It has only been a couple of days since the announcement of the artist in the major festival category at the popular Italian competition; Sanremo and some problems have already arose it seems. D’Alessio & Berte` duo are Chiara Civello on the risk list of elemenation after their songs were already online or already published in public. Clear Civello is supposed to sing the ‘Al posto del mondo’.

Daniele Magro (former X Factor 2) proposed at the Sanremo 2010 selections a song with the same title, ‘Al posto del mondo’. The authors of the song of Daniele Magro were Diana Tejera (Co-author of Tiziano Ferro, who also collaborates with the Civello) and Chiara Civello herself. I sincerely doubt, that the same song which was ‘dumped’ two years ago from the festival could have made a return and could simply be just the case of a song with the same title. On the other hand, Gigi d’Alessio and Loredana Berte’s song was already on Youtube on the 13th January.

D’Alessio is defending the song by simply saying that, since the songs of the festival were not yet chosen, their song could be easily put online as their new single. But again, many are saying that this is just an excuse not to be eliminated in such from such a prestigious contest, although this was stipulated in the contest’s regulations, that the songs had to be held ‘secret’ until the first night. The decision is yet to be taken but stay tuned to ESCflashmalta as we delve into this matter in the coming weeks.

Source: Italian Media

Last night, the Portuguese national broadcaster, RTP, revealed the names of the twelve (12) composers that will compose the potential 2012 candidate entries for the upcoming Festival Da Cancao 2012. Each composer was assigned to a particular singer in order to tailor make and compose a song which best suits his/her vocal skills.The national final is scheduled to be held in Lisbon on March 10th. Portugal is the longest competing nation in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest to have never achieved the top placing and the closest they have been has been a sixth place finish which is somewhat quite disappointing. Nevertheless, this means that they try and work harder every year hoping that their efforts since 1964 will ultimately pay off and result in the result that they have been wanting for a long time.

This year, the Portuguese took up a new and different route, one which ultimately be based on the best songwriters of the country as revealed below along with some of the most notable upcoming talent in terms of vocal capabilities. There were a number of performers who skipped the audition phase due to their history in the music industry thus making them 'professionals' but for the most part, they are newcomers to the scene. The standard is stated to be quite good and the Portuguese broadcaster is very happy with the quality of the artists. You can note the songwriters and those who will perform their song below.

01. Composer: Tozé (Per7ume)

01. Singer: Gaspar Santos

02. Composer: Tozé Brito

02. Singer: Tó Martins

03. Composer: Johny Galvão (Rosa Negra)

03. Singer: Pedro Portas & Susana Gonçalves

04. Composer: Jorge Fernando

04. Singer: Filipa Sousa

05. Composer: Miguel Gameiro

05. Singer: Pamela Salvado

06. Composer: Armando Teixeira (Bala)

06. Singer: Vânia Osório

07. Composer: Menito Ramos

07. Singer: Arménio Pimenta

08. Composer: Jorge Cruz (Diabo na Cruz)

08. Singer: Pedro Tomás

09. Composer: Tiago Dias (Amor Electro)

09. Singer: Joana Leite

10. Composer: Miguel Majer (Seda)

10. Singer: Rui Andrade

11. Composer: João Só

11. Singer: Carlos Costa

12. Composer: Nuno Feist

12. Singer: Ricardo Soler

Source: RTP

With just 12 days away from the first opening night of our national final, preparations are underway at full speed, with singers rehearsing and having various appearances on TV and plenty of space in the local media. And thus, such a show must have its hosts, and ESCFlashmalta can proudly and officially announce that the exclusive news of this year’s hosts being Elaine Saliba and Ronald (Ron) Briffa are true.

Elaine Saliba kicked off her television career when she was only twelve years of age when she took part in the kids’ television show called Owkej which was aired on Television Malta (TVM). Eventually, she hosted other kids’ programmes on television such as Kraxx and Dmix, a programme which coincidentally she co-hosted with Ronald Briffa. More recently she presented the programme called Kwizz. Over the years Elaine had an active role with the production team of Where’s Everybody. She has also co-hosted a number of TV shows including the summer variety show Pjazza as well as Indifest and Konkors Kanzunetta Indipendenza. Meanwhile, we have seen Elaine acting in the local drama called Ghada jisbah ukoll. At present, she plays the part of Nina in the drama called La Famiglia which is aired on NET TV.

