The truth be told, Gianluca’s song is actually quite good, as far as Eurovision Song Contest standards go. The song Tomorrow made it into the final being the penultimate song to be announced as having qualified on Thursday night.
A collective “Whoop!” went around Malta as people cheered and rejoiced. The scenes in Sweden were also beyond belief as the Maltese contingent jumped up and down for joy, waving the flag and embracing.
Should we be happy? Sure, of course we should. The Eurovision Song Contest is great, banal, entertainment and will tonight provide for a great evening of entertainment featuring terrible music, awful videos, bad commentary, plenty of stunning blondes (male and female) and more.
But should we take the whole thing as seriously as we do? The songs which have won the contest of late either feature completely off the wall acts (anyone remember Lordi?) or catchy pop tunes. Of course, everyone also votes for their neighbours too.
Does Gianluca have a chance? Denitely. The song he sings is catchy, it’s got a good vibe and message to it and he performs it well. We reiterate – this is Eurovision we are talking about, hence this article must be taken into a context of ‘standards’.
It would be great if he won it. But given that he has actually got a good song, we must point out that year after year, countries try to invent new things to distract viewers from the music and gain sympathy votes. It’s not the music that counts, but having a 95-year-old on stage (it didn’t work out, because Switzerland did not make it), a man in a transparent box and a lesbian kiss that make the headlines, not the song.
But still, in Malta, year after year, we spend a good part of three months talking about the Eurovision song contest. God knows how much money is spent when it could easily be used for better initiatives elsewhere – especially in the cultural sphere.
Collectively speaking, the country will be hooked in front of TV tonight to watch the final night of the contest. The peak will be when the votes start coming in. Then, we’ll make new friends (countries who vote for us) and new enemies (those who don’t). And we’ll not be surprised if the Scandinavian and Baltic countries vote for each other, but we’ll be offended if they don’t give us at least a point. Oh the joys of taking part in the Eurovision. Good luck Gianluca, it’s a good song, but please, don’t be upset (this goes for everyone) if we don’t perform well, it’s only a bit of fun and we know how the voting works.