Just over one week from giving Malta its best Eurovision result in 15 years, Destiny has made her first media appearance. She stopped by the Maltese variety show Serataron where she performed a version of “Je me casse” in the Maltese language.
The performance was part of a Truth or Dare game, with the wheel of fortune conveniently dictating that Destiny should be dared. Her challenge was to perform her Eurovision 2021 song “Je me casse” in the Maltese language — and Destiny took up the challenge.
The Maltese version of “Je me casse” was titled “Ċaw u Bye” (“Ciao and Bye”) and was sung entirely in Maltese. The song was a cut-down version of the Eurovision song so viewers didn’t get to hear if Destiny would have said “Excuse my Maltese”. But there were no excuses for her performance — Destiny showed why she’s one of Malta’s most talented young singers.
At Eurovision, Destiny rocked a glam silver mini dress, but for her Serataron appearance she went for a more everyday but still elegant look. Destiny wore a colourful floral patterned top with a navy blue skirt, and wore her hair straightened, accessorising the look with a chunky gold necklace.
Destiny was joined by her dad, Maltese football star Ndubisi Chukunyere, who watched his daughter from the side of the stage.
Destiny finished seventh at Eurovision 2021 with her song “Je me casse”, and also finished first in her semi-final.
While Malta had been aiming for its first Eurovision win, Destiny still managed to give her country its best Eurovision result since 2005 when Chiara placed second with “Angel”. It was also only the second time Malta had placed in the top ten at Eurovision in the past 15 years.
Destiny’s performance has led many fans to call for her to return to represent Malta at Eurovision in the future. And who knows — maybe next time she will have a song in Maltese.
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The Maltese language at Eurovision
Malta has only twice performed songs in Maltese at Eurovision. The songs were Malta’s first two entries, in 1971 and 1972. But it wasn’t a good start for Malta. Joe Grech’s song “Marija l-Maltija” and Helen and Joseph’s “L-imħabba” each finished last in their years.
When Malta returned to the contest in the early 1990s, it was able to compete in English due to English being an official national language of Malta. Until the early 2000s, Malta picked up two second-place finishes and two third-place finishes, perhaps making it seem like English was the best option for the small nation.
But Malta hasn’t entirely turned its back on Maltese songs for Eurovision. While the Maltese Eurovision Song Contest national final typically only has songs in English, in 2017 Janice Mangion’s power ballad “Kewkba” (“Star”) made an impact. The song was a favourite with international fans and went on to place second in the contest, narrowly being beaten by Claudia Faniello’s “Breathlessly”.
Earlier this year, the Maltese-language song contest Mużika Mużika contest was revamped. The contest was won by Malta’s Eurovision 2011 star Glen Vella with his song “Ħarsa Biss”. The finalists also included other songs that went on to be local radio hits, including AIDAN‘s “Naħseb fik”.
Maltese broadcaster TVM has not yet confirmed its participation in Eurovision 2022, with the broadcaster currently undergoing a government audit around its promotional spending for its 2021 entry.
However, with the podium finishers of Eurovision 2021 all being songs performed in their national language, this might be the motivation Malta needs to send a Eurovision entry in Maltese.
What do you think? Should Malta send a Maltese language song to Eurovision? Would you like to hear Destiny sing Maltese at Eurovision? Tell us your thoughts below!
Guys, as a Maltese I would really appreciate your feedback on this song which is in Maltese
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqyOM0kNEtg
Thanks <3
Maltese sounds nice but I miss Destiny’s powerful and affirming “Hell no”s here.
In the ideal world, each country would only be allowed to utilize domestic talents and sing in one of their official languages.
Azerbaijan has used local songwriters before (most recently Isa Melikov in 2017) but I’d bet they’d adopt English as an official language in the country if that rule came to pass.
In Destiny’s case, English is an official Language in Malta (Maltese being the National language)…so with such a rule she could still have sang in English.
Malta should send a song in Maltese for a change and they could stand out.
Didn’t know Maltese was spoken widely on TV? Anyway, why do they wear these funny shields? These have been proved to be ineffective for COVID.
Oh haven’t you ever watched Lithuanian TV? EVERYONE there wears them.
Guys you should listen to Konkrit by Danjeli! A banger in Maltese!!!
We saw ,if song is good no problem to win or to be in TOP 3 without any word in english.
Absolutely send a song in Maltese. The quality of muzika muzika was exceptional, especially with the orchestra! Maybe that should be the national final next year instead of x factor?
I thought exactly the same.
Definitely I love the maltease language… proud to be in Malta
I am Maltese and yes I would love it if we competed in a Maltese song. It’s such a beautiful language and there are many songs that are really beautiful. My favourite is this one it was composed ages ago by Sammy Bartolo God rest his soul but it still gives me goosebumps, it’s a Maltese folk song
https://youtu.be/_n-aSuyg6kk
What a beauty of a song!
