MaltaMedia.com Olivia Lewis received most votes in semifinal

From MaltaMedia.com

Music
Olivia Lewis received most votes in semifinal
By MaltaMedia News
Feb 5, 2007 - 6:18:34 PM

Olivia Lewis’ “Vertigo” secured 24% of all votes submitted in MaltaSong for Europe’s semifinal. The results, published by the Maltasong Board on Monday showed how the singer yielded almost a quarter of all televotes and votes submitted by the judges’ panel during the semi-final selection on Thursday.

olivia lewis Trilogy’s “Starlight” and Klinsmann Coleiro’s “She Gives Me Wings”, which placed second and third respectively during the semi-final, were reconfirmed on the final night on Saturday. “Starlight” garnered 11% of votes, while “She Gives Me Wings” acquired 9%.

Pamela’s “All About A Life”, SCAR’s “As Long As You Know” and Kevin Borg’s “Whenever” made it into the final with 7% of the votes each.

“Unite”, performed by Mauro secured 1% of the publics’ and judges’ votes, while Julie Pomorski’s “Look at Me” yielded 2%.

“Ice Queen” by Julia, “Little Islands in Your Heart” by Daniel Delicata and “Night Wish” by AnnaBelle won over 3% of voters each.

“Forever Mine” by former festival winner William Mangion tied with Isabelle’s “My Love”, obtaining 10% of votes.

Claudia Faniello’s “L-Imħabba Għamja”, Tarcisio Barbara’s “Places to Go” and Rosman Pace’s “Rollercoaster Ride” were each awarded 5% of votes.

Commenting on these results, MaltaMedia’s own Toni Sant said "These semifinal voting details show that the final vote was redundant. It was clearly obvious to anyone who had access to these voting results on Thursday that Olivia would win this year. Second and third place came as no surprise either if you saw this data before Saturday's final vote."

The general feeling amongst Maltese Eurovision fans is that it was high time that Olivia Lewis represented Malta at the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC). Olivia has participated in the Malta Song For Europe for many years and made it to second place during the past three editions of the local contest. On Sunday public comment echoed the opinion that Olivia is an excellent singer, “Vertigo” a powerful song and the whole performance package excellent.

Speaking of this year's MaltaSong winner, Toni Sant said "My feeling is that this is a really good time for Olivia to sing Malta’s Eurovision entry. Last year's dismal result needs to be followed by the sort of performance package that "Vertigo" has. I'd be very surprised if it doesn't make it through the May 10 semi-final to the May 12 final in Finland."

The MaltaSong Board also published the names of the the judges’ panel for the semi-finals. These included Danish singer and songwriter Helle Henning, Danish singer and music teacher Trine Dansgaard, British producer and composer John Themis, Dutch composer and EMI publishing director Jan Van Dijck, Cypriot singer and songwriter Lia Vissi, Cypriot pianist and composer Savvas Savva and Spanish DJ Victor Escudero.

In turn, on Monday the Mala Labour Party congratulated the singer on her win, along with all other participants of the festival for their respective successes.

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