Vertigo? Olivia soars to dizzying heights

Having tried every trick in the book, Olivia Lewis this year resorted to the internet to gauge people's opinion, especially on her image.

Many believe the intense interaction and promotion that raged online were behind Lordi's surprise victory at last year's Eurovision Song Festival and, with her ear to the ground, Olivia Lewis tapped this virtual world.

Having competed in the Malta Song for Europe Festival 11 times, and placing second for the last three consecutive years, the singer was taking no chances this year and caution was her motto.

"I used the internet a lot this year. When it came to deciding between the dress I wore and a red one, I posted them both online to get people's opinion. The majority favoured the one I liked and I went ahead with it and wore it for the festival. This year I worked with more caution," she told The Times.

The internet will be part of Maltasong's promotion campaign this year and board chairman Robert Abela said that "the net will be a crucial player".

Asked if a parallel promotion campaign would be carried out touring competing countries Mr Abela said this was the intention, budget permitting.

The festival was talk of the town yesterday and the broadcasting media was clogged with programmes analysing the contest.

One issue that took centre stage was a hitch in the stage monitor during Pamela's rendition of All About A Life. The singer had been so upset on the night she momentarily passed out and had to be treated by paramedics.

Despite the incident, all the contestants felt the victory by Olivia Lewis was well deserved.

She will go on to represent Malta at the 52nd Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki, Finland. However, Malta's place in the final depends on whether European audiences choose Vertigo to be among the 10 favourites from the 28 countries competing in the semi-final on May 10. Composed by Philip Vella and penned by Gerard James Borg, Vertigo garnered a record 30,977 votes.

Many felt this was her year to clinch the coveted award. Did Olivia Lewis gauge this same feeling?

"I obviously believed in the song, and the feedback I was getting from the internet was extremely encouraging. People were enthusiastic. Of course, your mind goes from the excitement of 'Ok this is my year' to 'will I place second again?' I was very careful to stride through all this carefully so as not to upset the balance," she said.

Persistence is one virtue she has plenty of and she admits that if she hadn't won this year, she would have entered next year's festival.

An interesting detail is that her winning song was submitted last year but failed to make it through to the final from the last batch of 50 entries.

So why was it resubmitted?

"We really believed in the song, and that's why we entered it again. Having said that, I believe you can always improve your product, so we revamped it," Mr Borg said.

The fact that this year's final selection was made by foreign judges, through every phase right until the semi-final, could have had something to do with it, and both composer and author are aware that music is extremely subjective to personal tastes.

"The biggest satisfaction was the landslide victory. I wouldn't have wanted to represent Malta with a song the public was not convinced of. Having nearly 31,000 votes is a vote of confidence," Mr Borg said.

Mr Borg and Mr Vella seem to strike gold whenever they get together - this is the duo's fourth win (Claudette Pace in 2000, Ira Losco in 2002, and Julie and Ludwig in 2004), as well as two close shaves in 2001 (Ira Losco with Spellbound and Olivia Lewis with Déjà Vu in 2005).

Despite opposing personalities, Mr Vella believes each one brings positive ingredients to the final product. "Both of us work very hard throughout the year and we also work on our own on other projects. But when we come together, I guess it's a winning formula," he said.