Robert Abela promises a "mini-Revolution" for Maltasong 2008!

OGAE Malta reports:

Recently, Mr Robert Abela, Malta's head of delegation for the Eurovision Song Contest promised a "mini-revolution" for the selection of the next Maltese Eurovision entry.

Mr Abela, chairperson of the Maltasong Board - responsible for the Maltese entry at the Eurovision Song Contest, was interviewed by local journalist Lou Bondi. The interview was published on the "Sunday Circle" of Sunday 1st July 2007.

During the interview Mr Abela said that his position is that if the Minister of Culture, Dr Francis Zammit Dimech, asks him to stay on he will give it one last shot.

"But if he does go for it he is resolute on a mission - to throw caution to the wind and do what needs to be done. Robert Abela promises a "small revolution", reports Bondi.

"I will give importance to the song, not the singer. It could be that the semi-final winners would be chosen exclusively by a jury whose job would be to select the best songs to go got he final. However, the jury would retain the right to change the singers of those songs. The finals would still be decided by means of 100 % televoting", suggested Mr Abela.

Lou invited us to imagine this scenario:"Can you imagine the reaction of the singer whose song goes through to the final but he or she is bumped off? Imagine...A particular song is chosen by the jury to go to the finals but with a different singer. It goes on to win locally but then bombs abysmally at the Eurovision!!

"And...just for the record: The Lm60,000 forked out for the Eurovision annualy were cut down to Lm10,000 this year. The rest are covered by funds raised from ticket sales, sponsorships, televoting taking and what not. Robert Abela is clearly not happy with this state of affairs.

"This year he spent Lm2,000 of his own money to save face with his Eurovision colleagues abroad", claimed Bondi.

UPDATE: Ogae Malta has learnt from sources close to the Maltasong Board that a meeting with songwriters and other interested parties will be held during this week to discuss the proposals for the next edition of the Malta Song for Europe festival.