High praise for Chiara

Satisfaction at Chiara's second placing in Saturday's Eurovision Song Contest ran high among Maltese people asked for their reactions yesterday, with many singing praises of Malta's crooner.

Chiara placed a brilliant second in Kiev, losing the coveted first place to Greek Helena Paparizou's My Number One, which had been the favourite with bookmakers all along.

DJ John Bundy, the deputy chairman of Maltasong, described Chiara's performance as "excellent", saying he had never heard her sing the song to that level of perfection.

He told The Times he had received a number of very positive comments from international professionals in the music scene. International interest in the singer, he said, was present even before she left for Kiev and a number of contacts had been made with her management company, Bridge Productions.

Mr Bundy said the Greek song should not have won. The song that would have been fair competition to Chiara's - that of the Netherlands - did not even make it to Saturday's final.

The 28-year-old singer is expected to be honoured by the Senglea local council, her hometown, soon. When contacted yesterday, mayor Joseph Casha said he was going to discuss with the rest of the council the best way to honour her during their next meeting.

"We are all very satisfied. She has honoured not only Senglea but the whole of Cottonera," he said.

Mr Casha said Chiara's success was all her doing because not only did she write and compose the song, Angel, but she did not have any choreography - just her beautiful voice. He added that Malta did not have many neighbours and that might have affected the voting.

Natalino Chetcuti of Valletta, one of the many thousands of Maltese who watched the contest avidly on television on Saturday night, agreed with Mr Casha that it was a major achievement for Chiara. She was not just the singer but the brains behind the whole song, he said, describing the song as not just excellent but a hit.

However, he believed that although Chiara did her best, the stage was too bare during Malta's participation - unfortunately the contest was not just a contest for the best song, but also for the best show.

Mr Chetcuti said he did not like Chiara's dress but her voice and her ability were outstanding. He would have preferred a "white angel" surrounded by lots of fog and including a couple of male "hunks" also dressed as angels to complete the scene. The biggest disappointment about Chiara's song was the video, he added. It was a waste of money and a Maltese director would have produced much better work.

Commenting about Greece's winning entry, he said he liked the song, including the musical arrangement. He also liked the entries of Romania and Denmark.

An avid Eurovision fan, Mr Chetcuti said he believed that while Johnny Logan was Eurovision's male voice, Chiara was its female voice.

Steve Borg of Marsascala, a promoter of songs in Maltese, said he liked Chiara's performace a lot; she was very confident on stage although the winking could have been a bit overdone.

He said that although the voting was as political as ever, countries tried to retain a sense of modesty. They gave their 10 and 12 points to countries on their frontiers or to which they had an obligation but they gave the other votes fairly. Malta obtained a lot of sixes and sevens and, all things considered, this was most positive, he said.

Other countries also benefited from the voting of their migrant workers. Giving an example, he said that when Greek singer Haris Alexiou gave a concert in Greek in Germany, it was always attended by 40,000 to 50,000 Greeks.

Contrary to many, Mr Borg had no complaints about Chiara's dress: "It was good for her physiognomy. A light colour would not have suited her," he said.

Asked about his impression of the winning Greek song, Mr Borg said it had done very well because of the hype surrounding it. The fact that the singer was Swedish born also helped - in fact, Greece obtained 12 points from Sweden.

He said he was disappointed that Malta obtained few votes from Albania, a country which historically was not friendly with Greece, adding this could have been due to a lack of lobbying by Malta in this country.

It was also disappointing that Malta did not win votes from Andorra, another small country which like Malta also took part in the Small Nations Games. Malta should lobby all it could, using all possible sectors including sports, he said.

Ramona Bonnici of Birkirkara said she was pleased with Malta's second placing especially considering that the country got maximum points only from Russia.

Chiara, she said, was magnificent and she could not have sung better. She had the gift of an effortless, beautiful voice. But the stage was too bare, Ms Bonnici remarked.

Asked about Chiara's dress, she said she would have preferred a different cut, but the colour suited her.

Antonia Farrugia, from Qormi, expressed her satisfaction about Chiara's second placing. "It was very good, although I would have wished her to place first."

Ms Farrugia said although Chiara's dress was very nice, she would probably have looked more elegant in a black outfit. However, the way she was dressed did not seem to have had an impact on her placing, because she still managed to make Malta proud.

A Sliema woman said Chiara should definitely have placed first. Carmen Galea said the song was beautiful and the singer's interpretation "brilliant".

With regard to the dress, Ms Galea said she liked the style, but would have preferred the dress to be black. "At least she was not half naked like most of the others," she said.

She did not like Helena's winning song and after Chiara's her favourite was Hungary's.

Rose Falzon of St Julians, said Chiara pulled off her song excellently. "Her voice was perfect. Nothing was lacking."

Ms Falzon said it was a good thing there was no choreography because that meant that there was nothing to distract people from focusing on Chiara's beautiful voice.

Asked about the dress, Ms Falzon said the colour really suited the singer, adding that it was much better, and suited her age, much more than the coat she had worn for the 1998 Eurovision.

On Saturday, many people gathered in pubs, restaurants and clubs around the island to watch the Eurovision. But not everything was plain sailing. The Qormi bocci club set up a big screen and distributed small Maltese flags to put people in a celebratory spirit.

But soon after the contest started the signal was lost and viewers missed the first seven songs.

Chiara's success was also mentioned during a political activity by Labour leader Alfred Sant, who congratulated the singer for her achievement, praised her talent with which, he said, she had honoured Maltese and Gozitans.