Introduction

We continue our series of articles “Country Of The Month” with Malta. In a period of five weeks, we are going to remind you of the best entries of Malta. Note: we selected the entries not by their place in their final, but by their impact on the fans.

Ira Losco – 7th Wonder

In 2002, Malta selected Ira Losco and her song “7th Wonder” to sent in Tallinn. The song was entirely in English and it was composed by Philip Vella and Gerard James Borg. At the final, Ira placed 2nd with 164 points.

Ira Losco

Ira Losco was born on July 31, 1981 in Malta. She came into public’s attention in 2002, when she won the Maltese national selection. Thus, she flew the Maltese flag to Estonia and sang the song “7th Wonder” placing 2nd. After that, her career was boosted and she released five studio albums, which became successful in Malta. In 2016, she won once again the national final with her song “Chameleon”. Ira changed her song prior to the contest and chose “Walk On Water”. The entry placed 12th in the final of Eurovision. Since 2018, she is judge on the Maltese version of the “X-Factor”.

Malta in the Eurovision 🇲🇹

Malta debuted in the contest in 1971. Since then, the country has participated 33 times. Malta withdrew after its second attempt and returned in the 1975 contest only to withdrew again due to bad palcings. Since 1991, the country has never missed the contest and its actually among the three countries that didn’t get forced to withdraw the contest in the ’90s, due to rules of the contest.

The country has failed to qualify seven times for the final – 2007-2008, 2010-2011, 2015, 2017-2018. Both in 1971 and 1972 the country placed last in the final, but it wasn’t until 2006, when the county placed last with just 1 point. In the semifinals the country has never placed last. In 2007, Malta placed 25th in the semifinal (yes, that year the semifinal was long!), making it the worst place of the country.

Malta has never won the contest but has reached the 2nd place two times (2002, 2005) and on 12 more occasions, it has reached the Top-10. It is noteworthy, that Malta has sent two times a Maltese-language song (1971, 1972) and one more an English-language song with some Maltese phrases. All the other entries of the country are in English. The Mediterranean country has two official languages Maltese and English. Therefore, even when the rest of Europe could not send English songs due to the Eurovision rules at the time, Malta could!

What do you think about the song? Do you like it? Do you think it is one of the most memorable entries from Malta? Let us know in the comment box below.