The Xtra Files: We Review Malta’s ‘Breathlessly’ by Claudia Faniello!

Welcome to The Xtra Files, our new series which will give you an insight into what the team at escXtra think of your favourite entries into this year’s contest! Today, we review Malta.

Now that all the songs have been released, we are able to review each and every one of them. Our honest and brutal reviews will keep you entertained until the rehearsals start in May! We will also each give a score out of 10 for every entry, and create an escXtra leaderboard of the entries! You can see our preview reviews here.
Today, it is the turn of the Maltese entry, ‘Breathlessly’ by Claudia Faniello, to be reviewed by Dimitris, Luke, Nathan, Rodrigo, Simon, and Yassia. Let’s get started!

The Reviews

Dimitris

I feel like one of the few people who actually like Malta’s entry (well I basically like almost every song this year so it ain’t a surprise). However, I have to admit Claudia’s previous MESC attempts were much better.

Luke

If somebody asked me to describe a typical Eurovision pop ballad, I would send them this. Considering she’s complaining about being breathless, she seems to just go on singing forever. If you’re so breathless, be quiet; you’d be doing us all a favour. The song doesn’t go anywhere, it’s a generic, bland attempt to create something powerful. It fails tragically.

Nathan

Whilst I know that Claudia is an extremely experienced singer in Malta, particularly in terms of Eurovision selection shows, I just cannot understand how this beat Kewkba.

Rodrigo

This is a Eurovision ballad by the numbers. Claudia’s voice is stunning but I somehow always end up feeling that she’s better than the song. Don’t get me wrong, the song is pretty good, but her vocal abilities probably deserved a proper masterpiece. Now, all of this said, turn on the wind machine and leave us breathless.

Simon

This will need some mighty impressive staging to keep viewers’ attention. The song has some potential, but it is a pity the production is very ’90s ballad’, it’s 2017, y’all.

Yassia

A fail for me. Definitely not one of those powerful ballads when you are tremblimg listening to it. The vocals are certainly not impressive, neither the ballad itself. As for me, this entry is just regular and doesn’t go anywhere. Sorry, Malta.

Scores

When we remove the top score of 9 and the lowest score of 0.5, the average score for Malta is 4.25.
(Removing the top score and the lowest score helps to make the average score more reliable and less affected by outliers.)

Leaderboard

Malta reaches 24th place in our leaderboard with a score of 4.25.

1. France – 9.04
2. Sweden – 7.77
3. Belarus – 7.75
4. Australia – 7.25
5. Israel – 7.21
6. Serbia – 7.08
7. Estonia – 7.07
8. Switzerland – 6.96
9. Denmark – 6.83
10. Armenia – 6.80
11. Portugal – 6.79
12. Hungary – 6.79
13. Germany – 6.59
14. Austria – 6.58
15. Moldova – 6.58
16. Greece – 6.54
17. Norway – 6.33
18. Latvia – 6.25
19. Czech Republic – 6.25
20. United Kingdom – 6.00
21. The Netherlands – 5.33
22. Albania – 5.21
23. Ukraine – 5.13
24. Malta – 4.25
25. San Marino – 3.92
26. Georgia – 3.91
27. Slovenia – 2.13

Tomorrow, we will review Montenegro.
Do you agree with our reviews of the Malta? What are your thoughts on Claudia Faniello’s ‘Breathlessly’? Let us know in the comments!