Meet Jeremy. He wears large specs, a checked jacket and a bow tie and is sitting on a bench in a park when he spots “the girl” he falls in love with.
Jeremy is the shy IT guy who is the protagonist in Gianluca Bezzina’s Eurovision song Tomorrow and the main star of the song’s official video, released last night.
Sitting on a bench behind him is Gianluca, the happy-go-lucky medical doctor who won the Malta Eurovision Contest, with his band mates singing in the background, as the love story unfolds.
Throughout the whole video, filmed in Rabat, Floriana and Valletta, the geeky 1950s teenager tries to get the attention of his muse but she keeps “slipping away” because she simply wants “to play”.
“We wanted the video to reflect the song, so we went for something retro, hence, the costumes, styling and editing,” artist manager Peter Carbonaro said.
The video was storyboarded and edited by Angie and Dwayne Laus.
Gianluca, 23, is delighted with the outcome. “Filming was great fun. For four days we spent long hours on that bench, singing the song over and over and we didn’t stop laughing,” he said.
The Eurovision project is taking up a good chunk of his time. However, it is business as usual for him and his elderly patients at St Vincent de Paul.
The only difference is that over this past month wherever he goes he is constantly stopped on the street and asked to sign autographs and pose for photos.
“It took some getting used to, I must admit,” he said, in his trademark laid-back chuckle, adding that he appreciated people’s interest.
“If I charged a euro for every autograph I signed, L-Istrina would fill up the kitty quite fast,” he quipped.
The indie pop style song, co-written and composed by Boris Cezek and Dean Muscat, has been professionally mastered and, next week, the video will be distributed at a meeting held for all participating countries.
Public Broadcasting Services CEO Anton Attard, who will head the delegation at the semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden in mid-May, said, “The song was immediately the favourite of our international jury during the Malta contest and so we really believe in it.”
He said the video was considered to be an important tool “not just in broadcasting but especially online”.
Gianluca has been to Armenia and will be dropping by at Amsterdam and London.
“However, more importance is being given to online marketing than promotional tours in participating countries as we think that is more effective,” Mr Attard said.