Federica Falzon, the 11-year-old singer who won the Italian junior singing contest Ti Lascio una Canzone on Saturday, paid a courtesy visit to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat this morning who praised her talents.

In recognition of her achievement, Dr Muscat gave her a silver necklace with a musical note pendant, and encouraged her to keep up her “positive energy”.

He also congratulated her for being chosen to represent this year’s Junior Eurovision which will be held in Malta. “If you plan on winning it let me know so that we prepare the budget – I’ll have to face [Finance Minister] Edward Scicluna with that,” he quipped.

The mezzo soprano who wowed television audiences in Italy and in Malta was flanked by her parents, Iris and David, as well as her vocal coach Gillian Attard.

Her mother confirmed that she has been approached by an American agency. “We’ll see where it goes from here,” she said, adding that Federica’s wish was to make a career out of singing. “It’s not a hobby for her."

“We just support her to get wherever she wants to get,” her father said.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.