Malta’s entry to this year’s Eurovision Song Festival ended up in 23rd place and was yet another disappointing result for a country that continues to persist in trying its luck over a festival which may be viewed by millions but gets us no further.

This year’s winner, of course, was the controversial bearded lady from Austria – Drag Queen Conchita Wurst. But aside from the contest itself, the Maltese delegation that accompanied the band Firelight took a long break in Copenhagen, funded by taxpayers’ money.  This newspaper can reveal that the number of people who jumped on the bandwagon in Denmark was extraordinarily out of proportion and, to add insult to injury, most of whom had their expenses paid by our Public Broadcasting Services (PBS). 

The delegation was headed by PBS’ CEO Anton Attard, who seems to have had to travel back to Malta for the 1st May 10th anniversary EU accession celebrations and back to Copenhagen the following day. That makes for two round trips. Present in Copenhagen for a longer stay than one would expect was the Chairman of the PBS Board of Directors Tonio Portuguese who must have played some kind of strategic role in Firelight’s preparations to the final. One would understand that the Chairman could have easily accompanied the Minister who correctly joined the Maltese delegation only on Friday, a day before our band took the stage on the final night. He was supposed to have been accompanied by his Chief of Staff Silvio Scerri - whose past experience in the entertainment industry would have merited his engagement with the delegation way before the final date - who however did not go. Yet, not the same can be said for the Minister’s aide, Ramona Attard, who formed part of the delegation in the latter stages of the visit. Ms Attard informed this newspaper that she personally paid her flight but acknowledged that she was accredited by PBS to join the Maltese delegation. She also confirmed that during her stay, which only started on Friday, the day before the final show, and lasted until Sunday, she assisted Minister Mallia in meetings organised by the Ministry.

The PBS delegation included also its lawyer and WE Media production house owner Mark Vassallo, the board’s secretary Doreen Cortis and Firelight’s song producers and popular TV presenters Rodney and Gordon. 

Interestingly, PBS added to the delegation one of its own journalists to report on the web, however, for some strange reason it did not take one of its many full-time camera persons but hired one from WE Media for the period spent in Copenhagen. This person along with another Xarabank journalist produced daily commentary on the progress of the band, but while the Xarabank team got its expenses sponsored by ROCS Travel, the camera person was paid out of PBS money.

Sources close to the delegation revealed with this newspaper that some eyebrows were raised as Zurrieq’s Labour mayor Natius Farrugia and Deo Grech, also active within the Labour camp, were part of the delegation.  While it seems that these two joined the Maltese delegation on PBS’ taxpayer’s money they both reported for two different media and not TVM, one giving updates to the PL’s ONE TV and the other on iNEWS the General Workers Union news portal.

One must obviously add the six Firelight members to the delegation, which totalled 18. A conservative estimate of the total cost for this delegation to be present in Copenhagen for the duration of the festival is likely to reach €40,000 for flights and accommodation.  It must be pointed out that a rough estimate of the advertising generated by the festival’s three nights shown on TVM reached €60,000 but this revenue is expected to make up for many expenses which include the campaign behind Firelight’s entry, a project which must have involved many people on the ground from producers to technical people. Considering the tight budgets on which our delegation was running on, one asks if it was wise to pay for such a big delegation on tax-payer’s money. 

Reacting to the story this morning on TVM's breakfast show, PBS CEO Anton Attard criticised this media house for publishing the story without verifying the facts.