Life for Chris Scicluna and Moira Stafrace has been a roller-coaster ride of emotions, excitement and surprises. The couple, who won Malta’s Song for Europe festival 25 years ago and are still together, share bits and pieces of their amazing journey over the years with Simonne Pace.

It has been a 25-year swirl of emotions and surprises for Chris Scicluna and Moira Stafrace, who won Malta’s Song for Europe way back in 1994 with their song More Than Love.

The couple are also celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary this year.

“1994 was a good year. It’s where it all started,” says Chris, who wrote the music for More Than Love together with his sweetheart Moira, who was behind the lyrics.

“It was a good year for us in many ways: winning the Malta Eurovision, working with RAI and representing Malta in Ireland, performing with a 70-piece live orchestra while Moira was three months pregnant,” he reminisces.

“Back in Malta after the Eurovision, we got married. Warner Chapell then released our More Than Love album, which became popular in many countries. So we travelled for a while to perform, after which we came back to Malta to have our daughter Michela.”

The song’s catchy tune probably still rings in people’s heads. It’s one of those songs that lasts forever.

“We still perform it with shivers in our spine. People always ask us to sing it. In fact, it was the highlight of a show we had worked on with the Jubilation Choir from Livorno when they toured with Gianna Nannini,” she tells me. The couple still treasure a video recording of a rehearsal session from this event.

Chris and Moira, who represented Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin on April 3, 1994, are still very much into music and have fond memories of the day they sang their winning song.

We hope to have changed for the better, as we either grow better or bitter

“Having to sing with a live orchestra is something of another standard; the excitement is incomparable, it was a prestigious platform. Nowadays Eurovision is just a karaoke gig. Like a body without a soul,” they say.

What they both remember most of that precious time is that the experience was “an exciting and emotional start with so much happening around us. We just rock and rolled and are still rocking as artists and parents… and that is still very challenging.”

“Being ourselves”: Chris and Moira on a helicopter flight in Cape Town, South Africa, a few weeks ago.

More Than Love has a special place and meaning in the couple’s lives today. Personally and musically, they both vouch that “it has been more like ‘More Than Life’”, meaning they need more than one life to fit everything they’re involved in.

“It’s not easy. Nowadays, a family is a handful. Writing songs, recording, performing and travelling while raising a kid and keeping a family going is not easy but not impossible.”

After the Eurovision, in 1998, Chris and Moira spent some time in London promoting and performing their new music. They were presented with a good opportunity, which meant staying in London indefinitely. Their daughter was four years old at the time and it was a difficult decision to turn down.

Both Chris and Moira, who are 25 years older and wiser, say they have a very good relationship between themselves and also with their daughter Michela.

“Everyone has their personal role but we connect as a family. Although life is fast, we make sure to spend quality time together, to talk, laugh and do crazy things to laugh more.”

Decisions on new opportunities are being considered but at the moment the couple are simply enjoying some travelling experiences, collecting ideas, nourishing their creativity and changing their scene.

Does music play a part of their everyday life?

“Music is our everyday life and everyday life is our music. It triggers our emotions.”

As singers, Chris and Moira still pursue the same artistic direction, both in their own individual image. “But as human beings we have evolved, as people, on average, change every 10 years in their likes and dislikes. We hope to have changed for the better, as we either grow better or bitter.”