Malta

What If We Chiara

"If you don't know your destination, who determines your destiny?"

If Eurovision had a favourite fish dish, it would be cod. Since the free language rule was reintroduced in 1999, every year has seen one or more countries serving up cod-philosophy in this anthem or that, many of them in cod-English. One country here has had an advantage over its competitors since well before the language requirement was dropped: Malta, the bastion of garbled English, which has been hooking audiences with cleverly disguised bait ever since it returned to the contest in 1991. With a mindset as peculiar as their use of language, they have bestowed upon Eurovision a number of dodgy anthems, adding to the list in Moscow with their 2009 entry What If We.

The fact that the song was penned by a pair of Belgians is happenstance, or perhaps serendipity, since it suits Malta down to the ground. It may well have been written specifically for Chiara, who makes another appearance at the contest having finished 3rd and 2nd on her earlier attempts. With a voice as big as her presence, Ms Siracusa is not one to underestimate: neither of her previous entries seemed particularly ambitious or set to make much of an impact prior to the 1998 and 2005 contests, but in the latter especially she proved more than capable of giving the kind of performance that will lift a middle-of-the-road song and place it within reach of victory.

That's why I'm hesitant to rule What If We out of contention simply because many feel it lacks immediacy and comes across as mediocre. Most seem to agree that it is the weakest of Chiara's entries to date, but she is not competing against herself: her chances are entirely dependent on the other fish in her basket. In that sense she is well-placed, since What If We has the lift and drive that an entry second-to-last in a semi-final probably needs to make it across the line. And the song itself is no slouch - with the vocal and musical arrangements drawn separately but working together very effectively - so any jury with a soft spot for big lasses singing well-meaning songs should lap it up.

What If We might be a throwback to Malta's la-di-da heyday of Little Child, More Than Love and Let Me Fly, but that may not be such a bad thing with Chiara at the helm. In fact it's quite possibly a dangerous combination. Let's face it, 99% of viewers will be seeing these songs for the first time on the night, of whom 99% won't care what she's singing about (however obviously missing the point it is - see quote above), so if she makes it as massive as she is, lots of people will probably go for it. Cod-anything is unremarkable though by its very nature, and as such I remain to be convinced that it deserves a place on the Saturday night table.