Eurovision 2019 spotlight: Malta's Michela Pace with "Chameleon"...

It's time for my daily spotlight on the countries and singer competing at the Eurovision Song Contest being held this year in Tel Aviv, Israel. You can catch up with the rest of the series highlighting the biggest non-sports show in the world by clicking here. And now we head to the island nation in the Mediterranean sea with almost a half-million people...

The country of Malta may have had a little uplift in interest due to the heritage of American presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, but the country has been around for awhile, gaining independence from the United Kingdom in 1974. Last year, their national final "Malta Song For Europe" sent Christabelle to the event with the incredibly catchy "Taboo", but despite the bells and whistles they put into the staging, failed to qualify for the finals. It was a surprise for me, since the accessible club jam was well-produced and had a good message, maybe they threw too much in for anything to stick. So this year, what do they do? Well, more dance-pop...

Malta - "Taboo" from Michaela Pace

This year the country launched its own version of The Voice singing competition franchise, with the winner selected to head to Eurovision. The first person triumphant on the show was Michaela Pace, a teenage singer from the northwest island of Gozo. The song selected for her, "Chameleon", was written by an international hodgepodge of writers like American Paula Winger, Bulgarian Boris Milanov, and Swedes Johan Alkenäs and Joacim Bo Persson. Alkenäs co-wrote Austria's entry last year "Nobody But You", and with Paula is a veteran TV show songwriter. Persson has worked with Kelly Clarkson, Ashley Tisdale, and the Jonas Brothers. So it's a natch that this is meant to be insanely catchy, and with last year's success of "Fuego", this is one of the clear "copycat" track to try to emulate it, though the chorus does make it a bit more interesting....

Now out of the Swiss/Cypriot/Maltese "Fuego" copies, this is probably the most lyrically intriguing and musically interesting. And the music video even takes it up another few notches. The question is whether she's able to translate the opulence and queerdom in the video to the live stage with only six people onstage. And whether her voice can replicate the studio cut. If so, she's in the bag to qualify. (Rating 7/10)

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Malta has been competing in Eurovision even before it gained full independence in 1974, with their first try in 1971, though the first two years they came in dead last. the 1990s and 2000s were great years for them, reaching the top ten numerous time and finishing second twice. The first time was in 2002 when Ira Losco did it with "7th Wonder"...

In 2005, Chiara repeated that result with "Angel". Both Ira and Chiara have entered Eurovision multiple times for Malta, making the finals each time...

 As for my personal favorite, that would be Gianluca from 2013 with his indie-folk charmer "Tomorrow"...

But the country has also sent some songs that made me scratch my head like this, "Vodka" from Morena, which had some sort of spy plot going on in 2008...