Gianluca Bezzina will be carrying the hopes of the nation onto the stage tonight as he performs for a place in Saturday’s Eurovision final.
I hope I can calm down and perform at my best
The 23-year-old doctor sought divine inspiration yesterday morning as he attended Mass with his band before a busy final day of dress rehearsals in Malmö, Sweden.
The previous night he had watched on TV as entrants from Austria, Montenegro, Croatia, Cyprus, Serbia and Slovenia were knocked out in the first semi-final.
“It’s such a huge, well-organised event. It’s scary but I’m excited about performing on the biggest stage of my life,” he told Times of Malta.
The singing doctor performs his catchy entry Tomorrow – a 1970s-style love story co-written and composed by Boris Cezek and Dean Muscat – is in tonight’s second semi-final.
He will be the sixth performer on the night, sandwiched between contestants from Finland and Bulgaria.
Gianluca expects Iceland, Norway and Finland to definitely qualify from his heat but he thinks the remaining seven finalist places will be very much up for grabs.
“I hope I can calm down and perform at my best. If that happens I think we have a good chance of making the final, although I don’t want to get my hopes up too high,” he said, adding he had been getting positive feedback on the streets of Malmö.
An enthusiastic Maltese contingent made up of Gianluca’s family and friends, as well as Eurovision die-hards, are expected in the audience for tonight’s semi-final at the Malmö Arena.
Anton Attard, Public Broadcasting Services CEO, said the feedback Gianluca had been getting from foreign journalists and broadcasters “looks quite promising, especially compared to previous years”.
“The consensus is that Malta deserves to be in the final. He really should be there. But you can never be too confident about Eurovision,” he cautioned. Mr Attard described Gianluca and his band as “very upbeat, very tight. It’s great to see a group like that”.
He added that the Danish entry was being widely talked about as a potential overall winner and “the best song usually wins, although not all songs that deserve to be in the final get there”.
The Danish entry, Only Teardrops by Emmelie De Forest, is in fact the bookies’ favourite, closely followed by the entries from Norway and the Ukraine. Malta is ranked as an outsider by major online betting companies listed on oddschecker.com, with odds ranging from 80-1 to 100-1.
Despite a fanatical following among the Maltese, the island has never won Eurovision. The closest it came was when Ira Losco and Chiara finished second in 2002 and 2005 respectively.
Follow it on timesofmalta.com
For ‘expert’ analysis of the songs, dance routines and costumes that will be delighting and frightening audiences tonight in equal measure, follow tonight’s live Eurovision blog on timesofmalta.com by Times of Malta journalist Patrick Cooke and Alan Montanaro, actor Panto dame extraordinaire, from 8.30pm.