Coming from the theatre field Ronald Briffa participated in various international theatre encounters held in Hungary in 2002, Brussels in 2003 and in Vienna in 2004. He was and still is involved in the Junior College Soiree, having participated since 2002 and produced since 2004. Ron started to host radio shows on Radio 101 since 2004. He presented daily shows in different time-brackets until 2011, when he joined the national radio station Radio Malta, a subsidiary of PBS, with the daily breakfast show. Since 2001 he presented television shows dedicated to kids on the national channel Television Malta (TVM). In 2006 Ron joined NET TV and hosted Mini Bugz for four consecutive years. During the same period he presented Simply Music and Indifest. In 2010 he embarked on the Puree adventure on NET TV, which eventually took him back to TVM in October 2011. Ron co-hosted Voices concerts in 2006, 2008 and 2010 and has been participating and co-hosting Student’s Fest at the University of Malta since 2003. Ron is a graduate in Communications. He has recently returned to the Campus to further his studies.

Our national final will take place on 4th February when 16 candidates will  compete in their quest to represent Malta in Baku. A day before, the 24 qualified candidates will participate for the 16 final spots. The winner of our election will be decided by a panel of six judges and the public vote which is equivalent to a two jury member.

Source: TVM, PBS

This year’s French entry, ‘Echos (You and I)’, will be premiered on Sunday 29th January at the world’s largest music industry meeting, the 2012 MIDEM Marche` Internation du Disque et de l’Edition Musicale, which will be held in Cannes. The song is written by William Rosseau and composed by Jean Pierre Pilot, whilst Veronica Ferraro has been in charge of the song’s sound mixing. Ferraro is well recognized for her collaboration with the world’s number one disc jockey at the moment, David Guetta.

The song will also be available on the France 3 website at 16:00 CET. The song will also be available on the France 3 website at 16:00 CET. Below you can hear a thirty (30) second snippet of the French entry. The site where it launched for the very first time lists the track as pop and you can be the judge of that for yourselves as you listen to a merge between English and French lyrics noting that the announcement of a bi-lingual version has stood the test it seems with Warner Music France promoting it in this manner.

Source: Pure Charts, Amazon

Anggun will be the amongst this year’s guests in our National Final taking place between the 3rd and 4th February, adding up more ‘spice’ to this year’s special guest list. France seem that they want to get their country back in the top positions at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest since amongst 5 national finals (Bulgaria, Ukraine, Hungary, Lithuania), Anggun will be visiting more than 15 European countries in her promo tour.

Yesterday, a snippet of the French entry was made available to hear on the net. Anggun will sing in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest with France being one of the elite nations in the competition as part and parcel of the big five. In the meantime, the same country has also been granted voting rights in the second semifinal of the Eurovision Song Contest in which Malta will be competing for the second time since the introduction of the preliminary phase.

Source: Anggun Official Website

With Eurovision fever in the air, ONE have decided to team up and produce a 1-hour programme dedicated to the Maltese biggest musical show, coming up next week. Wayne Aquilina will bring you all the information regarding this year’s Maltese national final, news from around the European countries, gossip and much more.

In the first programme, aired tomorrow 28th January, Glen Vella will exclusively talk about his Eurovision experience last year, his aspirations in the coming future and his appearance in this year’s Maltese National final, where he will obviously be the ‘special’ guest of the show, and which will surely bring him loads of memories after last year’s triumph.

Eurovision Box will also feature this year’s participants, and through the four feature, we will get the chance to get to know them better. Five local Eurovision fanatics will voice their opinions on which singers will make it to the final and who unfortunately won’t. Through three links with international correspondents from Greece, Israel and Holland, we will get to know their opinions on our participants and give us their judgment about who will make it to the final round and possibly win.

ESCflashmalta will be marking a special collaboration with the program which will be revealed in due time. Tune in to Eurovision Box today on ONE at 15.45. This programme is produced and hosted by Wayne Aquilina, aided by Frederick Zammit and Derston Aquilina.

Source: ONE

Popular Slovakian singer, MISTA, has just released her new song, ‘Never Hide’, together with the official video. The video was shot in Berlin and Prague and directed and scrotped by respected dancer and choreographer Yemi A.D. He has won MTV Video Awards in 2010 and 2011 as a choreographer for Kanye’s West’s European and Australian tours. ‘Never Hide’ is already hitting the charts and in February, it should be out under A45 Music, a German label, in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It is important to note that the singer is currently signed with Sony Music Czech Republic.

