MaltaMedia.com

The second semi-final of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest will take place Thursday at 2100CEST at the Olympiysky Arena in Moscow, with 19 countries participating. The successful semi-finalists will face Malta’s entry, sung by Chiara, on Saturday, in hotly contended final with few chances for Malta to win.

Final preparations have been made and the 19 contestants will have rehearsed three times, twice in full make up and costumes before they take to the stage for the Second Semi-Final.

From the second Semi-Final, ten countries will proceed to fill the remaining slots available in Saturday’s Final. Every country that is represented in this Semi-Final has the right to vote, as well as France, Spain and Russia. Nine finalists will be decided by televoting, and one additional finalist will be the one country that has received the most votes in the national juries and has not yet qualified by televoting, unless of course the televoters and juries completely agree on the best ten songs. The ten countries going forward to the Final will again be announced in random order by opening virtual envelopes.

After the winners are announced, the remaining ten finalists will attend a press conference where their position in the Final draw will be determined. The full line up for Saturday evening’s Final will then be complete.

Meanwhile, Tuesday night’s result with Chiara making it to the Eurovision final this Saturday has been hailed by the Malta Eurovision Committee as Malta’s “back on track” moment. Maltese Eurovision representative Chiara has managed to stop the series of bad results which Malta achieved in the last three years of participation at the Eurovision Song Contest.

Toni Sant, MaltaMedia’s creative director reporting and blogging from Moscow, is not so optimistic about Malta’s chances.

“By all counts, winning the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest is no easy feat for the Maltese singer and her Belgian-made song. Chiara has a beautiful singing voice but she will need to beat at least 4 others singers with beautiful voices and/or songs: Jade Ewen (UK), Yohanna (Iceland), Malena Ernman (Sweden), and of course Patricia Kaas (France). Flor-de-lis (Portugal) is not to be discredited at this point of the game either.

“Any assessment of Chiara’s chances for bringing the Eurovision Song Contest to Malta in 2010 should also take into consideration that Regina (Bosnia & Herzegovina) is clearly the Eastern favourite this year, while Alexander Rybak (Norway) remains the bookies pick to win. Today the bookies have Malta in 10th position on average at the final, and many are including Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Ukraine within the final top 10.”

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.