Ariadne Massa, Moscow
Phew... she's through
I can't feel any better... I'm thrilled - Chiara
Chiara was exuberant when she heard Malta announced among the qualifying countries. Photo: Olivier Vanhoutte.
Confidence and experience carried Chiara through the semi-final last night, securing Malta with a place in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest after an absence of two years.
Alone on stage, except for a microphone, Chiara filled the stage with her presence and powerful voice, and albeit a nervous start she wooed international viewers with her rendition of What If We.
The Maltese must have heaved a collective sigh of relief when Chiara's name was the fifth to be called out among the 10 qualifiers from the 18 competing songs.
She qualified for the final after three consecutive Eurovision dismal rankings. For months, the island had pinned its hopes on the 32-year-old whose past rankings nearly brought the coveted trophy home.
From the outset her goal and that of PBS, who were entrusted with the organisation, was to qualify. Now, Chiara will want to go for the jugular and win, but the competition is stiff. Despite this, the presence of the jury, which has a 50-per cent stake in the vote in Saturday's final, could still spring some surprises.
But Chiara will worry about all this when she gets to it.
Last night she was enjoying the moment and the twinkle in her eye competed with the sparkle of the 1,500 Swarovski crystals that studded her black dress, designed by Charles and Ron.
"I can't feel any better," she told The Times in her first reaction, as she prepared for the joint press conference with the qualifying countries last night.
"I feel proud to be Maltese and I feel I did a great thing to put Malta in the Eurovision's final - I'm thrilled," she enthused.
The reaction to her performance was good overall, and the website oikotimes.com described her rendition as a "stunning vocal performance".
The show started off with a fairytale of two young girls who go on to discover a song that gives people wings. The postcards were also imaginative, capturing each country's landmarks in three-dimensional graphics. Before she went on stage Chiara looked at her Pandora bracelet, adorned with lucky charms from her closest friends, for comfort. She fought hard to keep her mind occupied on the banter backstage.
"During the first dress rehearsal I was left alone for five minutes and my performance didn't come out the way I wanted. The second time I stayed joking and it came out well," she said.
For the past week, things were looking good for Malta and from the outset bookmakers predicted Chiara had a strong entry to surpass the first hurdle. The preliminary results of The Big Poll, released by esctoday.com yesterday, also showed that the countries that gained most points since the rehearsals were Belgium, Bosnia Herzegovina, FYR Macedonia and Malta - just Bosniza Herzegovina and Malta actually went on to qualify last night.
Another poll, the Europrediction 2009, which had 46,000 valid votes and was conducted by oikotimes.com, also predicted Malta would sail through the semi-final.
The qualifying countries were announced by the show's presenters Natalia Vodyanova and Andrey Malakhov who turned up on stage of the Olympiysky Arena waving 10 envelopes on stage.
Silence preceded each announcement followed by the euphoria of the country that qualified. The 10 finalists that qualified, in the order they were announced, are: Turkey, Sweden, Israel, Portugal, Malta, Finland, Bosnia Herzegovina, Romania, Armenia, and Iceland.
Nine countries were chosen through televoting in the 18 countries, while the 10th spot, the wild card, went to the song that placed the highest in the juries' voting, but did not qualify through televoting.
The scoreboard featuring the final results of the two semi-finals will not be revealed until after Saturday's final so as not to prejudice the public vote on the night.
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Konrad Abela
May 15th 2009, 13:59
J.Pace. I completely agree with you. I much preferred Chiara's song, 'Angel'. Her voice gives me the shivers and the song has a climax to it. 'What if we' is a boring song as it is repetitive and without any highs. All I could here is 'eeeeeeee's'. What about the music? I could hardly hear it. I think that Chiara knew that her song is not that good and that is why she was nervous on stage. Yes she should be thrilled at how lucky she was of getting through the semi finals.
Joe Fenech
May 15th 2009, 03:05
Phew...!!!!!!
What a disaster had this not been the case!
J.S Zammit
May 14th 2009, 23:17
Totally agree with Mr Pace, boring song, and to add, boring performance and totally flat! I will bet you that she will be rank at jet speed to bottom! 'What if we' ever learn and put proper acts out there to perform and stop embarrassing ourselves once for all.
Y Chetcuti
May 14th 2009, 12:59
good luck...I honestly think that her performance was not the best she could give...I hope that she wont get too excited and start on a flat note just as she did on tuesday...the song is not the easiest song to sing yet it his her duty to sing it the best way possible...besides she did not sing it smoothly as she did here in Malta...I guess that her good reputation within the eurovision was what made her get through...
Rachel Spiteri
May 14th 2009, 09:03
Go Chiara... :D:D
J. Pace
May 14th 2009, 03:02
@Charles Said-vassallo - 'Chiara will be 2009 Eurovision winner without a doubt '
don't let your emotions run. she will barely make it to the first 10, especially with the disastrous performance overall of last Tuesday. Can't understand where is this 'excellent performance' everyone is talking about.
Just be realistic - where was the sound? she was alone singing - sometimes screaming trying to reach the high pitch notes, song is very boring, and notice the audience reaction at the end of the song. You could only hear some maltese freaks shouting Malta and clapping - nothing else. Also have a look at the betting, they get them 99.9% always right. Furthemore this is the worst song she ever had for Eurovision.
On the contrary hear for example iceland song and see the difference from the list above.
No I am not jeolous of her as people will now criticise me...I am criticising the whole package - what people has seen on TV.
However I hope I am completely wrong, but fantacising when reality is showing you completely the opposite is a dangerous game.
Joseph Micallef
May 13th 2009, 20:48
I sure hope that Chiara and Chiara's team will read these comments. Otherwise our criticism will be all in vain!
