And the winner is...

Darrell Pace reports on the final night of the festival

This year's Malta Song for Europe Festival unveiled a new judging mechanism that was meant to do away with the criticism of past years over the possible partiality and competence of the judges.

The organisers called in five foreign judges this year and gave the public vote the same weight of three judges.

It is hard to assess whether this change in formula worked particularly because the judges and the public had converging opinions. One should surely not expect any post-festival controversies this year.

Was Ira Losco's win clear from the start or was it a close shave?

Well, there were surely four or five songs that were in a league of their own. Other songs, performed by newcomers on the local music showed that there is a lot of potential for the coming years. A few others had nothing remarkable to such an extent that one could find it hard to remember the name of the song or who sung it.

But, enough said. Let me move on to the festival itself.

The two nights of this year's festival were presented by Peppi Azzopardi and Valerie Borg.

I definitely liked their easy attitude in presenting the show and they were particularly effective in to lightening the atmosphere. Some of the statistics on the preferences and traits of the singers provided by Peppi in true Xarabank style were hilarious.

A big thumbs down should go to the set designers. I was horrible in my opinion. What were they inspired by, an empty sitting room maybe? They also managed to get the light on stage all wrong (again). There were long stretches when you couldn't make up the faces of the acts even on close up.

Another "booo!" goes to the genius who chose to make Peppi and Valerie mention all the sponsors of the festival one by one. Give me an advert. But please, do not make me hear "A thank you goes to…" for five minutes straight.

Ok, onto the songs now.

The festival was opened by Nadine Axisa with her song Think of you composed by Marica Axisa with words written by Joe Julian Farrugia. Not bad, but I think that we've heard enough songs with a Latin tinge for the time being. Same goes for Lawrence Gray's first song called What happened to our love composed by Ray Agius and penned by Alfred C. Sant. Same Latin sounds with the added bonus of seeing Lawrence display some of his Spanish dancing moves on stage. Simply hilarious.

Next up was the only duo of this year's festival - Adreana Debattista & Karl Spiteri with the song Theresa composed and written by Spiteri himself. I found this song tiring; too repetitive. I do think, however that these two can do a lot better next time.

My jaw dropped in the next song. It was Ira Losco in the sexiest outfit ever to adorn the stage of the Mediterranean Conference Centre (or so I thought at first). Her first song, One Step Away composed by Ray Agius and authored by Philip Vella follows all the rules of a classic Europop track. An unimpressive effort but still worth an applause for the leopard dress.

Lawrence was back on stage once again with the song Moment of truth, and this time he was singing on home turf. No Latin moves in this ballad; just some excellent, high-decibel, vocal talent. Truly remarkable. Pity about the excessive purple eye-shadow, though.

Next was Gunther Chetcuti with his Wanna hold you. Now that's an interesting combination. A pretty face with a catchy tune. But didn't we try that recipe last year. How did it end? Oh yes… now I remember. Tenth in the Eurovision Song Contest. Gunther's performance remained my wife's favourite till the end of the show.

Olivia Lewis and Give me wings, composed by Paul Giordimaina and written by Fleur Balzan were next. There was nothing worth writing home about here, apart from the good choreography.

Julie Zahra's Secret to share was a very charming song. Its strongest point are surely the words by Fiona Cauchi about a woman's search for love.

Fiona Cauchi herself was up on stage next with her song Hide and seek composed by Paul Abela with words by Alfred C. Sant. This was the only song that had a rock tinge to it. Singer Paula followed Fiona with Dazzle me.

Next, it was Annalise Ellul's turn. She sang A new day is dawning, composed by Dominic Galea and penned by Paul Callus. The song itself was rather weak, but Annalise has surely shown that she's a very promising act. Her strong choreographed performance and confidence show that she has probably spent more time in a TV studio than in a classroom. She's still 17 years old and I'm quite sure that she will get her chance to go to the Eurovision Song Contest one day. I hope she will have shed the Britney look by then, though.

Ira was back on stage after Annalise, but I'll talk about 7th Wonder at the end of the report.

Nadine Axisa's Romantic followed. This was probably one of my least favourite songs of the night.

Roger Tirazona, another newcomer, was the fourteenth singer on stage. This kid, in my humble opinion has very good prospects. His greatest asset is his deep bluesy voice. That, however, could also be his greatest drawback since it's not easy to find a song to go with such a unique voice. When I'm near, composed by Paul Abela with words written by Joe Chircop, in my opinion did exploit Roger's voice to the full.

My jaw dropped again with the fifteenth song, but this time it wasn't because of an outfit. It was Karen Polidano's angelic voice coupled with what I think was the best song of festival. When comes my lover, composed by John David Zammit with words by Ray Mahoney was a perfect match for the clarity, strength and impressive range of Karen voice. The top-notch orchestral arrangement definitely inspired by the works of New Age bands such as Clannad helped strengthen the melancholy of this song's lyrics. Only one word can describe this production: fantastic.

The sixteenth and last song of the night was Heaven in my life sung by Fiona and her fabulous Fender folk guitar. I'd swap it (the guitar) for my Stratocaster any time.

And the winner is…

Before the winner was announced, the crowd at the Mediterranean Conference Centre was entertained by last year's winner, Fabrizio Faniello who chose this event to launch his new single.

The voting started heading Ira Losco's way as soon as the first votes of the judges came in. The song 7th Wonder, written by Ray Agius and authored by Philip Vella placed first in all the judges' votes and the vote of the public. Karen Polidano came second while Ira Losco's One step away came third.

I asked MaltaMedia's Artistic Director, Toni Sant, for his opinion on Ira Losco's win soon after the end of the festival. He had this to say: "Ira Losco is one of the best Maltese young singers I've heard in the past several years. Her performances at the Malta Song for Europe pail in quality when compared to the work she does with her band Tiara. Anyone who doubts that Ira is the best choice for this year's entry for the Eurovision from Malta, has no taste for good quality singing."

So the scene is set for a showdown in Estonia. Though, not as impressive as any of Ira's songs of the 2001 festival, 7th Wonder has all the ingredients that could make it a hit in Malta and abroad. Most of all, it is a very typical Europop song that should go down well with the Eurovision Song Contest Audience. But then again the Eurovision is made up of politics, preferences for neighbouring countries and to a lesser extent, music.