The hugely popular London-based Metro website had its say about the Malta Eurovision Song Contest, giving five reasons why Malta Eurosong is 'oddly compelling viewing'.
Caroline Westbrook, entertainment reporter, writes that Malta Eurosong was a gigantic national event which makes even The X Factor final look small by comparison.
"And in fact their quest to find a track which could potentially bring the contest to Malta for the first time ever (because in spite of all this effort, they’ve never actually won the main event, even though they did win the 2013 Junior Eurovision) is strangely compelling viewing even if you’re not Maltese and your national pride depends on it."
The Malta contest, it points out, goes on for a really, really long time.
"It’s a bit like watching the entire X Factor final in one evening instead of in two-hour segments over the course of a whole weekend. And here’s the thing – it has a semi-final as well, so you also get an extra couple of hours the night before. Get those matchsticks, folks, you may need them to prop your eyes open by the end."
And, it says, it features the same performers every single year.
"Either there aren’t that many singers in Malta, or some of these people are just going to keep on coming back every year until they actually win. Either way it’s not uncommon to see the same names appearing time and time again on the list of competitors, and sometimes even people from the same families going head to head with each other. In 2013 for example Malta’s representative Gianluca Bezzina (who returned to the stage on Saturday clad in a delightful mustard-coloured sweater to deliver his own, uh, ‘perky’ take on Pharrell Williams’ Happy) found himself in competition with his own sister Dorothy Bezzina. And you can always expect to see at least one member of the Faniello family – but while singing brother Fabrizio has made it to the actual contest twice, his sister Claudia remains empty-handed despite entering Malta Eurosong almost every year. Her time will come, we’re sure of it…"
It claims that the interval show is epic.
"Having shown all the songs – then recapped them – then recapped them again just in case you weren’t paying attention – they have a ten-minute voting window followed by an interval show. But far from just getting a couple of people to perform, this goes on almost as long as the actual main part of the contest itself, as a seemingly endless parade of guest performers are wheeled out – usually including last year’s representative, last year’s contest winner (in this case Denmark’s Emmelie de Forest), representatives from this year, past participants, people just dancing about randomly, the presenter’s cat (OK maybe not that one) – the list goes on. Trust us, you’ll be as confused as we are by the end, by which time you’ll be wondering whether the result has come and gone and you just missed it during that two-minute toilet break."
Furthermore, the voting is like old-fashioned Eurovision.
"Once the scoring eventually comes around it’s a bit like watching those old Song For Europe style national finals we used to have in the UK, as different judges are called upon to award individual points so we can finally get a winner. It’s like harking back to the days of live link-ups to a cupboard in Bristol all over again. And like the contest itself can actually be pretty exciting, such as in 2013 for example when the utterly charming Gianluca fought off competition from hot favourite Kevin Borg. We’ll be honest, we saw it coming a mile off."
The website points out that the UK hasn’t had a national final of any sort for several years, not even some small-scale effort tucked away on a Sunday afternoon before Antiques Roadshow.
"So until the BBC does decide to bring it back this will just have to be the next best thing. Besides, surely Malta Eurosong also makes us realise that if we displayed half the amount of enthusiasm as they do when it comes to the business of picking a song for Eurovision, perhaps we might actually do a bit better at the contest itself? Think about it people…."