Paul Fenech
May 13th 2009, 18:14
Well done Chiara. You were fantastic on stage...what a beautiful voice............I felt emotional...... Song is a bit weak for your talents but lets see what happens on Saturday........you are there with a chance.....wishing you all the luck in the world on Saturday....brava
Marisa Bugeja
May 13th 2009, 17:07
I totally agree with Mr Ray Mangion. Something was wrong with the sound balance yesterday. Chiara's voice came across harsh instead of mellow and we could hardly hear the music.
Good advice from Ray to check it out-Chiara's golden voice must not be lost on the world!
Iris Bartolo Frendo
May 13th 2009, 15:10
I agree 100% with ray mangion. You totally expressed my thoughts.
Lilian Samuelsson
May 13th 2009, 15:07
Excellent performance Chiara and GOOD LUCK in the final.
ray mangion
May 13th 2009, 14:49
I hope that the team around Chiara will do their job as well as Chiara is doing hers. I watched last night`s performance and although Chiara started with a small hitch she recovered extremely well, which is more than I can say for the way the sound technicians were allowed to make such a mess; Chiara`s mic was so high many of us in Malta could barely hear the music. And the feedback/echo was terribly amateur. Team, don`t let us down and don`t let Malta down. Get off your backsides and make sure that this does not happen on Saturday.
Peter Seychell
May 13th 2009, 12:51
Well done and well deserved, however I too feel that there was something wrong yesterday especialy in the pronounciation of certain words like "Free" which repeatedly came out more like "Fwee". as if she is suffering from some kind of a lisp. I too agree that the music was too low. Non-the-less well done-whatever the final result
R.Farrugia
May 13th 2009, 12:44
Congratulation Chiara! But can somebody quench my curiosity: What is the number of those who are included in the official list as part of the Maltese delegation. Let us not forget that this delegation would be staying in Moscow for almost a fortnight!
D Bailey
May 13th 2009, 12:18
Norway will win this year, just take a look at betting odds.. they rarely get it wrong.
Dermot Cullinane
May 13th 2009, 12:11
Well done,Chiara!!!!! Hope you go all the way on Saturday. You deserve to win.
Dermot Cullinane, Cork, Ireland.
Joseph Micallef
May 13th 2009, 11:55
@Anton Camilleri. For no reason can anyone call me a jealous critic [but I am a musician and know something about music]. I have nothing to be jealous of - and I, along with all Maltese, know what a beautiful voice Chiara has and wish her well. I clearly stated in my comment that it was "my opinion!" I just hope as well that they fix the backing music problem.
Kaydee Zammit
May 13th 2009, 11:52
If it were up to me I would have Chiara represent us in the Eurovision every year, because her voice is simply amazing. However, I think the song chosen this year does not do her justice. It's just a tad boring - Chiara can do much better than that. I was a bit disappointed. Well, good luck Chiara, I'm sure you will make us proud, and I really hope that there will be a small show as well on Saturday as I'm afraid the song by itself won't cut it as it is not powerful enough.
G. Mangion
May 13th 2009, 11:47
Welldone Chiara Welldone :
Wish You The Best of Luck next Saturday. You Made Us Proud Already no matter what
VIVA MALTA.
Anton Camilleri
May 13th 2009, 11:28
Dear lovely Chiara....
You made me proud to be Maltese... your emotional presence on stage.... lovely appearance... maaaa you were so goodlooking on stage..... You've manged to pull out tears from my dry eyes ;)
Prosit Chiara. I am so proud of you, of your performance, of your stubborness, your courage, your talent, your beauty (both internally and externally), your life, and maybe mostly, Your Voice!
Whatever envious and jealous critic/s say about this and that, you performed like a star! As the saying goes, "L-ghira oht il-genn"!
As others said earlier, your song did not have any 'xinxilli li jghammxu l-ghajnejn'. This shows your tremendous talent. Fqajt sala minghajr l-ebda kaxxa nfernali!!!!! Sempliciment b'lehnek. Ara jkunx hawn xi hadd kapaci jaghmilha!!!!
We all know what happens in the final.... so whatever placing you get, you have the pleasure to have passed the semi-finals with flying colours!!!! Others, even if they had many 'xinxilli l'hemm u xinxilli hawn' did not manage. YOU MANAGED....
Joseph Cauchi
May 13th 2009, 11:14
@ Joseph Micallef,
I quite agree with you as regards her voice, as it was not as melodic as usual, yesterday!
However, come Saturday, Chiara will hit the right tone and show the world what a world class singer she is!
Go Get Them, Chiara!
../..
Carolyn Hucker
May 13th 2009, 10:39
I thought that ChIara sang well last night. Her voice was clear and you could hear every word. Good luck for Saturday I wish you the very best!
Dr Michael A. Riccioli
May 13th 2009, 10:24
Prosit Chiara - we're all thrilled :))
Joseph Micallef
May 13th 2009, 10:21
I don't like bursting bubbles but Chiara's rendition of her song yesterday was, in my opinion, very disappointing. More than sing, she shreeked, as if the notes were too high to reach for her. And the backing music was way too faint (not her fault I know)!
Charles Said-vassallo
May 13th 2009, 10:07
Third time lucky i will suggest. Chiara will be 2009 Eurovision winner without a doubt AND FINALLY!!.. WAIT FOR THE HEADLINES, Chiara will put Malta on the Map finally. You go Girl.
D.Galea
May 13th 2009, 09:48
Let's not just cry victory too soon, that was a qualification, yes we did it but it used to be a norm for us to be in the finals. We'll see next Saturday.