Maltese singers, sponsors at Sicilian awards show

Actor/director Carlo Verdone, journalist Francesco Giorgino, comedians Ficarra and Picone of Zelig fame and businessman Sebastiano Pitruzzello are the winners of this year's edition of the Premio Top Sprint - Omaggio alla Sicilianità, an event with a Malta connection held at the Teatro Metropolitan, in Catania.

The event, which has been running for 14 years, awards Italian personalities who have distinguished themselves in their profession or others who have promoted Sicilian culture. In fact, the Siciliani nel mondo (Sicilians in the World) award goes to Sicilians who have made a name for themselves in foreign lands, such as Mr Pitruzzello, who is a leading businessman in the cheese industry in Australia.

The event is the brainchild of journalist Sergio Regalbuto who compered the show with Flaminia Belfiore, while TV presenter Stefania Orlando acted as godmother.

The variety show included a gospel choir, two fashion shows and a performance by Maltese singers Analise and Alison Ellul, aka Ali & Lis. They performed their recently released single Baby and gave a very good rendition of I Love Rock 'n' Roll, which was recently covered by Britney Spears. They were very well received by the audience.

Other local singers invited to previous editions of the show include Claudette Pace, Fabrizio Faniello, Ira Losco, Lawrence Gray and Olivia Lewis.

In 1995, Air Malta was presented with the Top Sprint award for "its fundamental role in cementing the economic links between the two islands". Since then, Air Malta has always supported the event and has been one of the official sponsors for nine editions, with the aim of further increasing the cultural and commercial links between Malta and Catania.

Other local sponsors of the show include Westin Dragonara Casino and Intercontinental Malta.

During a press conference before the event, Nino Strano, regional councillor on tourism and sports of Catania, said he was very pleased with the excellent business, cultural and tourism relations between Malta and Sicily.

This relationship will be further strengthened with the introduction of three weekly flights from Malta to Catania and on to London (Gatwick) as from May 2 next year. Thus, Air Malta will be the first international airline to operate a direct scheduled flight between Catania and London.

Seats on the Catania to Gatwick designated flights are already on sale in Malta, the UK, Sicily and the entire Air Malta network.

Mr Strano, who is a frequent visitor to Malta, said that if this experiment succeeded, the service could be extended to other European destinations.

Discussions on exchanges in sports-related activities are also being held.

This winter, Air Malta is operating 11 weekly flights to Catania.

The show is being aired on Antenna Sicilia today at 9 p.m. and on Super 1 at a later date. It was also given ample coverage in La Sicilia, a prominent Sicilian daily newspaper.