MaltaMedia.com

Chiara has declared this year’s Eurovision Song Contest as one of the toughest challenges in her entire career.

“It is too hard to pick just one challenger this year. Unlike 1998 where we were all well aware that Dana International was our biggest competitor and in 2005 with Helena Paparizou running neck-to-neck with us, this year I can’t just pick one. There are between six to eight other entries who all deserve the winning spot, just like us”, said Chiara during an interview with the PBS Friday night show, Xarabank.

Speaking on the same edition of Xarabank from Moscow, MaltaMedia Creative Director Dr Toni Sant proposed a list of countries with this year top songs, saying these are the ones that Chiara must be refering to: France, United Kingdom, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Norway, Ukraine, Sweden and Iceland. Chaira reminded Dr Sant that Turkey was another hard nut to crack this year.

France’s Patricia Kaas has already sold more than half a million copies of her most recent album, and Norway’s Fairytale has been the bookies favourite for several weeks. Regina from Bosnia & Herzegovina appears to be a favourite among the Balkan states and other eastern-European Eurovision fans.

Sakis Rouvas is well known to all Eurovision fans for his third placing in 2004 with “Shake it”. He also hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in 2006 when the annual contest was held in Athens. Ever since, he has consolidated quite a fan base all around Europe and beyond.

Aside from all this, Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber’s involvement in the UK entry this year will surely leave a strong impact on the votes cast by many European judges and televoters.

Meanwhile Chiara is looking forward to Saturday night’s performance. “My preoccupation was the semi-finals phase. Although I was quite confident with qualifying to the final phase, there were instances where I doubted if that dream would materialise or not. Now that I’m in the finals it’s an easier for me as I faced this contest twice before.”

During Friday’s Xarabank, Chiara also confessed that she twice tore a small piece of her dress. However, this is seen by the Maltese singer as a good omen. Previously she had similar dress-accidents in 1998 and 2005 during the Maltese national finals. She ended up winning both contests.

For full coverage and other information go to EurovisionMalta.com.

See also Toni Sant’s Blog for his live reports from Moscow throughout this week, including special audio reports in collaboration with SBS Radio.