MALTA

The Maltese song was revealed on March 9th vi the release of the music video.. The Maltese entrant had already been decide through X-Factor Malta would once again be going to Eurovision. The final of this selection was held on February 8th at the Malta Fairs & Convention Centre in Ta' Qali, hosted by Ben Camille. The winner was chosen in 3 rounds of televoting with 1 contestant being eliminated at the end of each round. The winner was 2015 Junior Eurovision winner Destiny Chukunyere and her song is called "All of my love"

The video has a number of different settings and 'looks' interspersed with shots of free runners running through different terrain and shots of swooping birds of prey. The video is also very much an advert of slow motion effects. For some of the video she is pictured alone but at some points she is flanked by a lot (and I mean A LOT) of dancers. The video takes place in differents outdoor settings, at different times of day and through different weathers. At one point she is wearing a gloriously huge black ball gown and sporting a black and gold headdress which makes her look very regal. Personally I prefer the parts with her hair down as it makes her look much more youthful and a little less severe, especially taking into account the style of the song.

The video starts will a spoken word intro reminding us to 'fulfil your Destiny' a play on the artist's name. We start off will another sparsely orchestrated soundscape with the first verse on top. Destiny's vocals are very prominent and made more atmospheric by the addition on extra reverb and echo on top. During the pre chorus the backing track stays pretty similar but has the addition of a steady but not prominent beat. The whole thing then jumps up a gear once in the chorus - the backing track is richer and the beat is now in double time. The end of the chorus has an interesting call and response part with the backing singers which could have been interesting with a live audience. The next verse sounds much more sassier with just a beat and very little else, this leads into the pre chorus and chorus like before. This sequence ends with a bridge with a driving gospel sounds which includes the ensemble singing as one, and claps and some epic big notes at the end from Destiny. We end with one last reprise of the chorus but with some repetition of the ending.

This is an amazing song and would have been a firm firm favourite in the hall. It has a great structure and has the right amounts of peaks and troughs without compromising the flow of the song. The tempo is key here as it is easy to switch it from no beat to normal beat to double with no fuss. It would not have needed much in terms of staging because we all know so well that Destiny is an amazing vocal and physical performer and her character oozes out of her. We might have seen Malta's first ever win, our first solo winner of colour and our first Junior to Senior Eurovision victor... but now we will never know.

Artist - Destiny Chukunyere
Song - All of my love
Composers - Sebastian Arman, Bernarda Brunovic, Dag Lundberg, Borislav Milanov, Joacim Persson, Cesár Sampson
Lyricists - Sebastian Arman, Bernarda Brunovic, Dag Lundberg, Borislav Milanov, Joacim Persson

MALTA

The Maltese song was unveiled on March 8^th as the video and song were released online. The act representing Malta was chose though the country’s X Factor show which finished on January 26^th, with the winner going to Eurovision. Michela Pace was the winner of the first series and she will be singing “Chameleon”.

In accordance to the name of the song, the video is highly colourised and uses a number of different settings, garments, props and copious amounts of models and dancers to create the feel of the song. There's lots of posing and colour matching/eye trickery going on to fit in with the title. I am a little worried that the setting of the video uses so much movement and use of extra people to make this feel exciting and memorable. The words of the song also appear on the video which is a little distracting.

This is a modern electronic pop number with a latin/reggae type feel to it and is very much a radio-friendly commercial song. The beat of the song kind of comes and goes throughout which means that it keeps your attention between bits but also loses the flow of the whole thing. Her voice is also very clear which suggests it has been highly processed to make it really clear. The first verse only has a bass and drum in the background and during the pre-chorus the click track in the background goes to almost double speed but with very little around it. The chorus of the track is basically ‘I’m a chameleon’ sung over again which is a little uninspiring. This order is repeated again before a rather large bridge part which is lyrically weak and doesn’t actually add anything to the song apart from filling up the time. This then followed by a final pre-chorus which is interspersed with lines from the previous bridge, which actually works better, finishing with a final chameleon line with a ‘la la la’ to finish.

It must be said that this is really not my type of music and not what I would choose to listen to. I found some of the instrumentation far too odd and in places actually laughable. The lyrics of this are really corny and I am starting to feel worried how this might sound and look on the night. Michela doesn’t do a lot in the video and she’s going to need to do a lot of work to sell this down the camera. This is not a song where she can depend n people moving around her, she is going to have to do some of the moving herself.

I’m not fond of this at all and I’ve ended up having a lot of questions and fear about how this is going to come across on stage. In some ways this is modern and current but in a year of experimental numbers this might just be a little too ordinary and only something younger viewers might vote for.

ARTIST –  Michela Pace

SONG –  Chameleon

MUSIC -  Joacim Persson, Paula Winger, Borislav Milanov, Johan Alkaenas

LYRICS - Joacim Persson, Paula Winger, Borislav Milanov, Johan Alkaenas