Thanks for sharing it!
I would love to hear Maltese on the Eurovision stage! It might not be easy on the ears to some, but it can still do well and even win. Some fun facts: Maltese is a mixture of, mainly, Arabic, Italian and English. It is a Semitic language, a sister to Arabic, Hebrew, Amharic, Aramaic and a few more. It is the only Semitic language *officially* written in (an adapted) Latin alphabet. All the others have their own unique writing system. It is the only Semitic official language of the EU. English is very commonly spoken in Malta and most people… Read more »
A friend of mine who is from Algeria could literally understand the majority of what Destiny had said in a Maltese interview. Tunisians do understand even more. In fact, Tunisian Arabic and Maltese are so much similar that Tunisians can understand almost everything in Maltese.
My Algerian friend said that Maltese sounds like someone who is drunk is trying to speak Arabic and adds some Italian words in it.
A very interesting and beautiful language.
Maltese is fairly similar to Maghrebi Arabic (the Arabic spoken in countries in North Africa west of Egypt) so that explains it.
I don’t care what language she sings in (use of English is widespread in Malta anyway and it’s one of their official languages) but I really wish she participated again with something authentic. She is such a great singer and seems to have a nice personality as well – there’s definitely a potential for her to be a great Eurovision act if she stays authentic. I’m not too bothered about the origin of people who write it – if she finds some Swede who can translate her feelings, then be it, but it needs to be Destiny’s song, not a… Read more »
On the topic of national languages… we need Ireland to send a song in Irish, Sweden in Swedish and Azerbaijan in Azeri. They’ve really been neglecting their language on the Eurovision stage.
Azerbaijani is such a beautiful and melodic language. Sometimes it sounds a bit Persian, since both Turkish and Azerbaijani have borrowed many words from Persian.
A pity that we couldn’t listen to a song in Azerbaijani language. Ictimai probably thought that songs in their native language wouldn’t be successful, but I don’t think so.
Maybe this year was a starting point with the line “Yalan da men, yanan da men, yaman da men”. Hopefully, they will stick on that.
The swedish case is mind blowing. The last time a song was performed in swedish was in 2012, by FINLAND. Quite curious, tbh.
Swedish is actually a coofficial language in Finland. Krista Siegfrids is from the Swedish speaking community in Finland and so was their 2012 act
Malta’s XFactor internal selection process has been really successful. Chameleon and Je Me Casse were both loved by fans, so I think they should stick to this format.
Instead of heavily relying on Sweden, I would prefer them to keep their team mostly Maltese as it makes the entry more respectable. One route I would love to see Malta go down is combining ethnic and modern sounds; think SHUM or Telemoveis. Maltese music has an almost Arabic flair which no other country in Eurovision has, so that may be a winning formula!
I like the Maltese version of “Je me casse” very much, and I hope she will release the Maltese version
I’m in the bus and everyone close to me can hear the sound from the hands-free pods and they’re like “what the heck is this guy listening to?”
If PBS the maltese broadcaster can find a great song in Maltese for eurovision they should go for it but the Maltese market is small. With no professional make a living Maltese songwriters really existing all hope would be vested on bands like the travellers writing a good song and coming forward to do eurovision. It’s logical in that sense that malta ops a lot for english. The one time they did sing in maltese in jesc they finished dead last.
Thats blatantly not true. Dawra Tond came second in the televote in 2017
What’s exactly not true in my comment? That’s one song in 40 years.
It proves that people will vote for a song in Maltese. 2017 is much more relevant than the 1970s when Malta last used the language. Also 4 out of the top 5 being in languages other than English also defeats this whole “we’d come last with language X” argument.
This is the first time I’ve ever heard Maltese. It’s very weird. And very interesting. Why are they not sending a song in Maltese?
Fun fact: the blonde presenter spinning the wheel is Ira Losco’s younger sister 🙂
There is an ad that says “less is more” and I think that’s the lesson to be learned from this year. Don’t try to be someone else and sing something that is not like you. If Destiny had come as simple and pretty as you can see in this photo with her flowered sweet and sang a song that really matched her in the language she really wanted, her odds would have definitely increased. Rather than being stuck in the thousandth silver dress of the evening with dancers mimicking the 80s that she never knew.
Who says english isn’t the language Destiny wanted to sing in?
Because she’s none of the four (swedish) people who wrote and composed the song, and that song is released on the Sony Music Sweden label, which greatly reduces the probability of her freedom of choice.
I should point out that I have nothing against the Swedish (who make very good songs by the way), but clearly Sweden is not in the same place as Malta on a map, and it’s not the Maltese that they practice.
True but that doesn’t mean she didn’t want to sing in english. Maybe destiny had the choice out of a few different song demo’s.
