MALTA 2009: Chiara - What If We

Umm ... so, not at all to be rude in any way, because this is a contestant I really respect - the Maltese are crazy about the ESC, they're desperate to win (and for my part I would love to watch the contest being brought to us live from Valletta :-) and Chiara is a total ESC queen. This will be her third time performing in the contest (1998, 2005, 2009) and her song in -05, Angel, which she composed and wrote herself, is one of my all-time ESC favorites ever. She ended up 2nd that time ... which I thought seriously sucked, because she had been a much more deserving winner than the scantily clad Swedish-born strumpet who won for Greece with almost the worst lyrics ever. (Wild Dances is much worse though, lyric-wise. That's my opinion and I stand by it. I'll take my wild chances. >:-) Anyway ...

My problem with this song is that it's kind of a rewrite of Angel, just nowhere near as good. And I feel that she performed that entry better, too. Of course it's her own composition, so that would explain that. I do think her performance is very good now too, but she has a lot to live up to now. :-) I like this song, it's good, and it ought to do well (although ballads are always dangerous ... but the Serbians kind of brought them back :-) but it doesn't grab me the way Angel always did from the word go. This song is more bland, more standard. Which of course is not in its favor. So I don't think Malta should be expecting too much ... it ought to do well, but if they couldn't win four years ago with that fantastic song, they sure won't be able to now.

And about the slams she's getting here and there about her weight ... seriously, who cares? She's a wonderful singer, no doubt one of the best we will see on stage in Moscow, if not the very best. So what if she's not skinny like all the rest? The interesting part is when you hear people say, She sings fantastically, it's too bad she's so fat. How stupid can you get? The fact that she's fat is a big reason why she sings so well. Why do they think so many great opera singers are overweight? Duh. People suck. >:-(

But this song certainly doesn't, even though I personally had been hoping for something even better. This is Chiara Siracusa performing What If We, written and composed by Gregory Bilsen and Marc Paelinck. They will be competing for Malta with the excellent starting number 17 in the first semi.* So I couldn't vote for this entry even if I wanted to. Let's hope it gets through.

Lyrics here.

*There are only 18 entries in the first semi because Georgia got disqualified.