The first semi-final of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest created headlines in the international press. But it was neither the excellent performances nor the fantastic songs and the new rising stars of the music scene that were responsible for that.

The Ukraine conflict is everywhere, even in Copenhagen at the ESC. And so the Russian contestants, The Tolmachevy Sisters, were booed by the 11,000-strong audience. Still they made it to the final night.

The bitter note is that one of the co-writers of their song Shine is the successful and well-known Maltese songwriter Gerard James Borg.

This brings me to the question of Malta’s, or at least Mr Borg’s relationship to Russian President Vladimir Putin. One must know that the Russian contribution to the Eurovision Song Contest is always a matter of national pride and one of the top priorities of the president himself.

How happy or how satisfied is Mr Borg with his role in this pro-Russian and pro-Putin propaganda?

Does he support the Russian and the Putin position in the Ukraine crisis?

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.