If you’re on a limited budget, spend it at Eurovision and not on your national final. One can only hope that Malta had adopted this adage as there was certainly no expense spent on selecting their song. The national final was one of the cheapest productions I’ve ever seen, but it’s not what their Eurovision entry will ultimately be judged upon.
When reviewing Cyprus I described it as the only female summer/Mediterranean pop of the year, and it was quickly pointed out that I’d forgotten Malta, and it’s true, I had. I’d completely forgotten about it once it was chosen. It’s made such little impact on me, and wasn’t, for a time, on the Spotify playlist I was using to familiarise myself with this year’s set.
So, I come to this afresh, with a revamped version adding some Swedish flourishes, and bringing the total songwriting team to 10 people. Speaking of adages, the British have one claiming ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’. It’s almost the opposite here as despite all the ingredients being tossed into the pot, this tosspot feels well under-seasoned.
Sarah’s plan to pepper things up seems to be by incorporating Chanel and Noa Kirel style dance breaks. I mean, it’s proven a successful approach, landing both artists a respectable third place each over the past two Contests. There is some impressive dancing, and Sarah’s been giving some energetic performances at the pre-parties, with a trademark 360 forward flip built into her moves. A loop, even, if you will.
Loop is decent, pleasant pop but for me lacks the punch of songs like SloMo and Unicorn, to which more people than me will inevitably compare. There’s a lot of space throughout this song for a lot of choreography and its success may depend upon how well this is executed. But when about half of your three minutes are designed to showcase movement over song it starts to feel a little too contrived for me. But be grateful for small mercies: if the Maltese public had had their way you could have been reading about some knob end suggestively writhing on a giant Banana right now.
Photo: Carlton Agius/EBU