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Serving by Marianna Conte
I’ve got a secret you should know, come a little close, I’ll whisper slow… Psst! Malta knew exactly what they were doing with this one, and boy, have they played a blinder. Pass it on!
Eurovision publicity three months out from the Contest is like gold dust, especially for an entry from another country, but by including a (single) Maltese word that sounded like a very rude word indeed alongside the rest of the song’s English lyrics Marianna has found herself the talk of the national finals. Even the BBC drafted her into their supposedly high-brow flagship Newsnight programme, whilst all over the internet hands were wrung piously and shit lost melodramatically. There were even suggestions that by disallowing a word in the entrant’s national language this amounted to cultural censorship, when anyone with an ounce of sense knew what Marianna was really kanting about serving was cunt.
You need to update your reference points if you think the phrase is offensive; serving cunt is now a term of empowerment, and if you try to rail against the evolving meaning well, maybe you’re a bit of a Cnut yourself (and yes, I did spell that right).
As commentators whipped their panties into a pandemonium Marianna sat coyly back, casting a knowing eye on it all, most likely already in the full knowledge she’d need to change the line, but by then it was job done. The song’s been widely heard, which will inevitably give it a boost once the Contest comes around. All the while she’s delightfully leant into all of hullabaloo, capitalising on everything from her ‘Diva Down’ catchphrase to dishing out Serving branded thongs at the preview parties and drafting in several of this year’s fun young things to bounce on her exercise balls with her at the end of the performance. It’s a masterclass in PR, and it’s a joy to see.
Although this absolutely goes off in a club setting, like several other entries this year this feels like it needs a great performance to really do the business, and, well, Marianna could be a little more polished in this department. I hope she’s being well-advised. But this woman has boundless bubbly charm and more than ample charisma to pull this off, and you’d have to a right old miserable kant if you don’t want her to succeed.
My marks: 10 points
Photo: Edward Degabriele
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