One of the most powerful means to get messages across is through the medium of music and that is essentially the main reason behind the creation of the Eurovision Song Contest but nevertheless, moving away from the international competition, Malta is known to have a solid backbone within the music industry, one which took years to develop. 89.7 Bay is the leading radio station in the country and has always sought to help promote the local music scene, something which got the editorial team at escflashmalta.com thinking and finally to the realisation that promotion is the key behind success. Weekly the aforementioned station takes a look at the ten most request songs from local artists and put them in a chart show, hosted by Nathan D.

As summer approaches, several artists might be tampering around with the viable dates of music releases but thus far it seems that things are slightly quiet. A new entry in position number #10 this week is none other than the track Joy performed by JJoy and featuring the vocals of Andrea Britton. The renowned disc jockey does not need a lot of introduction having also been awarded with the best dance tune or remix at the Bay Music Awards for the track Love Hangover featuring the vocals of Kelly Stelfox. Taking My Heart, performed by Carlo Gerada and featuring Jan Cortez, a former chart topper finds itself at number #8 at the moment and on the the way out of the chart but nevertheless, someone who is climbing up is a newcomer by the name of Evita M whose track Luxurious has been well received. The former Malta Eurosong 2009 participant is looking to re-invent herself based on this particular track.

Alex Alden, a guest during the Malta Eurovision Song Contest semi-final has also been doing the rounds in recent weeks and now finds herself going down at number #7 with her debut track Dancing Alone which she performed impeccably to the jam packed audience at the Malta Fairs and Conventions Centre. Just above at position number #6 is the band Bletchley Park with the track Planets Move Faster. The group were nominated for three Malta Music Awards in the beginning of the year and look to continue building on their success with their Jagged House Records album, My Body Fighting. Gianluca is representing Malta in this years' Eurovision Song Contest but that does not mean that Funk Initiative are having some time off with their latest single Architects at position number #5 at the moment. Tomorrow had also made the official top thirty of the station and therefore, this shows the support from the leading radio station.

I have to say that the tracks in this weeks' top four are just stunning, beginning with number #4 featuring none other than the newcomer Joe Roscoe whose track How I Feel About You has been setting an extremely difficult tone for the local music scene. Think of Ed Sheeran meeting Jason Mraz and that is the product that has been created. Just above the talented singer/songwriter at number #3 comes the comeback of the group, Skimmed who have ditched their alternative rock for their new single Ronnie. The track has really been embraced by the music industry and feels like the group might have found a niche which they should experiment even more. The top two positions are currently occupied by two leading females who have the utmost respect from the escflashmalta.com editorial board with number #2 being filled in by When It's Time performed by Claudia Faniello and number #1 by Ira Losco and her song The Person I Am which features guest vocals by David Leguesse.

Source: 89.7 Bay

Earlier this year, Gianluca stole the hearts of the nation and the professional jury altogether as he won the Malta Eurovision Song Contest with the track Tomorrow co-written by Boris Cezek and Dean Muscat. The idea of the promotional tour is to spread the message of the song across, although this is something which is being done extraordinarily well with the preview video of the track which was produced by Duane and Angie Laus, commissioned for the project by the Public Broadcasting Services. The comments have been really positive by the foreign fans of the competition and one will be hoping for the best come this years' edition of the Eurovision Song Contest 2013.

In the beginning of March, Gianluca was invited to attend the national final in Armenia where Gor Suyjan alongside his band known as The Dorians were given four options for the Eurovision Song Contest with the final choice of both the public and the jury being Lonely Planet co-written by Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath. That was only the beginning of the promotional tour for Gianluca though because on the 13th April, he will be performing during the Eurovision In Concert held within The Netherlands. This is an annual party which is seemingly a rehearsal for the annual international competition due to the involvement of several participating countries.

Earlier today, our friends and colleagues of escXtra exclusively confirmed that the representative for Malta will be one of the artists performing during the London Eurovision Preview Party, joining the likes of Natalia (Austria), Koza Mostra (Greece), Zlata Ognevich (Ukraine), Alyona Lanskaya (Belarus) and Krista Siegfrids (Finland). Gianluca will represent Malta with the song Tomorrow in the first half of the second semi-final during this years' Eurovision Song Contest. Stay tuned to escflashmalta.com for all of the latest news about this years' participation within what has been described as the biggest non-sporting event in Europe.

