Maltese music icon Ira Losco and this year’s Maltese representative Michela Pace help celebrate the 90th birthday of Cisk with a two hour set at the Farson Beer Festival. They were joined by X Factor Malta: Series One stars, Nicole Frendo and Owen Leuellen.
What is Cisk?
Cisk is a popular beer in Malta brewed by Maltese beverage company Simonds Farsons Cisk. They have multiple beers under the conglomerate such as Cisk Export, Cisk Extra Strong, Cisk Excel (Low Carb Lager), Cisk Chill Range (Lemon, Berry and Ginger Lime Lager).
Adolf Vella, Business Support Manager at Simonds Farsons Cisk plc and Festival Coordinator, had this to say about Ira performing at the annual festival.
It has been a number of years since Ira and her band have performed at the Farsons Beer Festival and we are very excited to have her perform on our closing night.
Adolf Vella
Ira and her live band performed a two hour set. Which also saw her duet with Malta’s 2019 Eurovision star Michela Pace. Of course the two knowing each other very well from Ira’s role on X Factor Malta, where Michela became a household name, storming to victory with her melodic covers. During the show, audience members wore special LED wristbands to create an even more immersive experience.
Also entertaining the festival goers were X Factor Malta finalists, Nicole Frendo and Owen Leuellen. Many will remember Nicole’s stunning rendition of Prince’s “Purple Rain“. Those powerful vocals and her captivating performances of impassioned anthems saw her finish the first series in third place. Fans of Nicole can see more of her soon, when Festival di Castrocaro 2019 starts on September 3rd on Italian network Rai 2. On the opposite end of the music scale, young Owen delighted viewers with his imaginative raps under the tutorship of mentor Ira Losco. During the final the two united on Ira Losco’s summer bop “Hey Now.” Owen was the eventual runner up and has more recently found himself opening the Isle of MTV Malta Festival 2019.
Ira Losco at Eurovision
A two time participant, Ira competed in Tallinn, Estonia with the song “7th Wonder”. She finished in second place with 164 points, 12 points behind the winners Marie N and Latvia. To this day it remains the closest Malta have ever come to winning the Eurovision Song Contest.
She returned to the Eurovision scene 14 years later by entering MESC16 with the song “Chameleon”. However, PBS decided against sending the song to the contest. So Ira performed “Walk On Water” in Stockholm, Sweden. She came in third place in the Semi-Final with 205 points and won the jury vote. Thus qualifying to the Grand Final. In the Final she placed in twelfth with 153 points. Recently Ira has been helping to develop young talent in Malta as role as judge and mentor on X Factor Malta. Soon the second series of Malta’s most successful show will return to screens this Autumn.
Michela Pace at Eurovision
It’s funny how the world works isn’t it? PBS reject a “Chameleon” one year, then a few years later, they accepted another! Michela won the first series of X Factor Malta, thus representing her country in Tel-Aviv, Israel. After a lengthy internal song selection process, they went with “Chameleon”, written by Bulgarian songwriter Borislav Milanov. Possibly the most contemporary sounding entry Malta has ever sent. Michela came in eighth place in the Semi-Final. In the Grand Final, she opened the show and her tropical banger finished in a respectable fourteenth place with 107 points.
After the contest Michela has had a very busy summer! First she performed a homecoming concert in Valletta to thank fans for their Eurovision support. Then she wowed the crowds in the Maltese heatwave at the Isle of MTV Malta Festival 2019. As well as this, Michela announced new music and a full album will be on the way.
Are you looking forward to new music from Michela? Will you be watching X Factor Malta series 2? Let us know in the comments and on social media @ESCXTRA
