Claudia Faniello will represent Malta at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest. She won Malta’s national selection – Malta Song For Europe – with the song ‘Breathlessly’ and will be heading off to Kyiv in May. Sixteen artists including Claudia competed in the final, before the public voted for their winner. Janice Mangion placed in second and Kevin Borg came in third.
This is not the first time Claudia has entered Malta Song For Europe. She first entered back in 2006 and has since entered twelve songs, finally winning the contest and getting the chance to represent her country this year. The singer released her first album Convincingly Better in 2010.
You can watch the lyric video for ‘Breathlessly’ below:
Malta have never won the competition, but have come close on two occasions. The country have twice finished in second place, in 2002 with Ira Losco and in 2005 with Chiara. The country will be hoping they can make it one step further this year, and win the competition.
The Eurovision Song Contest 2017 is set to be a competitive year once again. It will take place in Kyiv, Ukraine after Jamala won with “1944” last year.
With under three months to go, many countries have selected their acts for this year’s contest. These are the acts who have been announced so far: Cyprus’ Hovig, The Netherlands’ O’G3NE, Belgium’s Blanche, Macedonia’s Jana Burceska, Azerbaijan’s DiHaj, Ireland’s Brendan Murray, Austria’s Nathan Trent, Albania’s Lindita, Armenia’s Artsvik, Montenegro’s Slavko Kalezic, Greece’s Demy, Georgia’s Tako Gachechiladze, Belarus’s Navi, The United Kingdom’s Lucie Jones, Finland’s Norma John, Switzerland’s Timebelle, Germany’s Levina, France’s Alma, Spain’s Manel Navarro, Italy’s Francesco Gabbani Israel’s Imri Ziv, Czech Republic’s Martina Barta, and Croatia’s Jacques Houdek,
The Eurovision Song Contest 2017 semi-finals will take place on 9 May 2017 and 11 May 2017, with the grand final expected to take place on 13 May 2017.
Let us know your thoughts on Malta’s selection. Do you think they have a chance of making the final and winning the competition? You can tweet us @CelebMix.