Chiara received a warm welcome at the airport last night, which worked as a balm to her raw emotions after ranking towards the bottom in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Some 100 loyal fans gathered at the airport last night eager to boost the singer's morale with flowers, hugs and words of support.

"The disappointment is huge and it was a big blow not to place among the top 10 countries," she said, mulling on the outcome of the result before boarding the plane to Malta.

Chiara's expectations and those of the Maltese were high, based on the ballad queen's reputation - she placed third in 1998 and second in 2005, so the goal was a victory.

Instead, the 32-year-old, who gave an impeccable performance on the night, placed towards the bottom earning just 31 points to place 22nd out of 25 competing countries.

Malta failed to receive points from countries, which were considered to be Chiara's fans, among them Greece, Cyprus, or Albania. She did not even garner a solitary point from Belgium when the composer and author of her song What If We are Belgian. However, Malta got a good ranking in the semi-final, placing sixth from 18 countries.

"Seeing the points being read out was a shock. I'm still confused as to why certain countries did not vote for us," she said, at times laughing and at other times trying to suppress her tears from falling.

Does she regret entering the contest?

"Today I'm regretting it a bit, but a week will pass and so will the regrets. I loved being in Moscow and I was thrilled to have made it through the semi-final. We were a good team and we enjoyed it right until the end... well, until the votes were being announced," she said, managing a laugh.

Chiara has long maintained that her main objective was winning and that if she failed to reach her aspirations she would return to the Eurovision stage. Yesterday, she was reconsidering this, but stressed she never said never.

"I don't exclude anything. I'm too angry at the moment to say I'll go back again, but the Eurovision is a game and sometimes you win and sometimes you lose," she said, shrugging her shoulders in her usual frank manner.

The songwriter of Iceland's ballad Is It True?, which placed second, has encouraged Chiara to keep going irrespective of the placing, because "you have the greatest voice". Chiara was resigned that there were so many ballads viewers were willing to give the space to, and this year it was Iceland's and the UK's It's My Time, which struck a chord.

"I just hope people are happy with my performance because I gave it my best."