He’s the man on the Red Carpet, the one all contestants look to for constant advice and support and also he who will be presenting the gossip-infested Dopo Show on Sunday, after the winner has been announced. There is no denying that Peter loves everything to do with the Eurovision!
“It started back when I first discovered that Abba had won the Eurovision. From then onwards I started following the festival each year. I really got into it – in fact when I used to work as Xarabank’s team manager I also travelled to various countries to cover the festival. Greece, Serbia, Russia... just to name three. I also used to produce the backstage features for the local festival.”
Peter puts this love down to the fact that he loves the entertainment business in general. And of course, say what you will of the Eurovision but the entertainment factor is definitely present.
“The Eurovision combines all the three essential showbiz elements; song, dance and a lot of drama!”
Among his recent favourite Eurovision winners, Peter lists Norway’s Fairytale, which he particularly liked for its catchy and fun tune. On the Maltese front, he has a soft spot for Angel, sung by Chiara.
“It still gives me goosebumps when I hear it."
I ask him why he thinks we never actually won.
"Except for the time when we almost won it but got struck by bad luck at the end, we've never had a song that was good enough to be the top of the pops. This happens every single year, for different reasons. One year it was the voice, the other year it was the song and so on and so forth. There’s always that little something missing. But we were close to winning it four times and this is no mean feat.”
When he’s not listening to the Eurovision tunes, Peter enjoys different genres of music. His preferences often depend on what activity he is carrying out: when driving, the choice is likely to be slow rock or Italian music, when doing house chores it’ll be trashy pop, when travelling he enjoys world music like samba or flamenco while for a good clubbing night out his preference lies with Latin house music.
Of course, Peter is also known for hosting the weekly fashion programme StyleWatch together with Carina Camilleri. I ask him which former Maltese entries were hits in terms of style.
“One hit was definitely Ira Losco with her sexy, white catsuit! Still love it till today!”
And the misses?
“We’ve had many. Lynn Chircop, Chiara in 1998 with the grey dress with a split personality (was it a dress or a coat?) and recently Thea Garret. She looked ten years older in the outfit.”
I conclude by asking him the obvious: why do the Maltese love this event so much? The reply made me smile and I am pretty sure you too will have a good chuckle when you see the truth in it.
“Where there is a party you will find all the Maltese people. Every excuse is a good excuse to party and Eurovision is one big European party. So... good luck to all this year’s finalists and let’s party!”
Eurovision stories and singer interviews at
http://www.timesofmalta.com/sections/view/malta-eurovision-2012