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Is there life after losing the Eurovision Song Contest? Raphael Vassallo talks to a couple of “Eurovision sceptics” to find out what our obsession with the contest says about us as a nation
It’s strange how, in years when Malta performs particularly well in the Eurovision Song Contest, no mention is ever made of political backscratching, or how ludicrous the entire neighbourly voting ethos really is. And yet, when Malta fares miserably, it is always a case of “not having friendly neighbours” to give us those much needed 12 points.
Not only that: but after Olivia Lewis failed to even qualify last Thursday, l-orizzont ran a front page story suggesting that Malta boycott the annual international competition in protest. Could it possibly have come to this? Could we be so blinded by the glitz and glitter of Europe’s kitchiest festival, that we’ve actually mistaken it for something important?
Toni Sant, internet pioneer and long-standing critic of Malta’s attitude towards the ESC, is the first to point out that, “as a nation we appear obsessed with the Eurovision Song Contest.”
“Author Immanuel Mifsud wrote a very articulate entry in his personal blog just before Saturday’s Eurovision final, expressing the disgust of many who feel that they don’t form part of the ‘Malta’ represented at the Eurovision Song Contest. Some would say he’s upset for the right reason.”
Sant – whose own contribution to Malta’s music scene takes the form of a regular podcast series celebrating Maltese music throughout the world – evidently shares Mifsud’s concern that the Eurovision has somehow served to cook up an artificial impression of “Malteseness”. But isn’t part of the contest’s more immediate local appeal that it gives the country a reason to celebrate (or commiserate, as the case may be) on a purely national level?
Sant disagrees: “The Eurovision is not really bringing the nation together the way we’d like to think,” he points out. “It just brings together some people who disagree on everything else, be it political party affiliation, village band club support, etc.”
Meanwhile, the proposal for a boycott appears to be gaining ground, with an online petition currently in circulation. Sant himself has for years advocated a change in attitude to the competition. Does he agree that we should emulate Italy, and pull out altogether in disgust? Toni Sant’s answer is both “yes” and “no.”
“Yes, because Malta (as in the Ministry of Tourism, etc.) is not getting what it’s paying for from the Eurovision Song Contest. No, because it would be a shame if there was no opportunity for any Maltese people to experience the great media circus that is the Eurovision Song Contest.”
According to Sant, the trouble arises not directly from the nature of the contest itself, but rather from the skewed local perception of a festival that was never intended to be taken seriously in the first place.
“Although some of the MaltaSong board members are quite passionate about promoting Malta and very generous with their quasi-selfless involvement, they are clueless about what the Eurovision is really all about,” he says simply. “The result they achieved this year and last year is proof enough of this. To add insult to injury, they are also completely out of synch with what the Maltese music scene actually has to offer…”
Before last year’s edition, Sant had accurately predicted the eventual triumph of Finland’s demonic entry, ‘Hard Rock Hallelujah’, performed by rock-trolls Lordi. He had suggested back then that Malta’s only hope of salvation was Xtruppaw: a young, irreverent and above all fun local punk band, with more than a hint of revolution in its anti-establishment lyrics.
“Xtruppaw doesn’t exist in isolation,” Sant points out, in reference to a growing number of successful local bands in non-mainstream genres such as punk, reggae, ska and indie rock. “Then again, simply sending someone like Xtuppaw to the Eurovision without the appropriate financial and promotional backing is like throwing Christians to the lions…”
Sant is not the only notorious ESC critic to advocate an altogether different approach to next year’s edition in Belgrade. Guzè Stagno, novelist and self-styled “tortured artist”, thinks time is ripe to put the Maltese language back onto the European stage.
“The way I see it, singing songs in English is so-o-o overrated,” the author of Inbid Ta’ Kuljum and Xemx Wisq Sabiha decrees. “Let’s send a song in Maltese next year, just for a change.”
Stagno concurs with both Mifsud and Sant that ESC has somehow distorted all notions of cultural identity. The result is that our choice of entry each year appears designed to reflect European expectations, rather than to showcase what we are actually capable of producing on a musical level.
“If we could only lose this stupid inferiority complex regarding our native tongue and send a song that’s half as beautiful as New Cuorey’s Ghajnejn Sbieh or The Tramps’ Xemx Wisq Sabiha, I would be happy,” says the man who borrowed the latter title for his second Maltese-language novel. “Besides, singing in Maltese would at least help us disguise to the rest of Europe the depressing fact that most of our ‘established’ lyricists are, at best, a bunch of no-hopers (and I’m being generous here)…”
Stagno’s reaction to the view that a Maltese entry might not make a good enough impression on the European stage?
“Bollocks. A strong melody will always carry a song, regardless of the language it is sung in. Up to this day, I still don’t know what Falco was going on about when he sang Rock Me Amadeus, and yet it is such a great tune. Same goes for Dragosteia Din Tei. What was that about? Who knows? Who cares? Memorable song, which is all that should matter in the end.” |
