Credits
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© TVM
Part nine
Introducing the 2009 entries: Malta
Basic information
| Performer: | Chiara Siracusa (performing as Chiara) |
| Song: | What if we |
| Language: | English |
| Music: | Marc Paelinck |
| Lyrics: | Gregory Bilsen |
| Draw: | 17th in the first semi final |
The song
What if we is a classic pop ballad, a style that is familiar to Chiara from her previous two participations. Through the lyrics, the believe in a better world is revealed in a rather ingenuous but hopeful way:
All the madness feeding our soul
Take a wild guess out of control
There will be a star, no matter how far, shining
One day we'll sail away
What if we could be free?
Mystify our wisdom in time
And one day we'll see
The singer
Chiara launched her career in 1998, when she took part in the Maltese selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. She was the runaway winner with The one that I love ahead of Fabrizio Faniello and Claudette Pace, who would represent the country in later contests. In Birmingham, she scored 165 points and finished third equaling Malta's best result to that date achieved in 1992. After the contest, she became a star Malta and recorded three albums over the following years: Shades of one (1998), What you want (2000) and Covering diversions (2003).
In 2005, she entered Malta Song for Europe again, this time with her own composition Angel. She got 566 televotes more than Olivia Lewis and hence won the ticket to Kyiv. Yet again, she managed to equal Malta's best place to that date, which was the second place achieved in 2002. It is is the highest scoring Maltese entry so far and the last entry that reached the top ten. The song was not only a hit in Malta but also reached the charts in Germany being the first Maltese entry to do so.
After the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest, she released her fourth album Here I am. She gave birth to her first daughter and disappeared a bit from the spotlight. In 2008, she co-hosted the Maltese national final, one year before she returned to the competition again. In 2009, she won the Maltese selection again and will be the first one to represent Malta for the third time as a lead singer.
The national selection
In 2009, the Maltese selection was bigger than ever: no less than 56 songs were presented in eight semi finals. 15 songs were chosen by a jury and another five songs were chosen by televoting to reach the national final. A jury selected the top three, before the televoters had their say again. Chiara got 12249 votes and won the national final ahead of Eleanor Cassar and Q.
Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest
Malta took part in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in 1971 and immediately finished last. After another last place in 1972, the country waited until 1975 for the next participation but only achieved 12th place among 19 contestants with their first song in English. In would take until 1991 until Malta returned to the competition, but this time with more success finishing in the top ten every year until 1999. The last two years, Malta was eliminated in the semi finals.
Nixtiequ lil Malta kif ukoll lil Chiara l-isbah xewqat ghal riżultat tajjeb ġewwa Moska!
We wish Malta and Chiara the best of luck and a good result in Moscow!
Videos
Chiara talks to esctoday.com:
Live in the national final:
The preview video (final version):
Chiara in Kyiv in 2005:
Chiara in Birmingham in 1998:
Other parts of this series
Tomorrow, we will take a look at the Armenian entry.
Related polls
- Malta decided: How much do you like My dream?
- esctoday.com National Final Awards 2010: Best SONG not to qualify in MALTA?
- esctoday.com National Final Awards 2010: Best PERFORMANCE not to qualify in MALTA?
Go directly to the reactions
copy.jpg "Thea Garrett, Malta 2010 - © Edward Montebello")
Reactions
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There's the Remix of What if We on Youtube. Look it up! Chiara Club Remix
It's absolutely amazin! Love the beat and everything about it.
CHIARA I LUV YOU!! Please win this year! It's time. You're the best :X
Check out this video:
http://www.youtube.c(...)/watch?v=4JZ_QJlMRO8
You must watch it!
Hadise's great performance!
I love it!
Her voice,stage,song is just AMAZING=)
No....I don't like the final version either...it's boring and very old-fashioned! Such a pity cause Chiara has an amazing voice....still, "Angel" was soooo much better!
Good luck Malta
Lipsynch in the national final?! Why?!
The same happened with Greece...
Just can't understand...
It's not a bad song, but Chiara's 2005 entry was better than this one. Anyway, my TOP3:
Norway, Portugal and Turkey. 
