Making us proud

She did it her way and made us all proud in the process. Chiara represented Malta at the annual Eurovision Song Contest and made it to the second place. She has achieved it all on her own steam.

Last Sunday night, it was my pleasure to greet her back to Malta. Although it was past 1.30 a.m. when she reached reporters eager for her comments after her success at the festival, and it took about another half an hour before it was possible for her to leave the airport, hundreds of persons gathered to give her a well deserved heroine's welcome.

A half-metre high pink angel bearing Chiara's face stood out in the crowd of well wishers while many carried placards with posters of Chiara or expressing the love of the Maltese people towards our esteemed cultural ambassador.

Although we all feel that we could have well made it to the first place, we cannot begrudge ourselves the joy of placing second and of being able to do that against all odds. Countries that are much bigger and resourceful than ours only dreamt about that kind of placing!

What I said at the airport a week ago sums up the feelings of an entire population that followed the festival the night before. Chiara was not relying on any fancy effects, back-up vocals, choreography to emphasise glamour and other visual splendour, or for that matter on some well-oiled marketing machine to build up publicity and the singer's image. Nor was she relying on any neighbouring countries standing up for her.

She relied exclusively on her talent that is characterised by her unique voice and charisma. Once she went on stage, it was clear that she was beaming with self confidence and determination. She wanted to do it her way and she did it brilliantly.

When she was interpreting her own composition, there was an immediate bond with the audience at the theatre as well as with the millions of viewers eagerly watching the Eurovision.

At the theatre, the audience applauded throughout which gave Chiara further strength and courage. She did an entire nation proud. It is estimated that around a quarter of a million persons in Malta followed the festival.

Her performance was flawless and Chiara was truly our angel.

No matter how much lobbying goes on behind the scenes, the truth is that a televoting system means that ultimately you have to reach out to the hearts of the millions of European viewers who are following the event live and enjoy exclusive jurisdiction as they resort to their phones to determine the winner.

The system works in such a way that the total of votes that make it to the scoreboard is the same for each country, but clearly the same number of votes from different countries represents a much different weighting of viewers depending on the population and participation rate of each of the 39 countries taking part in the festival.

In such circumstances, placing second is no mean achievement. Greece was determined to win and admittedly had its own good number to contest with. It is a compliment to Chiara and to Malta that some elements on the Greek side began to worry about us. Interestingly enough, like Chiara, the singer representing Greece, Helena Paparizou had already taken part in the Eurovision when she took the group Antique to third place in 2001. Chiara had placed third in 1998 and I am sure many will remember how we had gasped for breath until the very end of that contest since the chance of winning was very favourable.

When the votes did pour in, the Greeks still favoured us with eight votes and the Maltese favoured Greece with six. This is further proof that in a contest where the viewers' choice reigns supreme, any campaign to vote one way or the other does not necessarily have the effect intended by its perpetrators!

That is not to say that there are not other factors that can have a determining effect. Building up a campaign in the weeks preceding Eurovision by ensuring slots on music television and radio channels for instance leads to familiarising the voters ahead of the contest with the night's 'favourites'. Considering our own limited resources, we did whatever was within our means and I know that the chairman of our Song Board, the ever spontaneous and energetic Grace Borg (who hopefully will not land us into any unnecessary 'battles' with Romania and Albania!) left no stone unturned to work for Chiara's success at the Eurovision.

Wherever possible, bilateral visits were arranged through which Chiara was invited to other countries to present herself while Malta offered the same treatment to the singers pertaining to the same countries. One of these agreements was with Greece. Unfortunately Chiara had to miss one of these engagements on strict medical orders since only a week before Eurovision she had developed a hoarse throat that had to be seen to, in time for the big night.

In the days preceding the festival, Chiara was coping with another strain. Her father to whom she is particularly close and who accompanied her to Ukraine was taken ill and had to be hospitalised. In the days preceding the festival the messages reaching me from Kiev varied from updates about her father's medical condition to those about Chiara's successful rehearsals. There were also moments when we had to make delicate decisions about to what extent could we inform Chiara about her father's condition. After the festival night (that day her father was operated upon) it took some convincing to ask Chiara to fly back to Malta and meet the media and the crowds that were expected to greet her at the airport when her father was still in hospital.

On Monday afternoon I had another meeting with Chiara at the ministry and on Tuesday morning she was again flying to Kiev, on this occasion not to participate in any festival, but to be close to her father in hospital. On Friday her father was brought back to Malta through an ambulance-plane.

We have and will continue to extend to Chiara all the support and solidarity she deserves. She was on the night and remains our national angel. Following her success in Ukraine we know that she has not only struck the right cord with her own compatriots but also with millions of Europeans.

BBC News summed it up through the observation: "Maltese balladeer Chiara struck the right note with her soaring voice - sending a collective tingle down the spine of the vast crowd."

References to Malta kept abounding after the festival, and the fact that Chiara won the festival's coveted Press Award speaks volumes.

Chiara represented Malta at the Eurovision following our own 'Song for Europe' festival which resulted in a tight race between the first two placed compositions. This was the first time that we adopted in Malta a 100 per cent televoting system and I certainly have no regrets about making that decision, even if it was not then accepted as the best system by one and all!

For Maltese composers, songwriters as well as singers, this remains by far our country's best window of opportunity. We tend to take the festival very seriously but considering how well we regularly place, I do not think anyone can blame us.

The phenomenon is not limited to Malta. The Economist in its May 14-20 edition, dedicated one of its cover stories to the Eurovision. The feature pointed out that where the Eurovision song contest goes, Europe tends to follow. "Every year millions of Europeans tune in to the Eurovision... Eurovision is a rare example of a cultural event that engages the interests of people across the continent." The Economist story then quotes T.R. Reid, a former London correspondent for the Washington Post who argues that the contest is "playing a historic role. Eurovision has become a celebration of Europeanness that strengthens the growing sense among 500 million people that they all belong to a single place on the world map."

Now that the Eurovision is over, preparations are already being made for next year's event, to organise our own contest and to proceed to Athens with our country's winner.

Malta is not short of talent. On a different note, last Friday night, I was present at the launch of Angli - the Movie: a full-length (111 minutes) film packed with action and done entirely in the Maltese language. One feels proud to see Maltese talent reaching new heights in different art forms.

In the music world, Chiara has greatly done us all proud at Europe's greatest showcase of popular song. My message to her: You have enriched our hearts and we can only thank you and wish you all the further success that you so richly deserve.

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