We can not wait for the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö. Therefore, we have a closer look at one of the contestants every day. Today: Malta.
Sarah Bonnici
Sarah Bonnici is a singer from Malta, born in Gozo on May 30, 1998. Her dad, Marcel Bonnici, is a big deal, being the CEO of Mercury Towers and a football club. Sarah is super smart too, with a master’s in accountancy. When she was younger, Miriam Christine taught her about music. In 2009, she did really well in a song contest in Malta, getting third place. The next year, she won a singing festival with a song Miriam Christine wrote and was even named the best singer there. She also danced in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest that year.
As a teenager, Sarah sang in song contests all over, like in Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary. She even won a festival in Romania with her song. In 2018, she was on X Factor Malta and kept making music. In 2022, she sang “Heaven” in another big Malta song contest. Then, in 2023, she sang “Loop” and won, making her Malta’s choice for the Eurovision Song Contest in 2024.
Malta Eurovision Song Contest
The national preselection in Malta is called Malta Eurovision Song Contest. This year, four semifinals were held with 9 songs each. Kurt Calleja (eurovision 2012) was one of the participants, but didn’t make it to the final. Twelve other songs did. Sarah Bonnici’s “Loop” was the clear favourite of the jury, while the televoter prefered Matt Blxck’s “Banana”. However, it was not enough for “Banana” to win the contest.
Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest
The first ever Maltese entry came in 1971. Joe Grech sang in Maltese “Marija L-Maltija” end ended up at the bottom of the scoreboard. After participation in 1972 and 1975, Malta quit. They returned in 1991 to never quit again. “Loop” will be the 36th Maltese Eurovision song. Malta never won the contest, but in 2002 (Ira Losco with “7th wonder”) and 2005 (Chiara with “Angel”) they were the runner up. The last few years it is quite hard for Malta to do well in the contest. Destiny did well with a 7th place in 2021, but last year The Busker didn’t make it to the final.
Chiara
The Bookmakers
At this moment, Malta doesn’t do very well in the betting odds, with a 30th place to win the final. But staging and performance in Malmö might change all that as we all know.
The song
And this is the song:
