Malta have had a strong few years at Eurovision, with the change of selection format certainly helping to reinvigorate the nation’s results at Eurovision. Despite that, the nation returned to their former selection process, with Emma Muscat winning the ticket to Turin. Her original song was scrapped, with her new song titled ‘I Am What I Am’.
Anita
Song and Vocals
Malta certainly didn’t have a strong selection this year, with only one or two tracks with Eurovision potential, and even still, they weren’t guaranteed finalists. Aidan was one of the acts with the most potential, and it certainly would have been nice to hear Malta send a song in Maltese. The other big potential was Emma Muscat, a big name in Malta and Italy, and with vocals like that, it’s clear to see why she won. What I didn’t expect was that Malta would almost immediately look for a new song. ‘Out of Sight’ grew on me during the selection period, so there was that initial annoyance that they decided to change songs. It begs the question, is the new song any stronger than the previous one?
I Am What I Am is incredibly cliche and gives off strong Melodifestivalen reject vibes. And that’s because it allegedly is – you know what they say, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. As time goes on, I can see why they preferred to use this over the original track, but I don’t necessarily think it’s better. Lyrically this is a cheesefest, and I would think that at this point we are beyond the cliches and able to create something a bit more lyrically sophisticated.
On the other hand, this is annoyingly catchy. I might be cringing at the lyrics, but that doesn’t stop me from singing along. I think this will be a common sentiment at Eurovision, as this is a very easy song to get involved in. The backing vocals give a good atmosphere to the song, and I think Emma will deliver one of the best vocal performances of the night.
Performance and Act
I think we can expect something similar to the official music video, where Emma is on stage behind a piano and then as the song progresses, she moves to centre stage. With the choir style backing vocals, it will be interesting to see whether they play into that and feature a choir on stage. Emma is no stranger to television performances either, so I expect a very slick performance where she connects well with the camera.
Conclusions
This is excruciatingly cliche, but still annoyingly catchy. With Emma’s incredible vocals, I can’t quite rule this out. I could see this being around the 8-12 mark in the semi-final. Time will tell.
Rating
6.5/10
Dennis
Song and Vocals
Emma is a gifted singer as she already showed in the Italian show ‘Amici’. She changed her song and it is an improvement to the first one, called ‘Out of sight’. But still, to me this is not a rather inspiring entry. The lyrics and build-up are a bit cliché to me, but I know there is a market for these kinds of songs at Eurovision.
Performance and Act
I also expect Emma to create a scene like in the music clip. So her starting behind the piano and then later on taking the full stage. Perhaps a solo performance as well? The focus should be on Emma’s main strength: her vocals.
Conclusions
This is not an entry that I would personally play that often, but I know there is a market for these kinds of uplifting and self-empowering songs. Therefore I can’t rule out its qualification. The jurors will appreciate the strong vocals, making Malta come a long way I think.
Rating
5/10
Team Scores
Steef: 7/10
Erik: 7/10
Josh: 7/10
Heath: 2.5/10
Kaitlin: 5.5/10
Selim: 7/10
Morena: 7.5/10
Average Score: 6.1/10
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