When Kurt Calleja saw Malta’s flag on the finalists’ screen during Thursday’s Eurovision Song Contest semi-final in Azerbaijan, he let out a loud, ear-splitting shriek.
“It was just what my vocal chords don’t need,” he joked, quickly promising to be back in shape by tonight.
Mr Calleja, 23, defied the odds and bookmakers by getting Malta back into the Eurovision Song Contest final after an absence of three years.
“There are no words really to describe my reaction. I was dumbstruck,” he admitted.
The success of his song, This Is The Night, came as a surprise to him and to the majority of Maltese viewers. The last time Malta made it through the semi-final was in 2009, with Chiara.
Right up to Thursday, bookmakers William Hill and Paddy Power had placed Malta at bottom position. More significantly, the Euro Prediction poll of Oiko Times, which had more than 19,000 voters and prides itself for its accuracy, never listed Malta among the top 10 countries qualifying for the final.
The semi-final was considered to be “a difficult one” because of the line-up of a good number of Eastern bloc countries.
“And, as we know, they do tend to vote for each other,” Mr Calleja said.
Apart from Malta, Turkey was the only other qualifying country not from the Eastern bloc or from the Scandinavian group.
For the past couple of years, the vote has no longer been 100 per cent televoting and has been split equally between jury and fans.
With the odds stacked against Malta, lobbying for jury votes is deemed to have played a significant part in the placing.
However, Anton Attard, PBS CEO and head of the Maltese delegation believes “it’s more marketing than lobbying”.
He said PBS worked hard to market the song in other countries before the semis. “But we always believed Kurt could communicate well with the audience and that would make a difference,” he said.
Malta’s entry will be the 21st out of 26 countries to take the stage tonight. Mr Attard said this was “a very good position” because the song would remain fresh in the viewer’s mind when televoting lines open.
“Tomorrow (tonight) is a bit of a different ball game. We’re very happy to have made it to the final. Now it’s about the song,” he said, adding that, despite the neighbourly voting, he believed, “at the end of the day, the best song wins.”
Charlò Bonnici, former head of Eurovision delegations, said he was not surprised by the outcome.
“It was the best performance in years. Of course, lobbying always plays a part but the song and the performance are crucial.
“I am quite hopeful that in this evening’s final we’ll place among the top 10.”
Norman Hamilton, who also headed Malta Song Board and earlier this year resigned from his role as a consultant to Mr Attard on the Eurovision contest, said lobbying made a difference. “But you can only know the extent when the results are published after the final.”
He recalled that when he was head of delegation in 1998, Chiara’s third placing was given a push by the BBC’s lobbying. “But it’s not only lobbying, remember Kurt is very charismatic,” he said. It helped that Azerbaijan, the host country, was rooting for Malta.
This Is The Night got a very enthusiastic reception from the crowd in the concert arena. Mr Calleja confirmed the audience was mostly Azeri.
“We did lots of promotion in Baku and the Azeris have really taken to us,” he said. Over this past week, he has even been stopped by fans who performed his dance routine steps.
The band is focused on tonight’s show. Mr Calleja joked that after Thursday’s late press conference, the head of delegation marched them to bed.
“We were all hyped up to celebrate but truth is we really needed to rest for tonight’s show”, he said.
According to bookmakers, Malta is not among the favourites to win but it seemed to be faring better than France’s top star, Anggun.
Jury voting in all countries taking part in tonight’s final was submitted in a rehearsal last night.
Mr Calleja said he did not have any expectations for this evening’s final but was simply keen for his band to give a good show. “I still would like to win but I know it’s very difficult.”
Good evening, Baku …from Valletta
Now that Kurt Calleja has earned his place in the Eurovision final, timesofmalta.com will join the rest of the island in following tonight’s events with immense anticipation.
Pantomime king Alan Montanaro and The Times journalist Christian Peregin will be regaling viewers with a cheeky online commentary, following up their warm-up on Thursday night.
Readers are invited to log in at 9 p.m. and spend the night contributing their own funny comments about the various hilarious acts as the excitement heats up in Baku.