The life of Morena changed overnight on winning the Go Malta Song for Europe Festival on Saturday night, though she insists she's the same bubbly Gozitan girl people knew.

"I haven't changed one bit, though my life has suddenly been flung into the fast lane - the phone hasn't stopped ringing and invitations to appear on television shows are pouring in," she said, as she raced to catch the ferry back home to Sannat yesterday morning.

Morena's song, Vodka, composed by Philip Vella and Gerard James Borg, emerged as the favourite among the public, which held 80 per cent of the final vote, with 16,979 points.

Interestingly, the Maltese jury (which had 20 per cent of the vote) preferred Claudia Faniello's ballad Sunrise and gave it 71 points, over Vodka, which, though second favourite, got the same points - 49 - as two other songs Give Me A Chance, sung by Eleanor Cassar, and Caravaggio, sung by Claudia Faniello (see box for songs' overall placing and points).

Vodka was the public's choice and the gap between first and second place was of 4,265 points. All this is however far from Morena's mind and the 23-year-old is relishing every minute of the excitement.

She is happy she got time off from her work as facilitator at the Bishop's Conservatory School, Sannat, to focus her energies on the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Serbia in May.

"This is what my husband and I worked towards. I used to dream of winning the festival but I wasn't expecting it so soon," she said, on clinching the coveted trophy after her second attempt. Morena's real name is Margaret Camilleri but she adopted the stage name after fans of her band Spectrum began calling her "our Morena", meaning the dark one in Spanish - it stuck.

The young woman has gained her incredible stage presence and confidence from years of taking part in musicals, opera choirs and festivals from an early age.

This will serve her well when it comes to competing on the international stage and the Maltasong board is banking on these traits, which they hope will woo the European public.

In the coming days, Maltasong will be meeting Morena and the composer and author to brainstorm on the best possible way to promote the song in the 43 competing countries.

Vodka, which is all about espionage and kicks off with the Russian word nastarovje, which means cheers, has sparked comments that the lyrics are specifically intended to appeal to eastern Europeans, who normally vote for their neighbours.

"It's completely untrue that the song was written with such intentions. To be honest, the song wasn't even meant for the Song for Europe Festival - there was no agenda or any tricks of the sort," Mr Borg insisted.

During this year's Eurovision Song Festival there will be two semi-finals, prior to the final on May 24. Following Monday's draw, Malta was drawn to compete in the second semi-final on May 22 against Croatia, Denmark, Bulgaria, Portugal, Ukraine, Switzerland, FYR Macedonia, Iceland, Cyprus, Latvia, Belarus, Hungary, Albania, Sweden, Turkey, Lithuania, Georgia and the Czech Republic.

The draw for the actual running order will take place on March 17, during the annual heads of delegation meeting, in Belgrade, Serbia.