Claudia Faniello will take to the stage in Kiev tonight hoping to book a slot in Saturday’s Eurovision Grand Final. Here is everything you need to know ahead of the big night.
How does it all work?
Malta – represented by Claudia Faniello with Breathlessly – will be the fourth of 18 countries performing tonight, with the Top 10 going through to the Grand Final on Saturday. They will be joined by another 10 who qualified from the first semi-final on Tuesday, and the Big Five of Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK, as well as hosts Ukraine.
The qualifying acts will be chosen by a 50/50 voting system by an expert jury and televoting. The jury cast their votes during a dress rehearsal yesterday, while the European public will get to have its say tonight. The qualifiers will be announced immediately after the show, but the full results will be kept secret until after the Grand Final to prevent tactical voting.
The full list of tonight’s acts features: Serbia, Austria, Macedonia, Malta, Romania, the Netherlands, Hungary, Denmark, Ireland, San Marino, Croatia, Norway, Switzerland, Belarus, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Estonia and Israel.
Will Malta (finally) win?
No. Well, probably not. Despite having the dubious honour of being the most successful Eurovision participant to never actually win, Malta has had very little to cheer in recent years. We’ve only cracked the Top 10 once in the last decade, when Gianluca Bezzina placed eighth in 2013. We've also failed to qualify five times in those years.
And this year seems unlikely to buck the trend. Bookies have taken a dim view of Faniello’s chances of even qualifying tonight: across 20 major betting companies, Malta’s odds are third from bottom, above only Lithuania and San Marino.
If you’re looking for a glimmer of hope, buzz has been growing in Kiev over the course of the week, and Faniello was seen by many critics as one of the standout performers in yesterday’s dress rehearsal. The song itself continues to be a sticking point though, described uncharitably by escdaily.com as “unbelievably dull”.
So who are the favourites?
Tonight it’s all about Bulgaria’s 17-year old Kristian Kostov and his moody Beautiful Mess, who are expected to breeze through and take their place among the frontrunners for the Grand Final. Romania, Denmark and the Netherlands should also be up there in the second semi-final.
On to the final, and Italy are the runaway favourites to take top-spot with Francesco Gabbani’s upbeat and unrepentantly Italian Occidentali’s Karma. Portugal and Belgium are also on people’s lips – as are, surprisingly given recent struggles, the UK.
What’s the Maltese delegation saying?
PBS head John Bundy told the Times of Malta last week the team would give its all to make it to the final, but added: “at the end of the day it’s a competition; if we don’t go through, it’s not the end of the world.”
Faniello herself, at a press conference in Kiev last Friday, said little had been changed from the first rehearsal to the final product, with only small “tweaks” in the meantime.
She also played up the strength of the song in the face of criticism. “I love Breathlessly,” she said. “Every time I sing it, it's like the first time. The song has been written for the sort of voice I have so it's like Breathlessly and I are one.”
Any other background I should know?
If you find Eurovision geopolitics exciting, you may be interested to know Russia – scheduled to perform tonight – won’t be there, having withdrawn from the competition after Ukraine banned its singer from entering the country due to her having previously performed in Crimea, internationally recognised as part of Ukraine but under Russian control since it was annexed in 2014. Ukraine’s winning song last year – 1944 – was also widely seen as a criticism of the annexation, so the two countries have a troubled recent history on the Eurovision stage as well as off.
Where can I watch the show?
The semi-final will be live on TVM from 8.45pm and live-streamed on the official Eurovision YouTube channel.
You can also follow running commentary by Philip Leone-Ganado on our timesofmalta.com live-blog.