In recent years, the Eurovision Song Contest has been regaining prestige with music labels across the continent due to the fact that exposure is guaranteed especially for those who make it through to the final and therefore get to be seen by millions of people across the world. Malta, for the second consecutive year will be participating tomorrow evening with all of the success definitely merited to Anton Attard, Head of Delegation for Malta who has redesigned the selection procedure from the initial stages in order to attract the foreign whilst keeping the product genuine and local. 

Tomorrow, co-written by Boris Cezek and Dean Muscat with vocals provided by Gianluca is a track which has a happy go lucky feeling and the charm and grace of the lead vocalist has been essential towards the success of the semi-final last night. Commercial success is not easy to achieve and whilst This is the Night did managed to have such positive acclaim, it was only after the final rather than the semi-final. Tomorrow has entered the iTunes Charts in several countries, with the most predominant though being The Netherlands where he peaked at #55 as well as Norway where he managed to climb to number #80 apart from managing positions #2 and #3 in Malta. Stay tuned to escflashmalta.com for amore of the latest news as soon as it becomes available. 

Source: esctracker

The nerves of the very first rehearsal conducted earlier this week were clearly nowhere to be seen as Gianluca alongside his team made up of Samaria Bezzina, Louise Ann Bugeja Tate, Christopher Tate, Gabriel Cassar and Kenny D'Ugo took to the stage for the second technical rehearsal. Tomorrow, co-written by Boris Cezek and Dean Muscat has gone down well at the Eurovision Song Contest, achieving positive comments throughout and with competent rehearsals, the foreign media has only words of praise. The second semi-final despite weaker is known to have a series of good songs including the section in which Malta will be performing but hopefully, the charm and fresh quality of the song along with a sublime performance will take it through to the final. 

It is said that the Delegation were absolutely delighted with the shots used for the performance and the effect that the lyric video is having in terms of colour scheme is quite emphatic noting that the shots will ultimately provide such a sense of security. In rehearsal videos posted by fan-sites the true colours are not being emitted properly as one could see either in the photo above of even in the official video of the rehearsal posted below. Tomorrow, is definitely one of the best entries that Malta has ever sent to the Eurovision Song Contest and therefore, it just has to be in the Saturday show because charisma and talent infused together go a long way. Stay tuned to escflashmalta.com for all of the latest news as soon as it becomes available

Source: eurovision.tv

escflashmalta.com had the opportunity to have a short conversation with Daniel D'Anastasi, Head of Press for the Maltese Delegation at this years' edition of the Eurovision Song Contest following the first technical rehearsal that took place. Despite some early issues which were encountered during the first run, they were quickly fixed as Gianluca and the rest of the team including Samaria, Louise Ann, Kenny, Gabriel and Christopher grew in confidence. There are a couple of things which need to be altered slightly including some camera shots but nevertheless, it was an extremely positive rehearsal.

In the meantime, as per the typical schedule setup by the European Broadcasting Union and the respective host broadcaster, this year being SVT, Gianluca and the rest of the delegation will tomorrow embark on a tour across Sweden and therefore, that is the plan for the itinerary. Friday is another 'off' day for the whole team noting that the schedule is currently being filled up with a series of events including a trip to a hospital where Gianluca, our representative will be meeting up with some young children who are braving the elements and surviving through sickness. This is an incredibly touching moment and means even more considering that Gianluca is a doctor and therefore has a tendency to meet with patients on a daily basis. Gianluca's second rehearsal will be taking place on Saturday afternoon and it will be open to the media so therefore, in collaboration with Radio International, Eurovision Ireland, and escXtra, escflashmalta.com will be bringing you all of the latest news.

Source: Daniel D'Anastasi (Head of Press), Television Malta

The Public Broadcasting Services has been a member of the European Broadcasting Union for many years and therefore supports our entry for the Eurovision Song Contest annually by virtue of providing a showcase for local artists to give their all and ultimately try to represent the Maltese flag in the country that won the international event within the previous year. Apart from broadcasting the competition, the Public Broadcasting Services wanted a more active role in the proceedings and in 2009, took over the competition entirely and from then onwards, following a series of systematic trial and error runs, the format was decided in favour of the Malta Eurovision Song Contest, the current competition which was started back in 2011 by none other than the Chief Executive Officer; Anton Attard who also acts as the Head of Delegation for the country during the prestigious music event.

The semi-final and final format in two consecutive nights has won over local and foreign critics with twenty-four entries competing in the first evening before being whittled down to sixteen for the final showcase out of which the entry for the Eurovision Song Contest would be chosen. During the first year of this procedure, it has to be noted that professionalism was already key with several individuals involved in major European productions including the MTV European Awards as well as Io Canto brought in to help make the show as perfect as possible. The song quality during the first year, in 2011 was already much improved and whilst there are still debates about the eventual winning entry; there was a fresh approach, one which almost saw Malta qualify before finishing in eleventh place, missing out due to one point at the expense of Switzerland, a country which we had voted for, albeit just two points, more than they needed to surpass us.

