Editorial: What happened to Ira Losco (Malta 2002)

True Eurovision fans will recall the battle: “Malta vs Latvia” which was held in Tallinn in 2002. Malta, represented by the charming Ira Losco, placed one step away from victory for only 12 points. This was however just the start of Ira’s successful career.

After her huge success on the Eurovision stage, in 2003, Ira Losco was asked to perform a song called ‘Reaching Higher’ which was the official anthem for the 2003 Games of the Small States of Europe. From that performance onwards, Ira started to work on her debut album and single.

In February 2004, Ira Losco released her first E.P called ‘Love Me or Hate Me/Who I Am’ and the following April, her first debut album was released. Her album ‘Someone Else’ was written by Ms. Losco herself. This album was quickly recognized by international songwriters and her first single ‘Love me or Hate Me’ became a dancefloor hit which was remixed by Mark u-Bahn and Dj Ruby. Towards the end of June 2004, Ira launched her 2nd music video after 7th Wonder with the track ‘I’m In Love Again’.

During the first month of 2005, Ira released her remix album of ‘Someone Else’ called ‘Blends and Remixes of Someone Else’. Several tracks were remixed by popular Maltese DJs which became dance hits. Later during the same year, we saw the next album release called ‘Accident Prone’. This album was confirming Ira Losco as one of the hottest exports especially after successfully finishing her German Tour and making a name for her in international territory. With tracks such as ‘Accident Prone’, ‘Waking up to the Light’, ‘I Don’t Wanna Talk About It’ and ‘Get Out’ the album was a huge success. ‘Accident Prone’ included 12 tracks and also saw the release of Lisa Miskovsky’s song ‘Driving One Of your Cars’ which had been originally released in Sweden. This song eventually was a huge hit on the Maltese islands and also won a BMA award for Best Song of the year. Out of the 12 tracks from her album, ‘Everyday’, ‘Get Out!’, ‘Don’t Wanna Talk About It’, ‘Driving One Of Your Cars’, ‘Accident Prone’, ‘Uh-Oh’, and ‘Waking Up To The Light’, were released as singles and all of them received massive airplay on the local radio stations.

2006 was marked for another Ira Losco album release but this time, an acoustic album. ‘Unmasked’ was a mix of acoustic versions of her previous singles and also 3 international cover versions of ‘Time after Time’, ‘Bedsitter’ and ‘Lovesong’. Following the release of ’Unmasked’, Ira performed at the first ever Vodafone Music Jam concert to a sold out audience at the Hilton. In July 2007, Ira released a new single with a different genre that fans were normally used to, called ‘Something to Talk About’. This was the first single from her next album ‘Fortune Teller’ which was then released in June 2008. Before the release of this rock album, Ira released her second single from ‘Fortune Teller’ called ‘Don’t Look Down’. During December 2007, Ira released her first DVD under the name of ‘Living It …’. which was also released in the local cinemas. This was a documentary that included memorable live performances both local and foreign, international collaboration videos, and backstage scenes before concerts, personal interviews and also snippets of the new songs which were going to be released in ‘Fortune Teller’.

Another remix album was scheduled to be released during the summer months of 2009. ‘Mixed Beats’ contained remixes from her previous albums ‘Fortune Teller’, Unmasked’ and ‘Accident Prone’. So with the release of 4 Studio albums, 2 Remix albums and 1 DVD, Ira’s next move was to take a break from recording and explore new things. Since 2009 she also has released a photographic book with images from performances and campaign photo-shoots. Now in the summer of 2012, Ira returned back to the music scene with her new song ‘What I’d Give’. It’s a totally new genre from what fans are used to hearing but it’s a summer song and gaining massive local airplay. Ira’s new album is due to be released November/December 2012 and was stated that this album will have a mixture of new sounds.

One question will keep burning in the minds of Ira Losco’s fans …. will she return to the Eurovision Song Contest? She never ruled out the possibility so only time will tell! In the meantime we would like to take this opportunity and wish Ira Losco every success in her music and personal career! Next in the series of ‘What Happened to …’ we are going to review the journey after the Eurovision participation of ‘Jessica Garlic’