Adrian Delia apologises to singer ridiculed by his party’s newspaper

Nationalist Party leader Adrian Delia apologises to former Eurovision singer Lynn Faure after Il-Mument ridicules her for joining Labour Party’s LEAD programme

Adrian Delia had to apologise for Il-Mument's cheap shot at Lynn Faure to try and get back at her dad
Adrian Delia had to apologise for Il-Mument's cheap shot at Lynn Faure to try and get back at her dad

Adrian Delia was left picking up the pieces after his party came in for stiff criticism over a news report in Il-Mument ridiculed singer Lynn Faure.

The Nationalist Party leader on Sunday evening said that he called Faure to apologise over what he described as a “rough (goff) and out of place” article that appeared in the party’s Sunday newspaper.

Penned by Joe Mikallef, the article in Il-Mument took a cheap shot at the singer, who recently joined the Labour Party’s women’s training programme LEAD.

Under the headline, ‘Lynn Chircop (her maiden name) is trying her luck with the Labour Party… after her disappointment in the music world’, Mikallef said the singer was trying to dream of achieving success – a play on her 2003 Eurovision song, To Dream Again – in politics after she failed “to smell success” in music.

Faure represented Malta in the 2003 Eurovision song contest and placed last, in what was one of Malta’s worst results.

But underlying Il-Mument’s article was a dig at Faure’s father, Philip Chircop, who a couple of months ago embarrassed the PN leader by declaring that he had returned the party membership.

Chircop heads the NGO Nanniet Malta and during a meeting with Delia last September, used the occasion to tell the PN chief that he had returned his membership. Chircop went on a rant in front of TV cameras and a visibly uncomfortable Delia.

Il-Mument tried to brand the story as a leak from PL sources, in an amateurish attempt to mask its intentions. The photo accompanying the report was actually released by the Labour Party when it announced the new group of recruits to its LEAD programme.

In the same report, Il-Mument also took a dig at another LEAD candidate, former judoka Joanna Camilleri.

The newspaper’s article was criticised by several PL exponents and described by others as cheap journalism.

In a tweet on Sunday evening, Delia extended his apology to all those mentioned in the article. He added that he asked il-Mument to “retract the article”.

Whether the retraction will include an apology in Il-Mument next Sunday still has to be seen.

Faure will not be the first Eurovision singer to enter politics. PN MP Claudette Buttigieg had also represented Malta in the festival during her singing years.

Buttigieg ‘liked’ Delia’s apology and retweeted it as did other PN MPs, including Jason Azzopardi, Ryan callus, Carm Mifsud Bonnici and Kristy Debono.