Malta

The contestant chosen to represent the nation of Malta in the 2009 Eurovision contest is no stranger to the spotlight. As a matter of fact, Chiara Siracusa has represented Malta in Eurovision on two previous occasions, in 1998 and 2005. In 1998, Chiara came in an overall third place in the Eurovision contest, behind Israel and the United Kingdom. This was the highest-ever placing for Malta. According to a BBC interview, Chiara claimed that she cried for several hours after falling to third place in the contest, but later came to realize her tremendous achievement. Following the 1998 Eurovision contest, Chiara became recognized as an international entertainer, and recorded three records for the Maltese label Bridge Productions. Her success continued in the 2005 Eurovision contest, where she finished second, trailing only Greece's Helena Paparizou. In 2009, Chiara won the Maltese preselection for Eurovision and will represent her country in Moscow, singing the song "What if We" on May 12th.

[|Malta] first participated in Eurovision in 1971. At first they submitted songs in their native language, Maltese, but never ranked very high and withdrew in 1975. Malta returned in 1991 and since then it has been placed in the top ten eight times in a row. They even finished in second in 2002 and 2005. However, they came in last in 2006, and didn’t even qualify for the finals in 2007 and 2008. Despite bad luck in recent years Malta is has been very successful, and is one of the few countries that has not missed a contest since 1993. In the past Malta has received the most points from Croatia and given the most points to the United Kingdom.

Chiara was [|nominated] as the Maltese representative for Eurovision by televote. Her song "What If We" beat out runners-up Eleanor Cassar ("Someday") and Q ("Before You Walk Away"). These three songs were chosen for the super-final by a pool that originally included 56 and was then cut down to 20 by a panel of judges. The final 15 were selected by a televote, and from those, the judges chose the final three, which were then put to a final televote. In the 20-minute period during which the polls were active, over 20,000 votes were recorded by phone and by text message, with "What if We" beating "Someday" 12,249 to 9,785 and becoming the 2009 Maltese nominee for Eurovision.

media type="youtube" key="wheh-VmxfeQ" height="344" width="425" The song "What if We" by Chiara, was musical directed by Marc Paelinick and Gregory Bilsen. Bilsen wrote the lyrcis for the song and Paelinick was the musical director. This song was written by Bilsen; however, the inspiration behind the song was a note that Chiara wrote to her father as he passed away. Chiara has since dedicated this song to his memory, and that is why she chose it as her Eurovision entry. It is a very grand ballad, an ode to his life, and seems to hold deep meaning for not only Chiara, but for musical director Paelinick, too. Chiara's father is the man who found Paelinick and picked him to manage Chiara's music ever since her first Eurovision entry in 1998. The musical depths of this song are meant to bring emotion to the audience and make them feel the same way about Chiara's music as she felt about her father. It makes the audience feel like they are in the presence of something more than just music.