20 entries will compete in one semi-final over 14 slots in the grand final in this year’s edition of the Malta Eurovision Song Contest. Which means we pretty much must be prepared to hear most of the entries twice. We are clueless as to predict the lucky 14 from the bunch, but we’ll give all of them a proper review. Here we go with the first two!
Wayne’s World:
It’s nice to see that the Maltese broadcaster is still using the theme art from Düsseldorf in 2011. Why blow money on updating something that changes every year anyway? Makes a lot of sense in a time when withdrawing from ESC is the rule rather than the exception. Perhaps it’s just the memories from Düsseldorf playing tricks on us, but seeing Wayne William on stage made us think for a second on the Dutch 3JS. Could this be their secret forth member??? The beige blazer, the utterly uneventful staging and the lackluster performance puts this bloke directly into the same stack on HMV’s discount rack, labeled adult contemporary. Yawn.
On a more positive note, we must admit that it grows on us after a few listens. We like the subtle twang going on in the background, and only wished Mr. William would be braver and tweak it a notch or two further into country land. Jon Lilygreen and The Islanders proved that songs within this genre has it’s supporters, even in ESC. However with a stronger melody, a more charismatic singer and a tighter, far more fetching performance.
Play that funky music white boy:
Next on our list is Ryan Paul Abela and according to his bio he has like most other MESC-participants been singing and playing a vast variety of instruments since he was an embryo. He has carefully chosen to bring an electric bass on stage to perform the jazzy number City Lady. A definite YES to more slapp bassing in ESC! Those missing the 80s will rejoice when Ryan Paul takes to the stage. And there is something fussy and familiar with this funky retro sound, which strikes us as kinda strange since we couldn’t possibly been born early enough to remember the 80s.
It will of course be a disaster if Malta decides to send something like this to Copenhagen. There’s no way it would ever make it out of the semi-final. Ryan Paul is cute, though, and most surely quite talented. He can give it another go next year!
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