‘Like Sanremo from Shein’: viewers blast ‘amateur’ and ‘disorganised’ Eurovision

Viewers who tuned in to watch the Malta Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday evening were left with a bitter taste of the experience, judging by social media reactions to the yearly festival.

Gozitan songstress Sarah Bonnici took home the crown with her high-energy dance anthem Loop, which won favour with the judges and, coupled with a strong showing from televoting points, pushed her into a comfortable win.

But while Bonnici’s win seemed to be largely welcomed by viewers, the format of this year’s competition was widely panned by its most ardent fans, who voiced their displeasure at the decision to forgo a live audience during the show.

While previous editions have been held in large venues, allowing fans to participate and competitors to put their voices to the test before a live audience, the Public Broadcasting Services last year announced that it would be forgoing a live show altogether and instead organise a “televised festival”.

The reaction to the new format was overwhelmingly negative, with critics slamming the festival as “amateurish” and disorganised.

Performers were first interviewed next to the main stairwell of the PBS studios in Gwardamangia, behind a rather drab grey partition, prompting some viewers to compare the scene to being inside a garage.

Coupled with the long seconds of dead air between jokes cracked by the presenter and the absence of an enthusiastic response at the end of each performance, viewers felt that both they and the singers themselves were shortchanged.

Disgruntled viewers were quick to take to Facebook

“It’s like we ordered Sanremo from Shein,” one man remarked on Facebook, likening Saturday’s show to knock-off products bought from the Asian fast fashion retailer.

“This is the level of organisation you would expect from a talent show organised by the parish priest,” another woman said.

One commenter pointed out that it was a shame that the Eurovision contest had put on a paltry show when other entertainment offerings on television were outclassing it on a weekly basis.

“I can’t understand how they decided to have the show without an audience, instead of moving forward, we’re moved three steps back,” the woman said.

“With all due respect, but on the X-Factor live shows right now, having the audience there reacting is so satisfactory, on top of the exceptional show they’re able to put on every week. I’m sure that tonight the artists feel like they’re singing to the wall because they aren’t getting that audience feedback.”

Some of the Facebook comments expressing their frustration with the Malta Eurovision Song Contest

The festival’s poor show even earned a rebuke from the Nationalist Party, which said that the level of organisation was not up to the expected standards.

In a statement signed by PN shadow ministers Claudette Buttigieg and Julie Zahra, the PN said that the PBS had fallen short of people’s expectations for such an important event on the local cultural calendar.

“The final show was of a very low level and left many people disappointed. And this has happened when this competition is organised on the back of taxpayer funds,” Buttigieg and Zahra, who both won the Eurovision Song Contest before entering politics, said.

“The PBS, which is financed by the people, has shortchanged those very same people, as well as the singers themselves and its own employees and presenters. The latter of whom did all that they could to cover up the mediocrity of the leadership’s decisions.”

It is clear that the lack of an audience forces the singers and presenters to put on even more of an effort to try and keep the show going, they continued, on top of the fact that large sections of the show were not being broadcast live.

This decision to forgo a live show has “insulted” both the competitors and the audience, the PN MPs concluded. .

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