MaltaMedia.com Olivia Lewis for Malta at Eurovision 2007

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Music
Olivia Lewis for Malta at Eurovision 2007
By MaltaMedia News
Feb 3, 2007 - 11:53:01 PM

The song Vertigo sung by Olivia Lewis has been proclaimed winner of the 2007 Malta Song For Europe (MSFE). Chosen by 100 per cent televoting, Olivia will first have to compete against 27 other songs at the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) semi-final round to be held on May 10 at the Hartwall Arena in Helsinki , Finland before proceeding to the 52^nd edition of the ESC final on May 12.

Penned by lyricist Gerard James Borg and composer Philip Vella, singer Olivia Lewis beat tough competition from the other five contestants by garnering a total of 30,977 votes. The other participants were Kevin Borg with the song Whenever, 16-year-old Klinsmann Coleiro with She Gives Me Wings, SCAR and their song As Long As You Know, Pamela with the song All About A Life and Trilogy with Starlight.

Trilogy placed second with 7,647 votes for Starlight while Klinsmann Coleiro singing She Gives Me Wings placed third earning 7,550 votes.

Televoting and SMS lines were opened by presenters Ian "J.Anvil" Vella and Stephanie Spiteri at approximately 22:20 CET and remained active for 30 minutes, giving ample time for viewers to vote comfortably. Last year the lines were only open for ten minutes. However, viewers could only vote once this time round contrary to the maximum three votes last year . The final result was announced at around 23:52 CET on Sunday.

Saturday night saw national Eurovision Song Contest selection events taking place in as many as 13 countries. Besides Malta ,

Estonia

Poland

and

Slovenia

selected their 2007 Eurovision Song Contest representatives, while semi-finals take place in

Bulgaria

Finland

Iceland

Latvia

Lithuania

Norway

Romania

and

Spain

.

Entertainers during the TVM-televised night at the Malta Convention Centre in Ta’ Qali included last year’s MSFE winner Fabrizio Faniello, the YADA dance company and Ukrainian singer Ruslana who won the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest. Ruslana gave a 45 minute show.

Emails promoting particular songs participating in Saturday’s show were circulated on the day. Furthermore, Olivia Lewis’ dress for the night was also decided by the peoples’ choice. Hundreds voted during a five-day long poll to decide which of two dresses Olivia should wear.

This year's first place for the singer comes as no surprise. During the 2005 festival, she performed ‘Take a look’ which was written by Paul Giordmaina and Fleur Balzan. During this festival she was classified first by the jury and second in the televoting, just missing the top spot by a few points. Mranwhile her 2006 entry ‘Déjà vu’, written by the winning duo Philip Vella and Gerard James Borg got 11,369 votes, coming second and missing the top spot, won by Fabrizio Faniello, by 500 votes.

The six semi-finalists were chosen from a total of 16 on Thursday by a panel of international judges (50 per cent) and televoting (50 per cent).

The sixteen participating songs in this year’s MSFE can be heard on MaltaMedia Online Network's Eurovision website, EurovisionMalta.com.

The audio clips can be heard here .

For more detailed information about Malta 's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest see EurovisionMalta.com.

See also:
Abracadabra: comments on Malta Song for Europe 2007
from Toni Sant's Blog

Muzika Mod Iehor - Special Edition:Malta Song for Europe 2007
an audio podcast by Toni Sant