won and hosted the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2014 and thanks to this occasion the Maltese broadcaster could show off a little bit what to expect if Malta wins the ESC, the introduction, the postcards were perfectly made. Congratulations.