Maltese concept creator and lyricist Gerard James Borg was recently invited to the Vision Kick Off seminar in preparation for the contest.

The seminar was held by the Norwegian broadcaster NRK, which will be producing the 2010 Eurovision song contest. Only two other foreign contributors were invited along with Gerard James Borg for the seminar. The rest were Norwegians.

Matthew McGough, the American scriptwriter of the popular TV series Law & Order and David John Smith, a strategic communication expert also from the USA, participated.

The seminar was held at the NRK studios in Oslo and several high profile Norwegians from the world of art, design, tourism, media, advertising and music were invited to give their creative contribution and share their thoughts.

Mr Borg was asked to deliver a 15-minute presentation on the multicultural vision of the song contest, while contributing his personal ideas for the show and concept.

The Norwegian Minister of Culture, Trond Giske, the award winning directors of the Hollywood movie Bandits Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, the producer of Norwegian Idol, Norway’s got talent and MTV Scandinavia awards Trond Kvernstrøm, as well as Hasse Lindmo who will be the television producer for next year’s show, also participated.

After the seminar, which was led by Norwegian TV presenter Per Sundnes, the speakers were invited to a cross-over concert by the 2009 Eurovision winner Alexander Rybak, who joined the party for drinks prior to his show, which Mr Borg described as “an astounding success”.

Gerard James Borg was interviewed by the Icelandic TV and radio on the song Give Me Sexy, which he co-wrote with Icelandic producer Orylgur Smari. The song has rocketed to number three in the Icelandic charts, becoming a great success. The Norwegian artist flew to Malta to perform the song earlier this summer during the Miss World Malta contest.

Another of Mr Borg’s songs Conta a Conta (by Borg/Stasssos/Gill) has made it to the Mila Ferraria album in Portugal, a Warner label. In Sweden, up-and-coming star Jonathan Fagerlund has also released his second album with one of Mr Borg’s songs named U-DO, a catchy and funky number.

Furthermore, artist Frida Andersson of Finland will shortly be releasing her new album, which includes Jimmy Dean, another of Mr Borg’s songs.

However, Gerard James Borg is not the only successful artist on the international stage, as singer Marilena recently won the Alexandria Song Festival with Unforgettable, a song by the Maltese duo Philip Vella and Gerard James Borg. Marilena was competing against contestants from 41 countries.

Further information is available on www.gerardjamesborg.com