Malta’s chance in the limelight is finally about to come to fruition. The biggest event in the country’s history is ready to take off, with extra precautions being taken this morning to avoid the power cuts that impacted the Jury Final.
This is the moment where we pick out the parts you need to make sure not to miss in tomorrow’s show.
The Obligatory Nod To Malta Tourism
The show starts with a compilation of every aerial video ever made of Malta, with the Junior Eurovision logo flying over Malta’s beaches, castles and hotels. If you miss the first five minutes of the show, don’t worry – you will still be able to see the whole island twice in the long opening act. The whole effect is much akin to a BBC World News travel advertisement. You may not need to visit Malta after this comprehensive tour, but Visit Malta sponsoring tonight have certainly spent much of their budget trying to entice you to…
The tourist balloon is flying high above the arena for the big show (Photo: Alison Wren)
Malta’s Inferiority Complex
Our host Moira Delia welcomes us “to the biggest show on the smallest island in Europe”. They may be talking themselves down a little, as the Guinness Book of Records designate Bishops’ Rock in the Scilly Isles as Europe’s smallest inhabited island at 46 x 16 meters .
The Saturday Night Variety Show
Malta’s national selection is infamous for its comprehensive advert breaks featuring a plethora of Malta’s biggest companies, and while the locals enjoy the interminable adverts for Mediterranean Bank, Hamilton travel, 202 Jewellry et al. we will enjoy three mini interval dance acts. The first borrows Danny Saucedo’s Amazing light up costume, the second features funky Stormtrooper robot dancing, and the third is using annoying noises like typewriters and spoons to create music.
The overall impact of this is that the show pace is slower than a normal Eurovision, lengthy (around four minutes) breaks around the show give space and time to each section meaning that nobody should miss a song through needing the toilet or making a cup of tea.
Somebody in Malta has been watching Melodifestivalen (Photo: Ben Robertson)
Ring of Fire
Ula Lozar may be coming to Junior Eurovision with her self-noted mature entry My Light, but is going to invest a decent whack of Slovenian Euro’s on brightening the stage around her. However she needs to be careful not to play with the fireworks that entrap her in all directions throughout the second chorus. It does appear little Ula goes down, down, down as the flames get higher.
Breaking free from the cauldron (Photo: Ben Robertson)
Bilingualism Is Rife
With the rules stating that 25% of the songs can be performed in a language not native to your country, English is being stuck here and there in almost every entry. 80% of the songs that do not have English as an official language are using it for at least a couple of lines through their entries.
This Goes Big In The Hall
Host countries always get a big cheer, but this year that crowd reaction is as big as you will ever get. What we got in the Jury Final are crowds cheering, horns blowing, and a chorus of whooping that was certainly felt down the cameras tonight. Expect this to be amplified ten times for the Live Final tonight as the country notes they are once again the favourites. Can Malta Do The Double? Read about that the chances of that happening here on ESC Insight.
Federica will be surrounded by a wall of noise on Saturday night (Photo: Steve Congrave)
Familiar Faces
Traditionally familiar faces are chosen to present their countries’ votes, and this year is no exception. Not only do they return to the TV cameras, they also come back to the show itself appearing on stage. We welcome back the following 2013 contestants: Eliias (Sweden), Sofia (Ukraine), Monica (Armenia), and Mylène and Rosanne (The Netherlands). The Dutch twins also have the task of reading out the final set of points from the night. Also we cut to a long interval act from Gaia Cauchi who is anything but shy after her victory last year. Not happy with her new single and a remix of last year’s winning entry we will also get her reading out the points of the Kids Jury. Parts of the official theme song #together feature at the start and end of the show as well.
We hope you all enjoy the Junior Eurovision experience just like we have done for the big final show. Remember you can keep in touch with the twitter profile @escinsight to let us know your highs, lows and general opinions.