During the years, one of the most successful competitions in the local music scene has surely been the Konkors Kanzunetta Indipendenza and this is due to the fact that it is one of two competitions whose entries are in the national language of the country, that being Maltese. After a hiatus which stretched ten years in total, Media.Link Communications decided that it was high time for a return and in fact, since then, things have looked rather positive noting that each year, new talent is established along with a mixture of already established talent. In the past couple of weeks, escflashmalta.com has been looking at some of the most memorable statistics including the fact that the runner-up of the past three years has been absent in the following year and that Eleanor Cassar has been the most successful in making it to the final eleven times, nine times as a soloist and once as a duet. This time round, the focus turns to the male artist who has made the most appearances and he is by far none other than Mark Tonna. 

Male artists have always had a tendency to stay away from competitions actually noting that there is more interest amongst the gender on radio for example but nevertheless, the last two entrants at the Eurovision Song Contest have both been male keeping in mind Glen Vella in 2011 and Kurt Calleja earlier this year. When it comes to the Konkors Kanzunetta Indipendenza, Mark Tonna has provided the most entries in the competition or rather, has made it to the finals the most scoring a total of eight (8) entries, all of them as a solo performer. As you are going to note within the list below, Mark has worked with a large number of songwriters and this just goes to show that mixing it up a bit does definitely give a music career more flavour, an element which can be proven to be quite successful in the long run.

• 1997: Tgħid Veru? (Mark Tonna / Joe Chircop)
• 1998: Kif Ħarbulna! (Noel Calleja / Joe Chircop)
• 1999: Il-Bikja tal-Lejl (Rene Mamo / Joe Julian Farrugia)
• 2000: Waħdek Ma Tkun Qatt (Chan Vella / Mark Tonna)
• 2002: Int Kapaċi (Philip Vella / Andrew Attard)
• 2005: L-Arkitett tal-Univers (John D Zammit / Paul Callus)
• 2010: Nixtieqek (Mark Spiteri Lucas / Joe Chircop)
• 2011: Meta Jikkalma L-Mewġ (Augusto Cardinali / Giovann Attard)

Mark Tonna made his mark on the local music scene within the Malta Song for Europe having participated on four occasions, the first one being in 1995, followed by his fourth place finish in 1997, then also returning in 1999 which remains to be his best finish thus far and last but not least, his participation in 2003. His participation in the Konkors Kanzunetta Indipendenza led to a victory on his fourth try actually with the track Waħdek Ma Tkun Qatt but he did return due to the fact that he loves to perform in Maltese, citing it as a beautiful language. He takes every live performance seriously and shows sheer professionalism with all of the artists competing actually. He is a role model and he is absolutely well respective for that honour.

Source: KKI Compact Discs

The Committee of the 2012 edition of the Konkors Kanzunetta Indipendenza has been quite busy with all of the proceedings promising the viewers at home that this will be a bigger spectacle that what was seen last year when the event was organized for the twentieth time noting one major change with the audience seated throughout the whole evening, enjoying the twenty tracks at the comfort of their chairs. When one considers that this event has been around for such a long time, there is also to be noted the sheer prowess in terms of history and in fact, when looking at the last three years, it seems that the first runner-up has been hit by a stroke of misfortune noting absenteeism in the following year for some reason or another.

One of the most pivotal competitions in the local music scene is surely the Konkors Kanzunetta Indipendenza having the honour of being one of the two leading competitions in which songs submitted into it feature in the Maltese Language which in itself is a merge of Anglo-Saxon, Semitic and Latin in reality. We have been going through a number of statistics and it seems that since the year 1997, there has been one artist who has entered the competition with more songs than the others and this is a woman in the form of Eleanor Cassar who has even won the competition during one of the occasions. We will be going through the vast history of this exceptional performer.

Eleanor Cassar has grown to become an exceptional artist with multiple accolades to her name both in Malta and abroad where she has come out as a winner in each and every competition. Within the Konkors Kanzunetta Indipendenza, since the year 1997, she has managed to make the finals with eleven tracks in total but being the one with the most solo performances, those amounting to ten (10) due to the fact that one of them was a duet with the renowned Glen Vella who would ultimately go onto represent Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2011 with the track One Life composed by Paul Giordimaina and Fleur Balzan.

• 1998: Ħallini Ħdejk (Renato Briffa / Joe Chircop)
• 2000: Min (Renato Briffa / Joe Chircop)
• 2001: Emozzjonijiet Imdallma (John David Zammit / Paul Callus)
• 2001: M'Hawnx Bħalek (Chan Vella / Paul Ellul)
• 2002: Ħdejk (John David Zammit / Joe Chircop)
• 2002: Sisien Il-Ħajja (John David Zammit / Paul Callus)
• 2003: Tgħid Min Jaf (Renato Briffa / Joe Chircop)
• 2003: Nisma Biss (John David Zammit / Joe Chircop)
• 2004: Għat-Tnejn Flimkien (Philip Vella / Joe Chircop)
• 2005: Ix-Xemx Mill-Ġdid (Paul Abela / Joe Julian Farrugia)
• 2007: Fil-Fond tal-Qalb (Paul Giordimaina / Fleur Balzan)

Eleanor Cassar has quite the long lasting presence in the local music scene noting that apart from doing well in this competition, she was also the winner of the Għanja tal-Poplu in 2000 with Glen Vella on the track It-Tfal tal-Llum which was composed by Chan Vella and penned by Paul Ellul. She has given the country some of the most iconic tracks in our language and she was of course, the winner back in 2005 with a track which boasted stunning lyrics with a charming musical accompaniment, something that Paul Abela and Joe Julian Farrugia are known for. It will be interesting to see whether Eleanor would return to the competition for yet another time especially having decided to try one more time following her victory in 2007 where she placed third in the final competition and she performed a ballad in which one could hear a pin drop. This was the first informative artist about the competition throughout the years, but it will not be the last. Stay tuned to escflashmalta.com for more such features.

Source: KKI Compact Discs