Source: escXtra, Kris Micallef (Image)

#Lionkink is an upcoming production being organised by the Students Council within the University of Malta with the main aim being to serve the purpose that despite being the highest form of Educational Institution, individuals have the right to express themselves through the art of performance. The KSU Students' Fest has become an annual tradition for students at the University of Malta and beyond and this time round, it seems that the expectations are running high especially by tackling one of the most famous movie musicals created by Disney, known as The Lion King. The rewording of the title is vital to the modernisation of the show and the script will surely capture the attention of everyone present. 

escflashmalta.com is proud to support the project for the third year running and the editorial team had a chance to catch up with Andrea Attard, the Public Relations Officer of the Council who states that 'the cast, the crew, the whole team is such a talented group to work with. At KSU, we believe that everyone has to work together as a team in order to achieve a positive final result', going onto add that 'whether or not you've seen the musical version, #LionKink is a must see'. The show is organised with the uttermost quality and this is seen through late night rehearsals because after all this is 'an event made for the students, by the students'.

Indeed, we have been through the roles cast for this years' edition of the Students' Fest and we are pleased to reveal that amongst those performing, there will be; Keith Zammit from the recently defunct band, Relikc as well as Gianni Selvaggi from the group; Sky City. One other notable individual in the chorus is definitely Rachael Tedesco Triccas who backed Davinia Pace in this years' edition of the Malta Eurovision Song Contest, finishing in third place with Betrayed. #Lionkink will be staged between Friday 12th April and Sunday 14th April at the Sir Temi Zammit Hall within the University of Malta and tickets can be purchased here. Stay tuned to escflashmalta.com for more news in due course.

Source: Andrea Attard (Public Relations Officer - KSU)

One of the most lucrative markets in the music industry is based in the United Kingdom for the simple reason that homegrown artists have successfully exported music abroad. It is not straightforward to achieve success but one vocalist whose extended play entitled Fools managed to crack the top hundred in the past couple of months was the British/Maltese, Lauren Aquilina. On the 23rd June, she will be turning eighteen and when one puts things into perspective, it is truly an honour to know how far a seventeen year old can get too with pure determination. She has been busy performing across the country recently but nevertheless, she is a proud supporter of charity and is currently doing her bit as well with the release of a special original track entitled Wanderlust.

Lauren Aquilina is a singer/songwriter who resides just outside of London in the United Kingdom but comes to Gozo, Malta's sister island every year to meet up with the rest of her family. As a matter of fact, in a recent diary page posted online she states that Malta 'is a small but beautiful island with lots of hidden caves'. Wanderlust, the brand new track has been specifically written for Comic Relief, a British charity founded in 1985 in response to the famine in Ethiopia. Several renowned personalities have been known to contribute during the day and it is very much the British version of what the Maltese know as L-Istrina. You can visit her official website, where you could listen and also get your free copy of Wanderlust but remember to donate to Comic Relief, a truly admirable cause. Stay tuned to escflashmalta.com for all of the latest news on Lauren Aquilina.

Source: Official Facebook Page

Ira Losco, one of the leading female artists in the local music scene has been credited to achieving a lot of success but what makes stand out from the rest is the element of being humble about any of the projects she takes on. The past couple of months have been somewhat of a revival for the iconic figure having been somewhat missing since the release of her remixes album entitled Mixed Beats back in 2009 but many have come to learn that she has been working extremely hard on perfecting her new record, with the idea that despite achieving a status over the years, there is still an image to keep up and being true to ones self will always remain important.

Ira Losco has always remained grounded and that is surely one of the elements why she has succeeded over the years because whether performing at the Eurovision Song Contest, or with Claudio Baglioni, she is still the same individual, one who is honouring her country. Following the success of What I'd Give, winning the Best Video Award at the Malta Music Awards whilst also allowing Ira Losco to be recognised as the Best Artist in the eyes of the DJ's during the Bay Music Awards, comes a brand new studio album entitled, The Fire produced and mixed by Howard Keith of Jagged House. An official launch event took place last night at Villa Bologna in Attard, a gala supported by Jugs and Island Caterers which was extremely well attended by various members of the press. 

Personally, I feel like the title of the brand new album speaks volumes about the comeback with Ira noting down in just one way that there is something which re-ignited the spark towards making music. As a matter of fact, when speaking about The Fire, Ira stated that 'there was a time when I didn't want to write anything. I was overcome by fear and I was reluctant to bare my soul. Then when I started writing, I had no inhibitions, I didn't set myself any parameters. I definitely have an album I am proud of.' Whenever Jagged House come up with a brand new album, they send shockwaves into the industry and with Ira Losco just releasing her sophomore single off this album entitled The Person I Am featuring David Leguess, one would understand what I am referring to.

During the launch event, a visibly emotional Ira Losco thanked everyone for the input within this record and for supporting her throughout the years. She also gave a resoundingly stunning performance of a couple of songs during the evening accompanied by the people who have come to garner attention as her band including Peter Borg on Electric Guitars, Alex Mallia on Acoustic Guitars, Ivan Borg on Bass Guitar, and Steve 'Cannibal Muscat' on the drums. Other people who were involved within the album where Adrian 'Ir-Russu' Brincat on the Trumpet and Simon Vella on the Violin. The brand new album could be bought either through iTunes, Jagged House, Ira Losco's Official Website, or even Exotique. Stay tuned to escflashmalta.com for all of the latest news as soon as it becomes available.

