Velvet Blue, the song penned by Gerard James Borg and composed by Arve Furset, has placed fifth in Norway's finals for the Eurovision Song Contest - and won the people's hearts by topping a Norwegian Internet poll.

This year Norway opted out of an open contest and instead NRK, the Norwegian broadcaster, handpicked artists, composers and songwriters and invited them to write a song for the local festival Melodi Grand Prix.

Gerard's song, sung by Kathrine Strugstad, had been short-listed among the eight entries chosen for the finals, held last week at the Oslo Spektrum.

The winning song of the contest was In Your Dreams performed by the glam rock group Wig Wam, which had been tipped as the favourite for the entire week preceding the event.

Kathrine was also listed as one of the favourites with leading Norwegian newspapers VG and Dag Bladet listing it among the top three favourites.

The fact that Velvet Blue was the most popular song among Norwegian fans, due to it winning the Norwegian Internet poll, has led to the festival organisers releasing it as a single in Scandinavia.

As a result of Mr Borg's participation Malta's name was splashed all over the Norwegian media for an entire week. He was praised enthusiastically for the lyrics of Velvet Blue and approached by a Scandinavian music production house, which showed keen interest in his talents.