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From MaltaMedia.com Music Morena’s second rehearsal for her Eurovision Song Contest entry Vodka was held on Sunday afternoon, with the singer taking to the stage for a second time at the Belgade Arena, Serbia in the costume she will wear during the semifinal round on Thursday.
The performance accompanying
Vodka remained mostly unchanged from the one seen during last Wednesday's rehearsal. Morena was once again flanked by backing singer Anabelle Debono and the four male dancers (three Swedish, one English) hired by the Maltasong Board specifically for this year's Eurovision Song Contest. The official reason for having non-Maltese dancers accompanying Morena on the Eurovision stage is allegedly because there are no Maltese dancers who are able to sing at a professional level while dancing. However, the Swedish inclusion has apparently not been used in any way to promote Morena's song in Sweden, a country where the Eurovision Song Contest is followed by millions.
This question implied that Malta should be capitalizing on the perceived geographic proximity of the country to former Eurovision contestant Morocco, and other possible cultural connections in the southern Mediterranean region. As members of the European Broadcasting Union, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt are eligible to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest. There are indeed no plans to take
Vodka beyond the contest in Belgrade.
When asked by MaltaMedia.com about what her team is doing to make sure she gets a better placing than Malta received in the last two editions of the Eurovision Song Contest, she only replied that "we want everyone to have fun and party with us and Vodka." Admirable as that may be, it's hardly a winning strategy. Surprisingly, Maltasong Chairman, Mr Robert Abela had nothing to add to this, even though he was on the panel during the press conference. Oddly, he had nothing to say during the entire press conference. Other than fleeting mentions on a couple of Eurovision fan websites, Malta's entry is hardly visible in reports from the International media assembled in Serbia. This is not surprising since there is no evidence that the Maltasong board is doing anything out of the ordinary to promote the Maltese song. The Maltese delegation will co-host a party with Bulgaria and Belarus at
the specially assembled Euro Club in the centre of Belgrade on Monday
evening. By Sunday afternoon there was no official mention of this event on either the Maltasong board website or Morena's own website and blog. When approached personally after the press conference, Maltasong deputy chairman Mr John Demanuele confirmed plans for the party. To seasoned Eurovision observers, some of the elements mentioned above are an indication that the Maltese delegation is seemingly not particularly pro-active in avoiding a similar outcome as last year's failure to qualify for the final round or even 2006's last place in the final. It is as if they are letting the song and the singer speak for themselves. This may have been a decent strategy before the introduction of public voting to the contest when there were not 43 songs to choose from for the final.
The Maltese team will return to the Belgrade Arena for final rehearsals on Wednesday morning, as the Belgrade Arena will be fully occupied with dress rehearsals and the first semifinal round on Monday and Tuesday.
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The 2008 Maltese Eurovision entry started rehearsing at around 1210CET, wearing a shimmering black outfit designed by Ernest Camilleri accompanied by a pair of long mirror-clad boots hand crafted by lyricist Gerard James Borg.
During a press conference soon after Sunday's rehearsal, Morena looked radiant, particularly when she answered a question about a little teddy bear given to her by 1996 Maltese Eurovision singer Miriam Christine Borg. Morena seemed slightly uncomfortable addressing a question about any plans to take her song to the North African pop market by releasing the song in Arabic.