Source: Jagged House, Emil Calleja Bayliss (Image)

In the past two days, the European Broadcasting Union was receiving the songs that will be competing in this years' edition of the Eurovision Song Contest taking place in Malmo, Sweden. The design of the stage was also presented whilst Sweden was drawn in sixteenth (16th) position within the final in order to clarify the idea of the producers' draw and not give the home country an unfair advantage. We would like to invite you to the weekly Ultimate Eurovision Experience. Apart from the means of FM Radio in the Netherlands on FM 106.8 and the audio stream from the studio via www.radiointernational.tv and on Digital Cable 781 & cable 88.1Mhz in the Netherlands, the show will also be web-televised via the Radio International TV Channel from the studio and linking up the many international Eurovision fans and friends and play your requests and read your messages out on air. The simulcast will be from 2000 – 2300 hours CET when fans can join in and chat amongst each other via the Chat Room and request their favourite Eurovision entry.

One of the most impressive national selections to take place in the lead up to this years' edition of the Eurovision Song Contest was surely the one in Malta which yielded twenty-four (24) semi-finalists brought down to sixteen (16) finalists out of which the eventual winner was the song Tomorrow performed by Gianluca with music and lyrics by Dean Muscat and Boris Cezek. The songwriters of the winning entry had the opportunity to qualify with another two songs for this years' Malta Eurovision Song Contest, one of them being the beautiful, charming ballad entitled Perfect Day with vocals provided by Janice DeBattista. The female artist has a lot of the resonance that Chiara is known to bring to the stage and considering that this was the first experience for her within the competition, making the final and achieving tenth place was definitely meaningful. We spoke to Janice about her career as a solo artist as well as her involvement within two bands, one being Salt and the other being Scarlet Sally.

This will be the first of three interviews which are airing on this weeks' edition of the programme which is set to commence at 20:00 CET and to run for a total of three hours. As a matter of fact, the second interview is with Christopher, the lead male vocalist of the band Takasa, which was formerly known as Heilsarmee. They will be performing the song You and Me during the second half of the second semi-final alongside Malta. The European Broadcastign Union has a rule against brand names hence why they had to change the name of the group along with their whole image. A brand new music video was shot in order to accomodate the brand new image. The final interview this week will be with Dusan Svilvar who was the first runner-up of the Beosong competition held in Serbia. Despite the second place, he miseed out by around five thousand votes which was the closest possible to Moje 3.

Radio International is always keen to present songs during the show apart from the weekly features and therefore, collaborating the two ideas together will see the emergence of Eurovision UnverCover whereas tracks performed at the Eurovision Song Contest will be covered by other singers. The actual tracks will be played first followed by the cover and this will make things interesting. Apart from this feature, there will be new material played on the show by a number of former representatives including Jedward. All of the latest news is also covered during the weekly broadcast noting resources from escflashmalta.com and escXtra where Luke Fisher, the Editor makes a weekly round-up. A round up of the national finals thus far is set to be conducted by Alasdair Rendall. Follow the show through the official website and also send your requests through the contact link which is found on the aforementioned website.

Source: Team of Radio International

Gianluca, the artist who will represent Malta in the upcoming edition of the Eurovision Song Contest with the track Tomorrow co-written by Boris Cezek and Dean Muscat will be making a television appearance alongside his band this evening. On the programme Close Up hosted by Pierre Portelli on TVM 2, Gianluca will be revealing the deepest and darkest secrets of his life with his collaborators and team doing more of the same to each other in what has been coined as a reflection into the real life of the performer.

According to the host, Pierre Portelli, the 'light hearted programme turned out to reveal a very serious and scary background story'. You can watch the programme on the official website of the Public Broadcasting Services. Malta will be performing in the first half of the second semi-final alongside countries such as Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, FYR Macedonia and San Marino. The draw is yet to be determined but the producers of the competition revealed that they will be able to make revelations by the end of this month, with the European Broadcasting Union stating that they 'want every song to shine' and thus a careful assessment needs to take place which results will be out by the 29th March 2013. Stay tuned to escflashmalta.com for all of the latest news.

Source: Pierre Portelli Official Facebook, PBS, Kris Micallef (Image)

In recent years, one of the most recognisable artists in the world of classical music has surely been Joseph Calleja who hails from the Maltese Islands. This is definitely not an artist one would expect to be associated with the Eurovision Song Contest but nevertheless, has played his fair share in terms of support throughout the years. In 2011, when the international competition was taking place in Germany, he had been the one to introduce One Life performed by Glen Vella to the music of Paul Giordimaina and the lyrics of Fleur Balzan. With the release of the official music video of Tomorrow sung by Gianluca to the music and lyrics of Dean Muscat and Boris Cezek being extremely fresh, Calleja took to social networking website, Facebook to share his thoughts.

