MaltaMedia.com

Final preparations for Tuesday evening’s Eurovision Song Contest 2009 first semifinal round are in full swing at the Olympic Arena in Moscow. The last day or so before a semifinal are undoubtedly the most nerve wrecking for the participants and their teams.

Malta’s entry appears 17th out of the 18 songs in Tuesday’s show. The other countries competing for the remaining 10 slots in Saturday’s Eurovision final are: Montenegro, Czech Republic, Belgium, Belarus, Sweden, Armenia, Andorra, Switzerland, Turkey, Israel, Bulgaria, Iceland, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Romania, Finland, Portugal and Bosnia & Herzegovina.

On Thursday evening, the second semifinal round will yield ten more finalists to join pre-selected Russia, Spain, France, Germany and the United Kingdom for Saturday’s final.

The last of three dress rehearsals for Tuesday’s semifinal starts at 1500 CEST. Rehearsals include a full front of house drill, which involves airport-style security checks at the venue entrance. A number of the 16,000 arena seats at the afternoon rehearsal will be filled by an audience made mostly of the 42 official delegation members, die-hard Eurovision fans and Russian volunteers.

Chiara was very composed before the first dress rehearsal on Monday early afternoon, according to the Maltese delegation in Moscow. A second dress rehearsal was held on Monday early evening when Chiara went on stage in the black shimmering dress she is expected to wear on Tuesday for the semi-finals.

Commenting directly from Moscow, MaltaMedia’s Creative Director, Dr Toni Sant said “During the second dress rehearsal Chiara seemed to be saving her best voice for later on during the song. By the end of her three minutes on the Olympic Arena’s massive stage she could be seen relishing the song as she has whenever she sang it before today’s dress rehearsals. In all likelyhood she will come across 100% by the time of the actual performance on Tuesday night.”

While Chiara has entertained numerous interviews with TV stations from all over Europe, her Maltese fans will undoubtedly be looking forward to her appearances on local TV. The Xarabank team has been following the singer since she arrived in Moscow last week, as has Norman Hamilton for Super 1 TV. On Monday night they were also joined by Karl Bonaci and Ryan Borg from Favourite TV. A special edition of Xarabank will be recorded on Thursday afternoon at the Eurodom, situated right across the square from the Kremlin.

Meanwhile, according to a report on the Betting Choice website, the odds for a Maltese victory in Moscow on Saturday have dropped significantly in the last hours, a fact that will definitely strengthen the hopes and expectations of Chiara’s supporters. At the same time, the odds continue to go lower and lower for Norway’s Alexander Rybak in his effort to be crowned king of European pop music for 2009.

Most bookmakers are listing Malta as one the top favourites to qualify from Tuesday’s semifinal alongside Bosnia & Herzegovina, Turkey, Sweden, Armenia and Iceland.

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.