The European Broadcasting Union plans to keep the present format of two semi-finals for the Eurovision Song Contest for the time being because it feels it is the fairest one.
The system is on its trial run this year but EBU executive supervisor Svante Stockselius told The Times he felt it was the best one to eliminate a situation where neighbouring countries voted for one another.
"This is the first year we introduced this format so we'll have to see how it works and evaluate the contest. But I think we need to at least try it out for a couple more years to see if it works before changing it," he said.
The previous format had changed in 2004 and it was kept for four years before the EBU took stock of the situation and decided to adopt the system of two semi-finals.
The two semi-finals have also helped to avoid one never-ending semi-final, especially since this year there are a record 43 countries competing in the 53rd Eurovision in Belgrade.
Mr Stockselius also felt that more often than not people were not voting for their neighbour, but supporting what was familiar to them.
"Geography comes into the equation when an artist may be in the charts in the neighbouring countries and the language may be the same. They could have similar music traditions, and share common values. In turn, they like each other's songs," he explained. Last year's contest, which was won by Serbia's Marija Serifovic with her ballad Molitva (Prayer), had sparked a war of words between the competing Eastern and Western countries.
For the first time in the contest's history there was no Scandinavian country in this year's final, with the top 10 countries dominating the finals scoreboard being mainly Eastern and Central European countries, with the exception of Greece.
Malta was one of the countries that had led calls for the Eurovision voting system to be overhauled, while Ireland and Andorra were also said to be unhappy about last year's scoring.
There was such an outcry from Western countries threatening to withdraw from the contest that the EBU held an inquiry into claims that countries were engaged in block voting.
However, both the inquiry and an audit by consultants PriceWaterhouseCoopers of the televoting system - released last summer - found no evidence of irregularities.
Mr Stockselius had said at the time that groups of countries that traditionally voted together, such as those in the Balkans and Scandinavia, often did so because they had similar tastes in music.
The present system may be a fairer one because all the countries start on the same footing, but did he feel the Eurovision was now dragging on for nearly two weeks for the delegations, because of rehearsals for the different semi-finals?
"This is something we must also evaluate because it's true the festival now stretches for nearly two weeks and it can be a financial burden for the delegations, but on the other hand they get to air another show, which has its benefits," Mr Stockselius pointed out.
The first semi-final of this year's Eurovision will be held tonight and 10 countries will qualify to the final. Malta will be competing in Thursday's semi-final, as the Maltese hope Morena will be the one to take the island back into the final, which will be held on Saturday.
Morena had a relatively quiet morning with her husband Marvin yesterday and at about noon she joined the four Swedish dancers for informal rehearsals at a studio close to the hotel.
Maltasong rented out the studio to allow the team the time to perfect their moves together.
Last night she was also the star of the show at a party which Malta organised jointly with Belarus and Bulgaria.
The previous evening, Morena, together with her backing vocalist Annabelle Debono and Maltasong chairman Robert Abela, attended a VIP party for the delegations at the White Palace. However, the Crown Prince Alexander and Crown Princess Katherine were unable to attend.
This was followed by the official opening party at Palata Srbije, where all the contestants worked the crowd and tried to get as much mileage and media coverage as possible.
At the party, Russian multi-millionaire and megastar Philip Kirkorov told OGAE Malta head Deo Grech that he would like to write a song for Chiara.
Mr Kirkorov, who wrote the music for Ukraine's contestant Ani Lorak, said Malta could easily win the Eurovision with Chiara.
For the past four years, Mr Kirkirkov has managed a good number of Eurovision artistes including Angelica Agurbash (Belarus 2005), Dima Bilan (Russia 2006), Dima Koldum (Belarus 2007).
This extravagant proposal can only be made possible if Russia accepts to have a reciprocity clause with Malta (a regulation established in 2005), which would allow Maltese composers and authors to take part in the Russian national selection.
Chiara, who placed third in 1998 with The One That I love, and then clinched second place with the song Angel in 2005, is still very popular among the Eurovision crowd and several fans keep asking if she will ever return.