When Gianluca Bezzina walks in through the sliding doors of the cafe, no one looks up. With his colourful hoodie, green jeans, earphones and rucksack, he looks like a student on a language course.
When the other Eurovision contestants got to know I’m a doctor, they started listing their aches and pains
But as he sits down and we start chatting, the two women by the door start giggling. After a while, one comes over. “Gianluca! Prosit and good luck!”
He blushes and chuckles simultaneously then thanks her profusely – she goes back, tittering happily. Despite being crowned the Malta Eurovision king in January for his indie-pop song Tomorrow, he still is not quite used to the off-stage limelight.
His win was an unexpected surprise and as a recently graduated doctor, he is much more comfortable in a ward with his stethoscope than being stopped for autographs.
On May 16, Gianluca will be in Malmö, Sweden, battling against 17 other contestants to make it through the semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest. He recently met all the competing singers from across Europe in Amsterdam and he stood out as being the only one who has a career other than singing.
“When they got to know I’m a doctor, they immediately started listing their aches and pains: tummy aches, headaches.
“I offered my services of course – it’s a good opportunity to keep on practising,” he quips, laughing.
Gianluca, 23, laughs a lot, infectiously so. His positive, happy-go-lucky aura has not been dented one bit in these three months of solid hard work to prepare for his act in Sweden.
It is the first time that a doctor will be representing Malta at the Eurovision and the first time that the singer does not plan to make the most of the experience for his bread and butter.
“Actually the fact that I have a medical career as my ‘Plan A’, makes me more relaxed about this Eurovision business: it’s not a make or break in my life,” he says.
Now that he has had a taste of fame, does he ever think of swapping his stethoscope for a microphone? Cue chuckles. “What? After five years of swotting to get my degree?”
Still, he is eager to make it through the semi-final in Sweden.
“Not for me mostly, but for everyone who’s been working on this: the PBS team, the band – we’ve been preparing for this for so long that it would be brilliant if we could play the song at least twice,” he says.
The song, which was co-written and composed by Boris Cezek and Dean Muscat, and its charming 1970s-style love story video has been a huge hit with participating countries. Gianluca has travelled to Armenia, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary to promote it.
“And I was quite surprised to see that the people who turned up for the show were singing to it – so the promotion is working,” he says.
On balance, he says, things looks good. “But of course, there’s the live performance – and that can change everything – you never know how it will come out,” he says.
Even though his odds in online betting “are not bad” he is very cautious about raising hopes: “Obviously we’ll do our best and then we’ll see what happens.”
Ideally, he says the Eurovision platform will make his “part-time signing slightly more interesting”.
Somewhere deep down, he hopes that maybe Sweden will bring about an opportunity of recording in a studio with a renowned foreign record label. “That would be a brilliant opportunity.”
He has enjoyed the ride so far – bar one hitch during a television show in Romania. While on stage, the scantily clad presenter came out dancing around him.
A cringeworthy clip on You Tube shows an embarrassed Gianluca attempting to stop himself from bursting out laughing while singing Tomorrow.
“Argh! That was traumatic! I had absolutely no idea she would do that!
“I kept looking at Joe Mizzi [the chairman] and Peter [Carbonaro – his manager] hoping they would do something to save me...”
He has come a long way from his first solo performance during his First Holy Communion, aged six. “But I barely remember that,” he apologises.
At 16, he took part in an unplugged concert at St Aloysius Sixth Form and then set up his band – Funk Initiative.
His biggest break came in 2008 when he sang solo in Voices.
But showmanship was always on the cards, given that he comes from a musical family. His mother, Sonia, plays the piano and the violin; his father, Charles, the guitar. His seven siblings, aged from 14 to 26, are all musical in some way.
“We were always singing at home. Dorothy, my sister, was all the time organising musicals – Cinderella, Sound of Music - and dressing us up: as the eldest she’s the boss – we couldn’t say no,” he chuckles.
They will all be going to Sweden to cheer him on, together with his girlfriend, his cousins, uncles, aunts and friends.
“They are really looking forward to it – lately they had to accommodate me quite a bit: they too had to feature in TV interviews and all that – but it was a fantastic experience for all of us.”
The best thing about the experience so far has been the new relationships forged in this “Eurovision journey”.
“With all the guys in the band and with Peter. It is what I’ll treasure from all this, the performance will come and go but these friendships will stay.”
Two things keep him grounded: his friends and his praying. “I’m not religious in the sense that I’ll become a priest, but I make it a point to pray every day,” he says.
He gets a daily text on his iPhone with a verse from the Bible and takes time to reflect on it, saying: “I don’t mind talking about this because it’s part of me and part of who I am.”
His old friends make sure that fame will never get to his head.
“They take the mickey – especially if we’re walking on the Sliema front and I’m stopped some 6,000 times by people who want to take my photo or chat.”
He never declines – “I appreciate people’s interest” – but many a time he missed the bus because of autographs.
Gianluca leaves on Tuesday and will be based in Sweden until May 19. “On May 24, I’ll have to go clock in back to work,” he says.
He has now completed his stint in geriatrics at St Vincent de Paul – where he was adored by the nurses – and will be now based at the surgery ward in Mater Dei.
On his return he plans have to start studying again. He will be sitting for some exams in September related to the medical field he would like to specialise in after he completes his housemanship next year.
Music will always be part of his life, he says, adding that he listens to every genre.
Elbow is the best band in the world, he says, and if he could, he would like to be Michael Bublé.
What if he had to choose between being a top rock star or top doctor? He pauses ever so slightly.
“I’d say neither of them: because I’d be too busy to enjoy living. It’s already a bit too much with this Eurovision thing going on,” he laughs.
Gianluca prefers the life he has: a doctor in the morning and a singer in the evening and sharing it all with friends and family.