Two songs each by Morena, Claudia Faniello go to finals

The final of this year's Go Malta Song for Europe Festival will be battled out by a bevy of familiar faces, each hoping to represent Malta in May's Eurovision Song Contest.

The eight songs, chosen by seven foreign judges, which made it through last night's first round are: Caravaggio, singer Claudia Faniello, composer Ray Agius, author Godwin Sant; Give Me A Chance, Eleanor Cassar, Paul Giordimaina, Fleur Balzan; Casanova, singer Morena, Philip Vella, Gerard James Borg; Love Is Just The Way, sung, composed and penned by Rosman Pace; Go, singer Klinsmann, Dominic Galea, Claudette Pace; Vodka, singer Morena, Philip Vella, Gerard James Borg; Street Car Of Desire, Petra Zammit, Elton Zarb, Rita Pace; and Sunrise, Claudia Faniello, composed and penned by Ray Agius.

Surprisingly, former festival winner Mary ­Spiteri, who competed with two songs, failed to make the grade, despite the fact that many have long been touting on numerous online forums that she would be the one to bring the Eurovision home.

The points and placing of the eight finalists will not be revealed until tomorrow, so as not to jeopardise the outcome of the final result, which will be decided by local judges (20 per cent) and the public through televoting (80 per cent). The running order of the songs will be announced today.

After Malta earned a dismal placing at the last two consecutive Eurovision contests, Maltasong attempted to remedy the situation by creating a fine filter system in the hope of having a winning song that does well on the European stage.

One of the steps was to eliminate the public's vote from last night's semi-final and to fly over foreign judges who would not be swayed by any personal bias in favour of a particular song.

Whoever wins tomorrow's festival at the Malta Fairs and Convention Centre, in Ta' Qali, will go on to represent Malta in the Eurovision in Serbia in May, starting off from the semi-final stage.

Due to changes approved by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in late September, every country, except the winner and the Big Four - Germany, the UK, Spain and France - has to start off competing in a semi-final.

The EBU accepted the proposal to introduce the concept of hosting two semi-finals - which will be held on May 20 and 22 preceding the final night on May 24.

The draw of who will compete in which semi-final will be held in a few weeks' time, while the running order will be announced during the heads of delegations meeting in March.

This is intended to increase the fairness of the competition and open doors to a more interesting final. Maltasong has welcomed this move because this way every country starts off on the same footing.

However, all these details seemed far away from the singers' minds last night as they focused their energies on winning the judges' hearts and making it to the next round.

Executively produced by Peter Busuttil, the festival kicked off with a rhythmic percussion by the Boom Band, followed by an aria by soprano Ruth Casingena, who was hosting the show together with Chiara and John Demanuele.

Towards the end of the evening Chiara and Ruth teamed to entertain the crowd... we have yet to discover the singing talents of Mr Demanuele, who, however, did well on providing the words for the script, as people anxiously waited for the results to be announced.

This year a new award was introduced - the Go Malta Song for Europe 2008 DJs' Choice - geared to bring the contest to as wide a spectrum of radio listeners as possible, not only the avid Eurovision follower.

Maltasong last night invited DJs to voice their choice as to which song they felt deserved the most airplay on their station. The result will be made public on Sunday.

Tomorrow's final, which will include a live performance by the winner of the Australian Idol 2007 Natalie Gauci, will be aired live on TVM at 8.30 p.m. and streamed live on www.di-ve.com.