You Give Love A Bad Name

Earlier this afternoon I posted my first report from Belgrade about Malta's participation at the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest. I'm honestly appalled at the countless opportunities the Maltese entry is just glossing over at this year's edition of the contest. I say this mostly because Morena is a great pop performer. She has a very strong voice and the camera loves the classic Mediterranean looks. Morena deserves better than to have her dream tainted by missed opportunities.

My present impression of the Maltasong board is that they're either like the proverbial deer staring at the headlights of an oncoming car or they're simply still the same people who co-ordinated what are Malta's worst Eurovision results to date.

There's more, of course. Other than the fact that they've written two of the more successful Maltese Eurovision entries, I fail to see why Gerard James Borg and Philip Vella have been given the opportunity (by some of the same people who voted such a close result in the recent general elections in Malta) to try again to fail as miserably as they did last year. If I hear anything more about the so called bloc-voting and the "fact" that Malta has no Eurovision neighbours I'll most probably hurl uncontrollably.

Italy is not Malta's only geographic neighbour missing from the Eurovision contest. All five north African countries (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt) are members of the European Broadcasting Union and therefore eligible to take part in the contest. Morocco actually did take part in 1980. Just in case you really care about these things, the Eurovision Song Contest is not for European countries, but for countries that are EBU members. Israel's EBU-membership and long string of high-profile entries undoubtedly complicate matters for any lobbying to bring in some (if not all) these Arab countries.

Let's leave that heavy stuff aside for a now and focus on something relatively trivial. Many of the Maltese people I'm meeting in Serbia are obviously asking me who's going to win the contest this year. Naturally, I have no clue (yet) but I know two things for sure, 100%: (a) ESC 2009 will not be held in Malta, and (b) there will be a new Maltasong chairman by this summer. Just remember you read it here first.

I will now indulge in some more ramblings before I hit the Slivovitz, so please feel free to stop reading. The Spanish word for daisy is a much nicer name for a girl...the etymology of Morena's chosen stage name is quite pertinent in light of some of the things I mentioned earlier...I'd rather have rakija than vodka, mostly because there's so much more than vodka in a Margarita, even if we're in the wrong part of the world for that sort of thing right now.

Gotta go.