Taboo by Christabelle Borg
Watching the Maltese final, you’d be forgiven for forgetting there are any songs and that the whole thing is just an excuse to advertise the Mediterranean Bank and Hamilton Travel. It’s so heavily sponsored that Deborah C’s head is almost inched off the screen mid-performance by an enormous bag of oven chips.
Whatever money is coming in though seems to be being put to good use, as this year the quality did seem to be improved. At times, the real competition in Malta feels like ‘who can take part in the national final the most times without actually winning?’, and Christabelle Borg comes with a string of previous attempts under her belt.
I like ‘Taboo’, and I like the clubbier revamp they’ve given it for the Eurovision version, which sounded great belting out in the Amsterdam pre-party. The video has clearly had some money thrown at it. It looks like a double dose of Hollywood; a cross between a big-budget swords-and-sandals blockbuster, and the gay club in the video for ‘Relax’ by Frankie, who went there. I’m still none the wiser what it’s actually about though.
You can sense that Malta would so dearly love to win this Contest, and you’d be hard pushed to find a fan who’d begrudge them that, especially as we’d get a week or two in the sun. This isn’t to be the year though, but I would like to see this in the final and fight for its chance.
My marks: 8 points
Will it qualify? Yes, from the weaker semi final