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Saturday, January 26, 2008

De do do do de da da da

Don't think me unkind. Words are hard to find. I'm really disenchanted by the final eight songs in the 2008 Malta Song for Europe. It could have come to this earlier but here we are now, and there's very little I can (or care to) do about it. In spite of this and because I've committed myself to taking the raw with the cooked, I've produced the third annual podcast tied to the Malta Song for Europe in the weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor series. [See also MSFEonMMI: 2007 & 2006]

There are only a couple of songs from the 17 selected to compete at the semifinal stage that I care to ever hear again. So it was not easy putting together a playlist for this week's podcast. Luckily, Australian Pop Idol Natalie Gauci has been invited as a special guest for the final night this evening so I open podcast number 99 with one of her pre-Sony contract songs. Take It Or Leave It shows the verve that got this singer to the level of success she's currently enjoying down under.

Jean Claude Vancell has appeared on an earlier edition of Mużika Mod Ieħor. He is quite an adventurous song writer, even if a relatively quirky performer. I like him. I also like his debut MSFE song Contradiction, which obviously didn't make it to this evening's final round. I'm looking forward to his upcoming album, which I understand is either entitled Unspoken or Of Hopes & Dreams. I'm sure I'll be featuring his music again on the MMI series once the album is out.

One song at this year Malta Song for Europe semifinal was clearly a cut above the rest. Unbelievably it didn't make it to the final round. I refer, of course, to the Paul Giordimaina and Fleur Balzan song Whispers performed by Pamela. I've been attracted to Pamela voice for the last three years or so. Whenever I hear her songs my mood sublimates without fail. This is the closest that Maltese pop music comes to art.

To my mind there's no way to follow Pamela singing Whispers with any other song from this year's Malta Song for Europe. The only way I can end the 99th edition of my weekly podcast is to play the most sincere recording I've heard from a Maltese singer in quite some time. They Turned Me To Plastic by Carrie, the 2007 Eurovirtual Song Contest (what's that?) winner who is clearly not giving in to any of that nonsense. Listen closely to this home recording of this young Maltese singer in a Tori Amos inspired confessional mode. I think it's quite chilling.

As I write this, Malta's entry to the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest has not been announced yet. To be quite honest, I find it hard to see Malta doing well in Serbia come May. I could be wrong. I'm frequently wrong but sometimes I'm dead on.

The RSS feed for the Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast is available here or you can simply click here to subscribe directly with iTunes. You can also add the latest episodes to your My Yahoo! page. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

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Anonymous elio sei grande said...

sad evening.....an inane song written by a duo that specialises in sugary bullshit coupled with absurd lyrics.....not that the rest were much better......one of the poorest selections in recent years.....going to divebomb in serbia....ciao toni! 

6:25 PM, January 27, 2008
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Unbelievable? Klinsmann's reaction: http://youtube.com/watch?v=hMdmSeugu-E 

5:37 AM, January 28, 2008

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