Despite the extremely busy schedule that Joseph Calleja is known to have throughout the year, he has always managed to fit in a number of regular appearances in Malta including his summer concert series in which he has duetted with a number of international stars including; Ronan Keating, Hayley Westenra, Lucio Dalla, Gigi D'Alessio and Dionne Warwick amongst others. In the meantime, just last week, he was also on the popular television programme; Xarabank hosted by Peppi Azzopardi which not only ran a profile about the artist but also saw him perform live on television and to the studio audience. With regards to Tomorrow, Calleja kept is short and simple by stating 'This guy has it period - like the song the video is fresh and unassuming. Love the retro look. I have a feeling this will bring the Eurovision to Malta.' Stay tuned to escflashmalta.com as we continue following all of the latest news with regards to Gianluca and his entry Tomorrow co-written by Dean Muscat and Boris Cezek.

Source: Official Facebook Page, Allen Venables (Image)

Tomorrow, co-written by Boris Cezek and Dean Muscat with vocals provided by Gianluca will be representing Malta in the first half of the second semi-final in this years' edition of the Eurovision Song Contest taking place in Malmo, Sweden. In an extremely close competition during the Malta Eurovision Song Contest, the juries spoke in favour of the bubbly, cheery entry which is bound to put the audience in a good mood as already seen during a promotional visit to Armenia earlier this year. Gianluca along with his team of musicians and backing vocals are looking forward to representing the country on an international platform as evidenced within the Official Music Video released by the Public Broadcasting Services a couple of minutes ago.

The preview video has become an essential tool of promotion throughout the years and therefore, the broadcaster has always managed to get the best possible people on board. As a matter of fact, the producers this year were none other than Angie & Duane Laus, the power couple who despite working independently on this project are known of their work with Where's Everybody. Speaking to the artist manager, Peter Carbonaro, the list of thanks goes on to the actors within the video, being Peter & Emma, as well as French Connection for the clothes of the band, Blush and Panic for the outfits of the actors, Marielle at Prive' for the hair, Louise Ann Bugeja Tate for the make-up, as well as Luke Engerer for the styling. The editorial team would like to congratulate the Public Broadcasting Services, Peter Carbonaro as well as Mediterranean Bank for the support that they're giving to the Maltese entry, Tomorrow. Have a look at the video below and stay tuned to escflashmalta.com for the latest news.

Source: Television Malta, Public Broadcasting Services

D.R.E.A.M.S is the musical drama series which many have grown to enjoy in the past couple of months and therefore, audiences were somewhat dismayed to learn that their programme was going to be put in hiatus due to the political campaign that was taking place in the past couple of weeks. Nevertheless, one should not fret because this evening will mark the return of the series on Television Malta with Rewind Productions ready to roll on the next episode, fifteen. Putting one within the perspective of things as they were left is definitely not easy but one has to remark that tension was growing into a budding relationship between Saidah (Drizilla Bakoush) and Keith (Leander Schembri) as well as into a supposedly solid relationship between Brandon (Jean Pierre Cassar) and Antoinette (Annalise Psaila).

This evening, the episode will somewhat start focusing on these elements in particular for the simple reason that continuity is going to be the main spotlight as the series continues rather than creating new storylines. Keith is on yet another date with Saidah and decides to tell her about his past, although as has been seen in other episodes, he is trying to play the role of the victim whilst making sure that she falls for him and ultimately becomes his prey. On the other hand, Antoinette and Brandon are still suffering over what happened during his parents' anniversary dinner, following the traces of nut found in the cake which Antoinette baked for Brandon's parents. Ultimately, she is the only one who knows that Tiffany (Kristen Camilleri) might have played a role. Tiffany on the other hand is still trying to win back Brandon and is plotting more schemes but will she succeed?

Moving away from the typical teen storylines within the college itself comes Diane (Michela Galea) who has been seen on a handful of occasions this series. She is working out a relationship with her father now that she has decided to embrace her completely but is it really working out as one believes it to be? That is yet to be seen but as mentioned before, the storylines will be developing at a rather fast pace now. Peter Fava (JJ Curmi) and Jessica Spiteri (Maria Louise Wiffen) return to the series and yet they might still be haunted by Greta (Stephanie Vella) with whom Peter slept with despite his current relationship. Tiffany continues to lie about her relationship to Brandon with her father Richard (Michael Mock) for the reason that he will not remember her answer anyways. Well, be sure not to miss the return of the series this evening on Television Malta (TVM) after the evening news at around 20:45 CET. 

Source: Rewind Productions