Tonight is the Eurovision Second Semi-Final where Michela Pace will be representing Malta with her song ‘Chameleon’ and hopefully will make it to the grand finale on Saturday. The 64th Eurovision Song Contest is being held in Tel Aviv and it is the third time that Israel has hosted the Eurovision song contest, previously hosted in 1979 and 1999.
Tonight, Michela will be contesting alongside Armenia, Ireland, Moldova, Switzerland, Latvia, Romania, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Croatia, Lithuania, Russia, Albania, Norway, Holland, Macedonia and Azerbaijan.
Apart from the Maltese and Gozitan support, the X-Factor winner and singer of ‘Chameleon’ also has gained attention from 2016 Eurovision winner, singer Jamala, who listed her favourites for this year’s performance and mentioned Malta, alongside the likes of Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden.
The Eurovision Song Contest hype has been strong throughout the whole month and Tuesday evening was the first semi-final show, where the following ten countries out of 17 have qualified for the Grand Final on Saturday; Greece, Belarus, Serbia, Cyprus, Estonia, Czech Republic, Australia, Iceland, San Marino, Slovenia.
The ten finalists will participate in the Grand Final this Saturday alongside the ten countries who will qualify in the second Semi-Final tonight, and the six pre-qualified countries- the ‘Big Five’ (France, Italy, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom) and host country Israel.
Photos: European Broadcasting Services
Bookmakers rank Malta at 10th place with a chance for winning the Eurovision Song Contest
Bookmakers on Eurovision World.com have predicted that the Netherlands will win the Eurovision Song Contest; whilst Malta currently ranks 10th on the list. Earlier last week Malta was ranked at 6th place.
Technical Issues during first rehearsal
A spokesperson from the Maltese delegation had said that technical issues had arisen during Michela Pace’s first rehearsal. Michela’s second rehearsal was then technically her first, with lots of work still to be done in regards to camera angle and lighting. Fingers crossed that the performance will not be affected by the technical changes.
Malta first took part in the Eurovision back in 1971 and has been in the contest 31 times since then- so far with no victories to take home. The best results so far have been from 2002 Ira Losco’s ‘7th Wonder’ and 2005 Chiara’s ‘Angel’.