MaltaMedia.com

Maltese singer Neville Refalo is the winner of this year’s edition of the MALTA HIT SONG CONTEST 2009. Neville won the contest with “ONE DAY” penned by Rita Pace and composed by Mark Spiteri Lucas.

Neville Refalo will now represent Malta in the Universong Contest 2009 to be held in the Canary Islands this June 2009. The contest has gained popularity over the past years and is now considered as one of the top song contests held internationally. Locals Morena and Eleanor Cassar won this contest in 2008 and 2007, respectively.

Last year’s winner was Miriam Christine with her own entry, “ALONE TODAY”. The two winning entries emerged as winners earning support both from the public as well as the international expert juries.

An 11-member international music expert jury judged the entries in the final night. The jury was presided by Mrs Fegen Chekmac, vice-president of the F.I.D.O.F. organisation and overlooked by Mr Robert Cefai from the organisation committee. The show was hosted by Deo Grech flanked by top local models Yasmin and Mandy from Creatrix Model Agency dressed elegantly by Fiona Maria Vella from Fiona Couture. Norman Hamilton introduced the top foreign guests throughout the show.

This year’s edition went ‘International’ with the insertion of a new category - The Foreign Artists. The winner of this category is Anae from Spain. Sasha Son from Lithuania won a special prize awarded by the Organising Committee. Eleven foreign artists took part in the competition, while Italian stars Michele, Los Locos, Village Girls and Jonie Falcone took part as special guests alongside locals Wintermoods, Janice Mangion and La Barokka.

The finals of this year’s MALTA HIT SONG CONTEST were held on 1st May in Freedom Square, Valletta giving the whole contest an open-air concert feel. Eleven local artists competed for the winning title. Romina Mamo earned the runner-up spot with her brilliant performance of ‘PRIMITIVE’ penned by Rita Pace and compsed by Clinton Paul. Romina emerged as the winner of the Public’s Choice award too. While, Talitha gained the third prize with her radiohit entry, ‘EMOTION’ penned by her brother Ian Dimech.

The organising team included Deo Grech, Ray Falzon, Norman Hamilton, Robert Cefai, Simone Bugeja, Anna Bonnet, Ray Azzopardi and Ruth Vella (One Tv).