I woke up to savage cries of jubilation all over Facebook when it was announced that Miriana Conte had made it to the final night of Eurovision after an absence of long years for Malta.

The weather being what it was, few ventured outside to celebrate. Instead, they took to Facebook.

They praised a polished performance, a beautiful voice, and a zest underlining and bouncing everything.

But more than anything else they praised what they saw as a victory over the nay-sayers and the controversies over the sexual innuendos in the song.

Sex sells. The Finnish song, if understood, referred to some hallowed customs regarding sauna. Or was that the Swedish one, both seen as contestants for the final prize?

We had some quite surprising expressions of jubilation from people we had long forgotten, relics of the past Socialist dictatorship, what in spy books are called sleepers. Now they came awake.

So far the Maltese public does not seem to have been told about another contestant who also made it to the final - Yuval Raphael, the contestant from Israel.

She made it to the final despite the solid wall of boos, a worldwide hate campaign and all the anti-Semitism the world can produce.

But she could take it and more. For on that 7th of October she was at the Nova Peace Festival just outside Gaza.

When the hordes of Palestinians and Hamas attacked she sought refuge in a shelter which was quickly found and attacked. 30 hand grenades were thrown in.

Yuval hid among the dead bodies so that yesterday she could stand up in the Basel theatre and sing of love and peace 'New day will come'.

No scurrile words or what sound like them. She did not need to meet the Leader of the Opposition (this time wearing a suit and tie, not 'zmattat' like he appeared the previous week at the football final along Joe Muscat and Robert Abela) nor any other politician. 

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