After scrapping "Chameleon", will Malta's choice to "Walk on Water" cause Ira Losco to sink or swim?
Country: Malta
Song Title: "Walk on Water"
Artist: Ira Losco
First Semi-Final: Position TBD
Last year's entry: "Warrior" - Amber (DNQ - 11th Place, SF2)
Now that all the Eurovision entries have been selected, it's time to go back and review them now that the competition is drawing closer. How have things been modified? Are there any hints to what kind of live performance we can expect in Stockholm?
Kicking things off for this is Malta. Way back at the start of February, I reviewed their initial choice of entry, Ira Losco's "Chameleon". While I thought Ira's performance was fine, the song itself felt a little muddled and pretty standard as far as Eurovision ballads go. After a disappointing 2015 performance, where they just missed making the finals, playing it safe again didn't seem like a path to success. Does swapping out "Chameleon" for a new song, "Walk on Water", improve their chances?
"Walk on Water" feels much more current and in touch with music trends, although I wonder if the house-y beats and vocal sampling are going to feel dated in a few years. The chorus has far more energy than "Chameleon" did, although I still find the song a little bland lyrically.
While the official lineup hasn't been revealed, it's known that Malta will be performing in the second half of the first semi-final. There's plenty of competition there, including Estonia, Azerbaijan, and Austria. I'm really curious to see how this song gets staged live - will backing singers be covering the vocal sampling that's present in the recorded version? Is this song going to translate well to the live stage? Most importantly, is Ira going to be deliver a vocal performance that matches the power of the recorded one?
Re-listening to "Chameleon", I kept finding Ira's live vocals a bit weak given the song - I'm really concerned with "Walk on Water" that those same vocal issues might pop up again. As it is, and with no live performances to go off of, I'm going to be paying attention to any promo appearances of the song in the next few weeks - this currently feels on the bubble for me and I can see Malta just missing the finals for the second year in a row if they give a weak performance.