Sabi love is correct! For example last year ok? If Morena last year sang Shady Lady instead of Vodka and Ani Lorak sang Vodka instead of Shady Lady - who would you think have qualified for the final? That would be pretty obvious that Ani Lorak with Vodka would pass instead of Morena with Shady Lady!!!
sotoris
hahahahha
thank god u have greece in ur semis ....
as we all know, countries like malta need a great fantastic song to pass to the finals, and maybe make a top 5, while many other countries only need an average song to reach the finals. this is a fact one cannot deny.
useless u keep mentioning her other 2 songs. they were different and with esc fans in here were not even hot faves. angel was never much loved either. when she came second, everybody loved it hehehe.
this is chiara strongest entry. very difficult song to sing, and when she is live she is amazing. we all know.
very few singers can transform a boring ballad into great one, and chiara is one of them.
do u think that if dima was represting malta or some other country he would have won last year? be honest with urselves!!
we all know the dirty trick, and EBU is working on it, because it became so irratating and so obvious.
wait for the live perfomance, she will sounf so different from youtube for sure. good luck chiara. she should be top 5 with this.
bosnia malta norway iceland uk one of these will win for sure.
spain has the best ethno/uptempo song this year.
its seems they the word is fear. sotoris and wise man.
@Wise man talking , I agree with you ,your right " What If " is a copy of her two previus entries.
@Ray Romaldi , first of all don't forget that juries will not vote in semis, and if Malta go to the finals there are many songs and artists much much better than Chiara ... Don't forget Patricia from France and Jade from UK...
2 reasons why malta will win:
1. great singer who will surely deliver a great perfromance...captivating
2. juries might be a great advantage for malta 9if they really know music, they will prefer a good voice rather than a good dance routine or any digital effect in the music)
when she sings live she is simply incredible!!!
its chiara.............. go for it sabieha!!
No, William, sadly I cannot but I'd love to.
I f sure that Chiara is going to make a perfect performans on stage in May , and Sakis perfect show , also France ! i m 1000000000000% sure for that 3 singers , for the others i dont know beacuse i dont know them from before 
Good luck europian union Malta !!! Good luck lovely Chiara !!! Cyprus support u !!!
This is the song!
Denmark we really could learn somthing from Malta... uhhh yahhh it's great.
I think that its caching and she sings like no one ells.... The last years we have heart alot of really bad songs, what happens, but finnaly one song says me somthing.
GOOD LUCK, I WILL VOTE FOR MALTA
mhux li kien jahasra ! (If only that is true ! )
she's gona win!!!! v10
I prefer Jade to Chiara 
so nice
her voice
look
http://vids.myspace.(...)amp;videoid=54466647
ooh, I rambled a little there
I didn't mean for that smily
I really love this entry and I believe it could achieve well...I really wish her to win. Again Good luck Chiara and Malta xxx
I have watched a video interview with Chiara on the offical esc youtube channel, and she states all the things I am about to mention, but anyway- there is quite a lot of pressure on Malta this year. In 2005 Chiara's voice and charisma charmed Europe as she sung 3rd (Like Patrica Kaas this year), and won 2nd, an improvement on her previous entry (3rd in 1998). Malta is a tiny country which will proberly never win the World Cup, or achive much at the Olympics. It would be a perfect fairy tale for Chiara to come back and win, especally given Malta's yo-yoing ESC history. In 2006, Fabio (who competed at ESC 2001, and came second to Chiara in the Malteese NF in 1998) recived bottem place, Olivia Lewis (who has tried to get to Eurovision so many times) was the first Maltesse contestent to not get past the semi final (an experiance she alledgedly called 'a nightmere' , and 2008 was another disapointment.
However, this years NF was considered a low standard, and many have said this is her weakest effort. She is a very charasmatic and talented singer, so it would be somthing of a shock to see her fail!
I've not listen to the song yet, so I cannot judge. I like to keep a certain number of songs unheard until the semis
Poppy Pickette
Can you get hod of her albums?
chiara will surprise us all, just like she did b4.
malta
bosnia
norway
iceland.
one of ther will win
Chiara has a magificent SONG with power and charisma, AND HER VOICE MAKES IT BETTER THAN IT ACTUALLY IS!!!! GOOD JOB CHIARA AND WE ARE PROUD OF YOU!!!!!!!!!!!! GOOD LUCK IN MOSCOW!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think Malta are in for a big dissapointment with Chiara. This is a weak song I´m afraid. Good luck anyway.
Overall, I think most ballads this year are dissapointing. It´s not just Malta...
http://www.poll4you.(...)owpoll.php?id=15809#
PLEASE VOTE IN MY POLL!!!! GREAT JOB CHIARA, I LOVE UR SONG AND UR VOICE....(poll right above)) THANKS!!!!
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