Malta 2017: Claudia Faniello goes to Kiev with her song Breathlessly.

The Maltese national final, MESC 2017, took place tonight to pick the country’s next representative for the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest next May in Kiev. The golden ticket went to Claudia Faniello who performed the song Breathlessly.
Claudia won leaving at second place Janice Mangion and her song Kewkba, while Kevin Borg with Follow ended up third.
Hosts of the show were Daniel Azzopardi και Charlene Mercieca. After this year’s changes , the national selection was cut down to one only final night without a semi final round. Sixteen contestants battled on stage to win the public vote that will lead then to fly the flag in Kiev. This year the result was determined exclusively by the public voting when the previous years the votes were split up by 1/6 for the public and the rest 5/6 jury voting.
From a total of 156 entries submitted to the national broadcaster TVM , the following 16 of them were selected to participate in tonight’s final :
- Klinsman – Laserlight
- Raquela – Ray of Light
- Deborah C & Josef – Tonight
- Kevin Borg – Follow (3rd place)
- Jade – Seconds Aways
- Crosswalk – So Simple
- Franklin – Follow Me
- Rhiannon – Fearless
- Miriana Conte – Don’t Look Down
- Shauna – Crazy Games
- Janice Mangion – Kewkba (2nd place)
- Cherton – Fighting to Survive
- Maxine Pace – Bombshell
- Richard Edwards – You
- Brooke Borg – Unstoppable
- Claudia Faniello – Breathlessly
WHO IS CLAUDIA FANIELLO
Claudia was born and raised in Qawra Malta, along with her siblings Fabrizio and Miriana. At the age of twelve, Claudia began to participate in a variety of television shows and participating also in many festivals and placing in top positions.[1] In 2001, at the Phoenicia Hotel in Malta, she won the ‘Talentissimi Juniors’ – a show organised by ‘Actreact’. A year later she sang live with Malta’s National Orchestra in aid of impoverished children at the University of Malta. She was accompanied by Malta’s ambassadors in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004, Julie & Ludwig and also her brother Fabrizio.
At the Mediterranean Conference Festival, in 2003 she sang at a concert with Fabrizio Faniello while a year later she sang again with the National Orchestra with Nadine Axisa, Fabrizio and Philippa. In 2005 she classified fourth on ‘Hotspot’ – a TV show programmed on Net TV. The year 2006 was the year when she started her experience in the Malta Song For Europe Festival with the song ‘High Alert!’ – a song composed by Ray Agius. At the same contest she won the award for best new-comer.
She won the Festival Kanzunetta Indipendenza 2006 with the song ‘Ma Nafx’ – a song composed by Ray Agius. In 2007, despite qualifying for the Malta Song for Europe 2007 Semi-Final with the song “L-Imħabba Għamja” (Love is Blind), she wasn’t part of the six songs that gained the right to compete for the final round. She finished 7th.
In summer 2007, Claudia Faniello launched “Wild Flower“, a song composed by Aldo Spiteri and written by Deo Grech. In 2008, she passed for the Go Malta Song for Europe Semi-Final Festival with two songs “Caravaggio” and “Sunrise”. Both songs passed into the final eight songs. In the final of this festival she finished 2nd with the song “Caravaggio”, a song about the Italian artist with the same name and 3rd with the song “Sunrise”. The successive year, she made her fourth appearance in this Maltese festival, but still wasn’t part of the last three songs that fought to book a place in Moscow 2009. She finished fourth with her song entitled “Blue Sonata”, composed and written by Ray Agius. She qualified to the final in the The GO Malta Eurosong 2010 with the song “Samsara” composed by Philip Vella and written Gerard James Borg. She finished eighth with 31 points. She released her first album entitled ‘Convincingly Better. In August 2010. In the The GO Malta Eurosong 2011 final Faniello ended in ninth place with her entry “Movie in my Mind”. In the The GO Malta Eurosong 2012 final Faniello reached second place with her entry “Pure”.
Ira Losco, the country’s super star and ex representative was tonight’s guest star performing on stage her new single. She represented Malta at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016, with the song “Walk on Water“. Losco also competed for her country in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 with “7th Wonder“, finishing second, only twelve points behind Latvia the winner.
This year Malta will be participating in the 2nd half of the second semi final on May 11 in Kiev.
You can hear the winning song of the day that will represent Malta next May: