Ira Losco said today she was surprised to have won the Malta Eurovision festival even though she was aware many had taken it for granted she would win.

“Many people commented on my reaction after the festival and about not appearing surprised, but in actual fact I was very shocked.

“At no point did I take anything for granted. I actually believe that could have worked against me,” she told the Times of Malta this morning, admitting she felt she was under a lot of pressure to perform her best and expectations were high.

This will be the second time Ira serves as Malta’s representative at the contest. In 2002, she made it to second place with her song Seventh Wonder, the highest position any singer representing Malta had ever attained while participating in the popular contest.

At no point did I take anything for granted. I actually believe that could have worked against me

Her orchestral pop song Chameleon earned 68 points beating Brooke's Golden into second place with 58 points and Franklin's Little Love in third place. The 34-year-old singer also won 40 per cent of the popular vote.

Ms Losco said she believed that today she is more mature and experienced after being in the music business for many years, unlike 14 years ago when as an unknown 20-year-old, still at the start of her career, she came very close to bringing home the trophy.

She has since released nine albums and has already written all the songs for her tenth album, which she plans to release after the contest in May.

While Ms Losco said she expects most of the media fanfare to remain the same this time round, she said she expects television appearances and interviews to take up most of her time in the coming months. She said she must now also juggle maintaining an active social media presence while also not letting criticism online affect her attitude or her performance.

“In 2002, this was not the case. In the past couple of days I did go through social media and whether you want to or not you actually stumble across the negative more than the positive.

“That can very much change your frame of mind,” she said.

The singer said all performer must believe they would go on to win the competition, even if the polls and reviews state otherwise.

“In 2002, I only started getting some attention from the polls on Wednesday, days before the show.

“In fact I was actually seen as the dark horse of the competition. But you still have to believe you’re going to win, otherwise your performance on stage will suffer.”

While she believed the winning song has the right ingredients to appeal to the Eurovision audience, Ms Losco said details as to whether the song would be tweaked or even changed completely, which according to the competition regulations is allowed to happen, still need to be discussed.

See more, including the winning song, at http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20160123/local/pop-chameleon-ira-losco-will-represent-malta-at-eurovision-song.599820

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