Malta’s Eurovision 2022 song chosen after not making cuts for Sweden
Emma Muscat’s new Eurovision song I Am What I Am was originally intended to represent Sweden, a music company producer has revealed.
In a interview with Danish public broadcaster DR, Anders Fredslund-Hansen, who runs the music company The Arrangement, explained what happened behind the scenes of Malta’s song change.
Fredslund-Hansen said that Malta’s Eurovision officials contacted him for help just one day after Emma won the Malta Eurovision Song Contest with Out Of Sight last month.
He sent a number of songs to Malta, two of which were nominated and recorded as demos. It ended with Malta choosing I Am What I Am, a song written by the Danish musicians Stine Kinck and Julie Aagaard.
Fredslund-Hansen said that I Am What I Am was written at a songwriting camp he helped organize last summer for musicians to work with Eurovision songs. It was originally sent to Melodifestivalen, Sweden’s festival to choose a Eurovision song, but did not reach.
It ended with Sweden choosing Cornelia Jakobs Hold Me Closer as their song for Eurovision 2022.
– For me, the song is incredibly catchy and has an uplifting message, something that traditionally does well in Eurovision, Fredslund-Hansen said about Emma’s song.
Asked to speculate as to why Malta decided to change the song, the producer suggested that they might want to stand out from the crowd a little more.
“From the songs I have heard from the other countries so far, I can feel that not much sounds like I Am What I Am,” he said, while confirming that he supports Malta before his home country Denmark for this year’s competition.
“Of course I hope that Denmark does well, but I will of course stick first to Malta and my own song. It’s my job and I will not hide it. “
Malta is currently ranked 21st in bookmakers’ lists, with odds that only give Emma a 1% chance of winning, although it was even lower before the change of song.
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