The Maltese musician Chris Dingli has qualified as a finalist in London’s ‘BusKing’ competition. After three weeks of public voting, Dingli, who plays the viola, now faces a final week in which he will compete head-to-head against the one other remaining busker in the competition.

The competition reaches its climax tomorrow evening, when both finalists will play a live ‘busk-off’ on London’s Capital 95.8. Members of the public are encouraged to continue voting for their favourite busker by logging on to the website www.buskear.com.

The BusKing competition is seen as a way of rewarding the London Underground’s buskers. After starting in 49th place, Dingli soon moved up to the top ten, and finally the top two. The winner of the competition will be chosen though public votes cast on the website www.buskear.com. Members of the public are allowed to vote once daily. The busker with the most public votes by the end of the week will be crowned the winner of the competition.

When speaking about his experience in the competition, Dingli said, "Sincere thanks to all who have voted for me. I never expected to get this far, and the public’s response has been amazing. I play because I love it. It hasn’t always been easy, but it’s been an incredible experience. Being rewarded for this would be fantastic".

The highly publicised competition involved most of the buskers playing on the London Underground. Although busking at ‘tube’ stations was once illegal, recent regulations and changes in London’s legislation led to the formation of a scheme in which licensed buskers are now allowed to play at certain stations across the Underground network. To be able to join the scheme, buskers must first audition before a panel of judges. Buskers are not paid for their work, only keeping what coins the public drops into their open cases.

Users of Facebook can join the increasingly popular group ‘Make Chris Dingli the BusKing of London!’. More information may be found at www.buskear.com.