MISTA’s single, ‘Rock li!’ proved to be a huge success as it was the most air played track out of the Slovakian borders. Continuing to this success, the Eurovision Song Contest would be the ‘cherry on the cake’ for this popular Slovakian singer! Her relation to the national selection in Slovakia was seen when she finished tied in first place alongside Kristina with the song 'Horehronie' but then through the vote of the public, the latter managed the victory leaving Mista and the song 'Emotions' in second place. We’ll keep you updated with the latest news from Slovakia as they prepare to send a representative to Baku, Azerbaijan.

The Slovakian entry and representative will be officially announced at a press conference on the 1st March 2012, after STV, the Slovakian broadcaster announced the news on its official Eurovision Facebook page. Way back in December, STV confirmed that they would be choosing their entry and representative internally and hence, would not have a national final.

Slokvakia debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest back in 1994 when the event took place in Dublin, Ireland but their results have been less than satisfacotry finishing at the lower echelons of the scoreboard on more than one occasion. Following their departure in 1998, they decided to return in 2007 and are still waiting for a win. Last year, the country was represented by the Twiins and their song 'I'm Still Alive'.

Source: Facebook Page (Slovakia)

The Spanish selection has now been moved to the 3rd March, and it will be aired live through the national channel known as 'TVE 1' and through a satellite channel known as 'TVE International Europe'. Three songs will be sung by Pastora, out of which 2 have been chosen by her. The 3rd song will be chosen via a public online voting on the RTVE Eurovision website.

VE has informed esctoday.com that the Spanish 2012 Eurovision Song Selection show will be held on March the 3rd. The show will be aired live on TVE 1 and TVE International Europe. Pastora will sing a total of 3 songs, out of which 2 have been chosen by her. The 3rd song will be chosen via a public online voting on the RTVE Eurovision website from a choice of 2. Online voting will kick off on 15th February at 12:00 CET and will close on the 20th February. The results and the name of the 3rd entry will be revealed on the 20th February. The Spanish entry will be chosen via a jury and public televoting mix, but at least, the fans and public will be able to listen to the 3 participating potential entries before the actual night.

Pastora Soler is currently working with her team on the production of her 2 potential entries and has a hectic month ahead with her tour and preparations for the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest. Pastora will be flying to Miami next month where she'll be giving a concert on the 18th February. TVE will air the 1st Eurovision Song Contest Semi Final 1 on the 22nd of May, where Spanish viewers will be able to vote.

Source: TVE

The Maltese talent is once again dominating the international Eurovision-relates music, with one of Malta’s finest lyricist; Rita Pace. She collaborated together with Yaron Malachi, from Israel, and produced a sublime ballad, called “Eternal” and is sung by Simona Sivanio. Rita Pace took part in Discovery festival in Bulgaria as a singer and songwriter and was awarded the Jury's Prize, in 2008.

Rita Pace is a singer, author and composer who likes to experiment with various styles. She studied classical singing, but also likes interpreting folk music, musicals, jazz, blues, rock, ethnic music and other styles. In fact, she took part in various workshops on improvisation and folk music in Italy and Germany and at various cultural events worldwide. She shares her composing and lyric skills with other fellow and upcoming singers, and has in fact achieved top placings and won a number of festivals.

The Malta Song for Europe festival has been a regular launching pad for some of her material for herself and other singers. She has in fact obtained third place in this festival in the year 2007 as an author with the song She Gives Me Wings, sung by Klinsmann Coleiro. She has also achieved second and third places in different editions of Indifest (Maltese Summer Festival organized during the Independence Festivities in September) as an author and won the best interpretation award as a singer.

Rita also obtained first and second place in the MaltaHit festival as an author in 2009 and third place in 2008. She has lately participated in Għanjafest 2010, and placed third as a songwriter and singer. She had previously placed second and third as an author and composer in the youth section with songs focusing on powerful social themes and was awarded three times the prize for best lyrics.

Rita has written material for CDs aimed at raising awareness on specific social issues and for charity. She has taken part in musicals and also co-wrote a musical called Edel, in which she also played a role and sang a number of tracks. Rita Pace has also released singles for herself on the radio and collaborated with other singers and songwriters in singles which featured in the Maltese top 10.

Rita Pace believes that music is an international language that speaks directly to the heart and she always writes with this in mind. We wish Rita Pace all the best of luck with her entry!

Source: Facebook, WAFA International