Back in July, photos emerged of Destiny Chukunyere at the filming of X Factor Malta. Now, as the series gets underway, the former Junior Eurovision winner revealed that she is indeed participating. Her audition is due to air tomorrow. The winner of X Factor Malta will go on to represent Malta in Rotterdam next year.
To the surprise of…well, no one, Destiny Chukunyere will be participating in X Factor Malta. She was all-but-confirmed to be participating in the series when fans uploaded photos of her at bootcamp filming back in July.
Back in January, it was confirmed that The X Factor Malta will return for a second season this year. This was in light of it becoming a ratings success for TVM. It also revitalised Malta at Eurovision, bringing them back to the Grand Final this year.
Though the series began a few weeks ago, Destiny’s audition episode will air tomorrow (October 27th), according to her Instagram.
About Destiny Chukunyere
The talented 17-year-old, then aged 13, won the Maltese national final held at the Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta. She therefore won the ticket to represent Malta at the 2015 Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Sofia, Bulgaria. She won the contest with a record-breaking 185 points with “Not My Soul”, which she co-wrote. After the contest, she auditioned for series 11 of Britain’s Got Talent singing Aretha Franklin’s “Think”, where she was given four yeses. She ended up making it all the way to the semi-final stage.
Earlier this year, Destiny finally made it to the stage of the adult contest…as a backing singer for Michela. As a 16-year-old, she was finally old enough to perform at Eurovision. With this additional practice under her belt, could she go all the way? Tune into X Factor Malta to find out!
Update: Watch Destiny’s audition!
After tackling a Jennifer Hudson track, Destiny received praise from the four judges and sailed through to the next stage of the competition, boot camp! Watch the audition in full below:
Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest
Malta first participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1971 with Joe Grech and his song, “Marija I-Malitja”, which finished in last place with 52 points. They also finished last on their second attempt in the contest in 1972. After a third appearance in 1975, Malta withdrew from the contest until 1991, when they returned and finished in sixth place with 106 points.
Since their return in 1991, Malta has finished in the top three on four occasions – Mary Spiteri with “Little Child” in 1992 and Chiara with “The One That I Love” in 1998 which both finished in third place, and also Ira Losco with “7th Wonder” in 2002 and Chiara with “Angel” in 2005, which both finished in second place. Malta has not yet won the contest, however.
In 2019, Malta qualified for the first time since 2016 with Michela’s “Chameleon”. The song was the first Maltese entry to not be selected using a national final since 1971. The song went on to finish 14th in the Grand Final in Tel Aviv with 107 points.
Will you be tuning in to see Destiny on X Factor Malta? Would you like to see her represent Malta in Rotterdam next year? Let us know! Be sure to stay updated by following @ESCXTRA on Twitter, @escxtra on Instagram and liking our Facebook page for the latest updates! We’ll also be posting plenty of content on our YouTube channel in the run up to Tel Aviv!
