After the almost hysterical climax of Saturday’s Malta Song for Europe when Olivia Lewis was crowned the winner (I shudder to think what would have happened if she hadn’t won!), the singers spent last Sunday playing musical chairs as they did the rounds of the TV stations.

From my seat at Ta’ Qali it seemed that everything had gone smoothly and, save for the interminable, thumping, mind-numbing songs by Ruslana and her wild entourage (all of which sounded exactly the same to me), I was quite impressed that this year the show had progressed without a hitch. Little did I knew that drama was unfolding backstage (from which the press had been banned). Ah, but silly me, this is the Song for Europe after all – a festival which seems to be strangely jinxed when it comes to problems with the audio.

In fact, it was only when I was watching the three (!) post-mortem programmes on Net TV, One TV and PBS that I learned about the non-

functioning stage monitors during Pamela’s song. Understandably upset and aggrieved that her three minutes on stage had been effectively ruined, this singer was not about to harbour her grievances and was demanding explanations. I find it odd that the person responsible for the sound did not show up (or even call) to rebut what was being said.

And how absurd (but predictable) is it that the Minister gets involved in all the fuss, but the chairman of the Malta Song board somehow didn’t manage to find time in his schedule to pop in some time between noon and 6pm?

Meanwhile, as usual, the public analysed and nit-picked every detail of their favourite contest to their heart’s content. While there were many SMS messages and phone calls confirming that “the best song and singer had won”… other comments were not as tactful. There was a look of visible annoyance on Olivia’s face as she heard viewers say for the nth time that “she deserved to finally win miskina, after all the times she has been trying”, thus making it sound like this was some kind of consolation prize for grimly hanging in there.

Well, I guess that’s what happens when you make a point of publicising the fact that you have been trying to win this darn thing for 11 straight years in a row.

Of course, close to 31,000 votes are not to be sneezed at – as someone said on TV, if she were a politician, Olivia would have probably been elected Prime Minister. As we say colloquially, “kienet titla’ sparata”.

Meanwhile, the Malta Song Board finally issued the results of the Thursday

semi-finals, where it emerged that the top three were the same top three as on the final night (Olivia, Trilogy and Malta’s latest heart-throb, Klinsmann). What the results did not reveal (and this is what people really want to know), is how the jury and public votes differed for each singer. Instead, what we got were the combined votes expressed as a percentage (see box). When the jury/public vote system was first used (the year Lynn Chircop won), there were clear discrepancies between the two and it would have been interesting to see whether this had happened again. Of course, it won’t change anything, but this fascination with Song for Europe trivia is so much fun.

If you really want to get into all the gossip and cattiness (and have a couple of hours to spare), just log on to escmalta.com.

It will also be interesting (and morbidly awful to observe) to see just how much of public opinion is taken on board when it comes to presenting the final product in Helsinki. The presentation of the song is already a mish-mash of cultures to begin with.

But if everything that people suggested is used, we’re going to have an Egyptian-looking Olivia surrounded by more leaping dancers in Greek costumes with pyrotechnics and a couple of backing singers (who are also belly dancers perhaps?) while Joseph Chetcuti twirls around her with his violin like a gypsy.

I know! Why not throw in a couple of cooing doves as well?

Oh, and don’t forget the gong.

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What’s for sure is that for the next few months Olivia will be the latest media darling as we start to see her here, there and everywhere.

Good thing too – the poor Archbishop needs a rest.