On the 10th of December, former Malta Eurovision Song Contest finalist and second runner-up Kaya, together with four of her students : Aiden Jay Drakard, Anhelica Pace, Naolene Borg and Dorcas Debono travelled to Rumania to take part in the renowned Carpathian Star International Festival. In this showcase, artists from a vast amount of countries took part including Estonia, Serbia, Moldova, Italy, Romania and of course, Malta.

Once again, Malta's success was evident during this competition since all four (4) contestants managed to come within the top three (3) in at least one category. Aidan Jay Drakard came third (3rd) in the 7-9 age category with his excellent performance of the song Profeta Non Sare originally by Demis Roussos. It is important to note that this was Aidan’s first experience in an international competition and therefore was very pleased with such a promising result. 

Another very successful Maltese contestant was Anhelica Pace who not only came first in two (2) categories but also finishing the first runner-up position in the 10-12 age category with her breath-taking performance of the track E Poi originally performed by Giorgia. Anhelica won both the folklore song category and also the group category were together with Aiden, they performed the song Save Rock n roll written by Kaya and her brother Dorian Psaila. This was not her first success in foreign waters, noting that she has managed second runner-up finishes in prestigious competitions both in Italy and Poland. Later on this month, Anhelica will be heading to Italy to take part in the competition known as Eurokids in the town of Salerno.

In this same competition, Malta obtained third place in the adult category, having been represented by Dorcas Debono with the track Stupid. As a matter of fact, it seems that things are looking bright for her noting that she was also chosen a couple of weeks back as one of the finalists for Passport 2 Indifest where she is hoping to make it through to the Konkors Kanzunetta Indipendenza. The judging panel was made up of representatives from each of the competing countries and Malta was represented by Kaya but a pivotal rule stated that no judge could vote for acts within their own country to be precise and accurate. Stay tuned to escflashmalta.com for more news about upcoming young performers.

Source: Press Release

Last 13th June, Kaya together with her students Anhelica Pace, Nicole Agius, Rutger Scicluna Galea and Chantelle Abela, represented Malta in the Eurokifs Festival in Maiori, Italy. 

This festival was split over 3 days and in the first semi-final, held on the 15th June, the participants were obliged to sing in their native language. The second semi-final was held the day after, and the participants, sung a song they personally chose. From the semi-finals, only 6 finalists were chosen for the final night. The participants were judged by 13 internationl juries from Lithuania, Italy, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Russia, Croatia, Poland, Estonia, Turkey, Georgia, Malta and Ukraine. None of the countries could vote for its respective participant/s. Kaya was infact the Maltese judge. Vincenzo Colossanto invited her to sing the song “First Time” on the final night. The song was infact a semi-finalist in this year’s Malta Song For Europe.

The festival was divided into 4 categories. Anhelica Pace and Nicole Agius competed in the first category (from 6 to 9 years). This was the fourth international experience for Anhelica, who managed to place third once again. Anhelica interpreted the song “Minn statwa ghal tifla”, composed and written by Kaya and Christopher Azzopardi and “Tu vuo fa l’Americano”. For Nicole Agius, this was her first international experience, and she managed to place first! Nicole interpreted the song “Wuff Wuff Baw Baw, composed and written by Kaya and Christopher Azzopardi and “Tintarella di Luna”. Daria Birzu, from Romania obtained the second position in this category. 

In the second category (from 10 to 12 years), Rutger Scicluna Galea was the youngest participant who managed to reach the final. Rutger obtained the third position and the best interpretation award. Rutger interpreted the song “Lehen it-tfal”, composed and written by Kaya and Christopher Azzopardi and “Adagio”. This was Rutger’s second international experience after last May, he obtained the same position in an international festival in Poland. The Romanian Andreea Oprisan obtained second place whilst another Romanian, Viorela Storian placed first. 

Chantelle Abela participated in the third and last category (between 13 and 16 years) Chantelle obtained a prestigious certificate to sing in Russia in February 2013. She interpreted the song “Semmghali Għanja ħelwa” written and composed by Kaya and Joe Chircop and “Just walk away”. The “Gran Prix” winner was Presiyana Dimitrova from Bulgaria. 

On behalf of our editorial team, we would like to congratulate all the mentioned participants and wish them all the best of luck in their musical career and moreover, we encourage other participants to seek for such international opportunities, which surely boost their musical career and also strengthen their characters and personality. 

Source: escflashmalta.com, Kaya (Press Release)

In the past couple of years, there have been a number of influential individuals who with years of practice have taken up the role of vocal coaches. Experience is surely an important asset and in fact, one of the most popular teachers in the country is none other than Kaya otherwise known as Priscilla Psaila who boasts a strong repertoire of original songs in both Maltese and English. She has been quite successful with her students actually and she has just returned from another showcase in the city of Czestechowa within Poland in a competition called the May Festival. The students who took up the position in the competition were Anhelica Pace of nine years, Rutger Scicluna who is ten years old, Maria Christina Desira who is thirteen and Grezia Urry, the eighteen year old teenager.

The performances abroad were mostly of cover versions as Anhelica for example finishing in third place following her rendition of the song I Surrender having been chosen to represent our country due to the her previous experiences in a number od competitions including Lithuania and Romania. In the meantime, Rutger and Grezia were doing their country proud for the very first time with yet another third place finish with performances of the songs Hero and Con Il Tuo Nome. The last participant being Maria Christina also competed and received the best result of all of the children finishing in first place with the performance of the song Gli Uomini Non Cambiano. All of them are extremely happy with what they have managed to achieve and on behalf of the editorial team at escflashmalta.com, I would like to congratulate them on sublime results. Stay tuned for more of such news in the days, weeks and months to come.

Source: Press Release