In 2012, the system looked somewhat jubilant and the original preview clips recorded in the previous year which helped garner the competition exposure, were also improved upon and starting being used on several web-portals whilst also doing the rounds on social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter. The competition continued to improve and the collaborations between local and foreign songwriters were bearing fruit because there a certain charm about most of the entries seeing Malta eventually qualify to the final of the Eurovision Song Contest with This Is The Night performed by Kurt Calleja. The competition was tough and this was well regarded by many. It is expected that 2013 will be yet another year in which the competition will be extremely open although many people seem to be surrounding their choice around one person. The quality of the tracks is stupendous from the clips previewed thus far.

The two sides of the local music scene meaning the one which normally involved a competition and the other one which involves radio have come together and are ready to conquer. Luring songwriters in the vein of Thomas G:Son, Niclas Lundin, Maria Lundin, Magnus Kaxe, Errol Sammut, Matthew James Borg, David Cassar Torreggiani, Boris Cezek, Muxu and Dean Muscat is an example of how far the Malta Eurovision Song Contest has improved in recent years whilst it has to be noted that there were so many other tracks which could have made it through including one written by A1, the British/Norwegian band which have credibility all over the continent and Mary Susan Applegate who co-wrote The Power of Love by Celine Dion. The 2013 edition of the Malta Eurovision Song Contest gains another pace today with the Public Broadcasting Services recording the clips for the entries today. Stay tuned to escflashmalta.com for all the latest.

Source: TVM, escflashmalta.com

It has been reported in the local media that being in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in three years was a huge success and everyone seems to be in full agreement that Kurt Calleja along with the rest of his team did their best to impress the voters all across the continent with their rendition of the track This Is The Night despite this somewhat not materialising in the amount of points which were predicted in the lead up to the final competition held on Saturday evening which was won by Loreen and her entry Euphoria for Sweden but nevertheless, there have been a lot of positive and important factors which make this years' edition of the esteemed event, one of the most successful for the Maltese entry especially considering the amount of digital sales.

In the past couple of years, there has been a lot of talk with the fact that the charts are being affected by digital sales with the most predominant ones being through the medium of iTunes, a company which sells music, videos, e-books and films through an online store and downloaded onto one of several devices created by the company Apple. The song that represented Malta in this years' music competition has to be the most successful thus far noting that it has managed to enter the charts in fourteen countries based on being downloaded from the official Eurovision Song Contest album. This data was sent in to escflashmalta.com at around 02:00 CET and might vary within other times of the day both in positive or negative ways because the charts are updated within a matter of hours.

• Austria: #85
• Belgium: #170
• Denmark: #162
• Estonia: #197
• France: #164
• Finland: #119
• Germany: #73
• Greece: #56
• Malta: #4
• Norway: #80
• Sweden: #20
• Switzerland: #174
• The Netherlands: #151
• United Kingdom: #143

I must say that the song has really managed to do quite well and the countries which have put it in the top hundred in their respective digital charts show that it was extremely well liked. In fact, Kurt Calleja who will be releasing his debut album later on this year might have had the right impact on his career and could most likely plan his material release in a number of nations especially following his success in Norway, Austria, Sweden, Greece and Germany. The Maltese delegation is expected to return back to the country is just a matter of hours with the plan scheduled to land at 11:25 CET. Make sure to go and support Kurt Calleja, his band and all of the Maltese delegation including Peter Carbonaro, Daniel D'Anastasi and Anton Attard amongst others as a showing of goodwill and good faith.

Source: Brooke Borg, escflashmalta.com

The adventures of the Eurovision Song Contest began quite abruptly this year noting that the very first rehearsals for Malta were on the third day of proceedings despite competing in the second semi-final of the prestigious competition but nevertheless, the delegation was ready and found their ground in Baku, Azerbaijan easily with the team having been there before for a number of promotional activities. The time has come and this evening, Kurt Calleja, Rebecca Mifsud, Warren Bonello, Kevin Paul Calleja, Amber and Christian Calleja will be flying the flag for Malta with the song This Is The Night which has been written by Kurt himself alongside the music stylings of Johan Jämtberg and also Mikael Gunnerås.

The track has grown to become a well known song in Azerbaijan with a number of people humming along to it in the streets apart from making sure it receives ample promotion, a case in point being the flashmob organised earlier this week. The rehearsals have move swiftly and the team has been confident throughout, hoping to secure Malta a place in the finals for the very first time since Chiara had done way back in 2009 with the song What If We which was also written by foreign songwriters. Glen Vella was quite close last year with his track One Life, failing to garner that one point which would have been enough to secure us qualification. Tonight, I would like to call on the Maltese people to support our representatives during the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest as Kurt and the rest of his team take to the stage in the position #4 within the running order following The Netherlands and prior to Belarus.

I would like to commend everyone for their hard work including the team behind it all which includes, the Artist Manager; Peter Carbonaro, the Head of Press; Daniel D'Anastasi and also the Head of Delegation; Anton Attard who have done as astonishing amount of work to make sure that whatever happens, Kurt would have made the right contacts to kick start a career. We spoke to the Head of Delegation and also the Chief Executive Officer at the Public Broadcasting Services about tonight and he gave us a set of very nice words saying 'I just want to praise the band, the team and the media like escflashmalta.com who collaborate with us.' The band have shown great chemistry between then and whatever happens tonight, they will remain to be Maltese and we should support them unconditionally throughout without saying that we could have done anything better. Let's keep positive though and remember that the Eurovision Song Contest is a great stepping stone for upcoming artists with millions of viewers all over the world.

Source: escflashmalta.com