Thea Garrett represented Malta during the Eurovision 2010 Semifinal tonight 25/5/2010. Unfortunately she did not qualify to get to the final which will be held next Saturday.

From 2100 CET viewers from the whole world viewed and voted for Europe’s popular (sometimes silly though) tv show and song festival. ESC 2010 is presented by Nadia Hasnaoui, Erik Solbakken and Haddy Jatou N’Jie.

Malta’s entry was overshadowed by legal threats by Thea Garrett’s manager Grace Borg who filed a judicial protest against PBS claiming a breach of her legal rights.

The following songs were included in the semifinal tonight.

1. Moldova: Sunstroke Project & Olia Tira – Run Away
2. Russia: Peter Nalitch & Friends – Lost And Forgotten
3. Estonia: Malcolm Lincoln – Siren
4. Slovakia: Kristina Pelakova – Horehronie
5. Finland: Kuunkuiskaajat – Työlki Ellää
6. Latvia: Aisha – What For?
7. Serbia: Milan Stanković – Ovo Je Balkan
8. Bosnia & Herzegovina: Vukašin Brajić – Thunder And Lightning
9. Poland: Marcin Mroziński – Legenda
10. Belgium: Tom Dice – Me And My Guitar
11. Malta: Thea Garrett – My Dream
12. Albania: Juliana Pasha – It’s All About You
13. Greece: Giorgos Alkaios & Friends – OPA
14. Portugal: Filipa Azevedo – Há Dias Assim
15. F.Y.R. Macedonia: Gjoko Taneski – Jas Ja Imam Silata
16. Belarus: 3+2 Feat. Robert Wells – Butterflies
17. Iceland: Hera Björk – Je Ne Sais Quoi

18 year old Maltese singer Thea Garrett has unexpectedly won the Malta Eurosong Festival with her song “My Dream”, and obtained 102 points.

Her song had a dancer Jes Sciberras performing dressed as a ‘Big Bird’. Jason Cassar was the song’s composer and the author was Sunny Aquilina.

50% of the votes were by televoting and the remaining votes were given by the jury – 4 foreigners and one Maltese. She earned the maximum of 12 points from all judges except one.
Thea will be representing Malta to perform at the Eurovision Song Contest, in Norway, after her first attempt.

Her next step is the first semifinal in Oslo which will be held on May 25, otherwise she will not be able to get to the final round of Eurovision.

Glen Vella placed second with “Just A Little More Love” (Paul Giordimaina and Fleur Balzan), with 58 points, while at the third place there was Tiziana with Words Are Not Enough (John David Zammit and Paul Callus), obtaining 45 points.

All in all the festival was quite disappointing and mediocre.
Claudia Faniello’s Samsara (composed by Philip Vella and Gerard James Borg) won the webby awards voted from Internet. Samsara was expected to place in the top 3.

The show, organised by PBS, was presented by Keith Demicoli and Pauline Agius, while Owen Bonnici provided live links of the atmosphere from the green room.

PBS this year introduced numerous touches – such as the way the voting was announced – to present the festival in a way that was similar to the show put up during the Eurovision.

The final ranking was as follows:

1. Thea Garrett, My Dream, 102 points
2. Glen Vella, Just A Little More Love, 58 points
3. Tiziana, Words Are Not Enough, 45 points

4. Pamela, Hold On, 40 points
5. Eleanor Spiteri, Velvet Ocean, 39 points
6. Wayne Micallef, Save A Life, 36 points
7. Laurence Gray, Stories, 33 points
8. Samsara, Claudia Faniello, 31 points
8. Ruth Portelli, Three Little Words, 31 points
10. Dorothy Bezzina, Moments, 27 points
11. Klinsmann, Her Name Was Anne, 26 points
12. Priscilla and Kurt, Waterfall, 19 points
12. Nadine and Clifford Galea, Once In A Lifetime, 19 points
14. Eleanor Cassar, Choices, 16 points
15. Petra, All I Need, 14 points
16. Ryan Dale and Duminka, One 4 U, 13 points
17. Good Intentions, Audrey Marie, 10 points
18. Foxy Federation, Fired Up, 9 points
18. Claire Galea, Ole Satchmo Blues, 9 points
20. Silverclash, Broken, 5 points

Many people preferred to watch SanRemo on italian tv, and some people refused to vote as it was too expensive (1.25 euros to vote).
The transmission on GO digital terrestrial suffered some glitches during the transmission too….
Videos of the event will be posted later..

Added Claudia Faniello’s SanRemo 2010 song – Guardami (which means look at me).

It’s a great honour for us Maltese to have a singer submit a song to SanRemo.. she could easily have been a finalist.
Just the same all the best to Claudia faniello who is singing ‘Samsara’ in the Malta Song Festival 2010 for Eurovision.
Rai Uno will be broadcasting the music competition SanRemo from the 16th to 20th february, live from Teatro Ariston.

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