Can we please get over ourselves about Olivia’s song and performance?

The song wasn’t the best she’s ever been given (she said with careful restraint), but it was her performance that was really disappointing.

I have always loved Olivia’s voice, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard her sing badly, but on Thursday her voice was weak and her high notes were off. For someone who has always belted out songs with no effort at all, she seemed to be afraid to let go, and ended up singing the end of the refrain using a head voice in a sort of falsetto, something I’ve never heard her do.

If my ears weren’t deceiving me, the backing vocalists were also off with their timing. What was worse was that most of the time Olivia seemed to be more concerned with getting the choreography right (I could just hear her saying to herself, “now I should turn here, next I need to place my hand there”) rather than on singing.

You cannot turn a singer into a dancer in the space of a few months so why pile on even more pressure on the poor girl? Whoever takes these kinds of decisions should be man/woman enough to raise their hand and say mea culpa.

As for dancers, gimmicks and other paraphernalia, I always end up saying the same thing every year. The truth is that agonising over whether or not to use gold body paint, and waving white tablecloths around like air traffic controllers has nothing to do with singing. (Who knows, perhaps this time the Malta Song Board will do the right thing, unlike last year, and... here’s a thought... resign?)

Did anyone else notice that the songs with out-of-this-world costumes and attention-grabbing stunts didn’t get through?

OK, now let’s put all this into the context of the songs which did make it through to the finals. I listened to them again the next day, and out of 10 I would say that half were brilliant (Latvia, Serbia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Hungary) while the rest ranged from very good songs to songs that were just OK. Could Malta have squeezed through with the “just OK” ones? Perhaps. We’ll know when the scores of the semi-final are released.

But the fact is, on the night, Vertigo just didn’t cut it.

Umm, because you see, millions of viewers all over Europe really couldn’t give two hoots that Olivia Lewis took 11 years to get there and miskina hux, she deserved to be in the final for having such gumption and not giving up.

Now, maybe, when all the accusations and finger-pointing and “it’s not fair, they voted as a bloc” arguments are exhausted, and everyone falls dejectedly into a heap of self-pity, people will finally listen and start choosing the best song sung by the best singer. We’ve done it in the past; we can do it again.

And although, for some people, it was hard to stomach that for the first time in years, Malta was not part of the Eurovision extravaganza, like Lou Bondi we must swallow our pride and accept that we didn’t make the shortlist.

Meanwhile, I declare the three days of national mourning as being officially over.