‘I Am Who’ by Emma Muscat
Malta at Eurovision
Malta made its Eurovision debut in 1971, but after a series of poor results, retired after the 1975 competition and did not return until 1991. Since then they have participated every year.
The tiny island became a Eurovision powerhouse during the 1990s and early 2000s, with twelve top 10 results between 1991 and 2005. Malta’s best results were also in this period, coming twice in third place for Mary Spiteri (‘Little Child’, ‘Little Child’, 1991) and Chiara (‘The One That I Love’, 1998), and twice in second place for Ira Losco (‘Seventh Wonder’, 2002) and Chiara again (‘Angel’, 2005).
In recent years, Malta has struggled a little more, with a qualification rate of 54% since 2010. However, Destiny Chukunyere and her song ‘Je me casse’ represented a return to form for the Maltese last year, and was a favorite before the contest. to win Eurovision 2021. In the end, Destiny came in 7th place with an impressive 255 points.
Entry 2022: ‘I Am What I Am’ – Emma Muscat
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Semifinals: Emma Muscat will compete in the first half of the semifinals 2
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My Eurovision Scoreboard ranking: 34
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Odds to win the ranking: 22
(Rankings as of March 27, 2022)
About the artist
At only 21 years old, Emma Muscat is already a household name in her country, Malta. A singer, songwriter and model, she has been surrounded by music since she was a child, learned to sing and became a classically trained pianist. These early influences still make their presence known in Emma’s music, where she uses the piano as a signature instrument on each track.
For the last few years, Emma has been based primarily in Italy, where she has become a prominent figure in the popular talent show ‘Amici di Maria de Filippi’. This gave her the opportunity to perform alongside some of Italy’s hottest musical talents, including luminaries such as Elisa, Arisa and Annalisa. In the end, Emma came fourth on the show – but six months of prime-time television appearances were enough to launch her to star all over Italy and Malta.
Since then, she has released a steady stream of EPs and singles, including ‘Avec Moi’, ‘Vicolo cieco’ and ‘Sangria’ – the latest of which has been certified gold. It is currently signed with Warner Music Italy.
About the song
‘I Am What I Am’ is an uptempo pop number with strong themes of resilience and self-empowerment. It is written by Dino Medanhodzic, who is best known to Eurovision fans for being the producer and songwriter behind ‘Little Tot’ and ‘Bulletproof’ – two popular entries performed by Dotter in the national final. of Sweden Melodifestivalen. Dotter also appears in the backing vocals of ‘I Am What I Am’.
The song was written during a Eurovision songwriting camp in Mallorca organized by Warner Music Sweden. Initially, the record label struggled to find an artist who would fit in well with the song. However, Emma was an immediate fan of the anthemic chorus of ‘I Am What I Am’ and quickly chose it as her Eurovision song.
A number of musical elements have been changed to make ‘I Am What I Am’ more authentic to Emma’s artistry. The demo of the song was a guitar-driven track, however Emma was keen to change the instrumentation to highlight the piano, which is her signature instrument as an artist. She also rewrote a number of lyrics to better match her personal story.
Lucky Second Time?
While we knew that Emma Muscat would be representing Malta at Eurovision 2022 for a while, ‘I Am What I Am’ was not her original song for Turin.
Initially, the TVM broadcaster announced that Malta’s entry for Eurovision 2022 will be selected through the country’s long-established national final format, the Malta Eurovision Song Contest (MESC). We played 22 songs over three nights to win the golden ticket to Turin – including Emma’s original song, ‘Out of Sight’.
‘Out of Sight’ emerged as the clear winner, winning both the jury vote and the televote to finish with 92 points. However, MESC rules allow an artist to change his song for Eurovision, and a number of news sites have reported that Emma started looking for a replacement song as soon as the MESC final was over[adatal-finalital-MESC
However, this is not the first time that Malta initially chose a song through a national final before changing it a few weeks later. In 2016 Ira Losco won the MESC with the song ‘Chameleon’. Shortly after the national final, TVM announced that Ira Losco would be participating in Eurovision with a new song, later revealed to be ‘Walk on Water’. Malta finally came in twelfth place in 2016 with 153 points.
Malta will compete in the semi-finals 2 on 12 May (European time) in Turin.