1. Having not lived in the 80s doesn’t mean you can’t be fascinated by it’s aesthetics and style.
2. Talking about authenticity you forgot her straightened hair, she still has it in this photo and not an afro.
3. But I think we are nitpicking a bit. Who really knows what is authentic for Destiny, I mean no one of us has ever been inside her head? And 7th place was a pretty good result for a great song Je Me Casse was.
They are excellent! They’re actually Gozitan and they have quite a fandom here. I’m not sure if they would want to do Eurovision. I’d like to think that no one in Malta would want to refuse it because it’s the biggest platform one could get, but I’m still not sure as they’re very left field. Apparently X-Factor won’t be held this year, so if TVM internally picks, maybe this is our best chance of having The Travellers or Red Electric. But I prefer the former.
kewkba back in 2017 almost became malta’s eurovision song so it’s not impossible, but i don’t think they want to send a song in maltese, from the type of songs they’ve been sending they’re clearly chasing a radio-friendly sound. still i hope they get out of this mentality and send a song in maltese.
I mean a radio friendly song in Maltese could exist. And frankly, language isn’t the only indicator of authenticity.
Aye. If they had sent Janice Mangion back in 2017, Malta might have finished in the top 5. I thought it was a serious contender the very first time I heard it, even before I read the translation.
If I’m not mistaken, Claudia Faniello (who sang last at the 2017 MESC) tried 9 times to make it to Eurovision. Her time had probably come and gone before she finally made it.
The first rule when translating a song is keeping the rhymes……
The Travellers are pure class, I suggest that you also check out the following songs in Maltese:
The New Victorians: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6yQ0XcgtrE
AIDAN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wknSQabkBoM
I know the latter artist is very much related to MESC, but the song is super.
I really like the first song
I know people want language diversity at ESC, but the use of English is genuinely widespread in Malta so I don’t think it’s inauthentic for them to sing in English when most Maltese singers are bilingual.
The issue is Malta outsourcing songs to foreign songwriters, not what language they’re singing. And the misuse of public funds.
Malta should send a song in Maltese. It’s such a beautiful language..like a mix of Arabic and Italian
They did it once but failed miserably so I really doubt that they’ll want to try it again
Eurovision has changed.
They had their chance 4 years ago with a better song in Janice Mangion’s “Kewkba”.
Malta should use Muzika Muzika to choose their Eurovision entry like Italy with Sanremo
Malta should do what Malta likes. Not what Malta thinks will give them win.
Indeed. But the problem is that they must also consider which song is likely to draw as many 8-, 10- and 12-point scores as possible from other countries. Which one do they like the most?
wasn’t this quite something! the maltese language is pretty unique. a lot of written things in the props were really similar to Italian (Sfida, Verità, serata) but then when she started singing, I didn’t get a single word. so yes, we need maltese in Eurovision. we need indeed!
Maltese descends from Siculo-Arabic, due to Malta being part of the Arab controlled Emirate of Sicily. So it’s a Semitic language and the only other ESC national language it’s related to is Hebrew. Despite being written in the Latin alphabet, its vocabulary derives from Arabic, Sicilian, Italian and other languages.
So fascinating. I didn’t know that. It actually sounds like a mix of Arabic and Italian. Also most of the people ignore the fact that one of the major contributor to create the English language was an Italian named Giovanni Florio.
cool.. now I think we really need and deserve it in ESC..
Malta should stop buying overly and expensively produced (Swedish) generic and trashy pop songs. This year’s contest showed to its full extent that that’s not the way to go if you want a good result. As long as they refrain from doing that, any other effort is welcome 🙂
Singing JMC in Maltese at this point, feels like damage control after it was revealed how much money and how much of the entry was outsourced overseas (particularly Sweden).
Got love for Destiny though.
And yes, Malta should enter a song in Maltese, with Maltese choreography, Maltese dancers, Maltese stage designers, Maltese fashion designers etc etc.
Thats what all countries should aim for.
Like Ukraine got (as far as I know) an entire Ukrainian team for everything, yet they managed to achieve 5th place (and 2nd in televote) with a song entirely in Ukrainian.
(You can count Iceland too, but mostly because Dadi was responsible for nearly everything, he even helped building the fake keyboards from Gagnamagnid with Arny‘s Dad).
Exactly! This what Eurovision is about. Diversity in music.
All these countries with rich culture and rich music traditions outsourcing rejected Swedish pop cheapens everything, no matter how much they spend on it.
They also wouldn’t be obliged to give their 12 jury points to Sweden either….would free up a lot of votes for deserving countries and keeping the likes of Bjorkmann away from ESC. It’s a win win for everyone.
Even Italy WON with a song entirely in Italian and I think everyone from the team was Italian but u guess we’re kinda used to Italy serving swedenproof quality
It was also entirely written by the band 🙂
The problem is, and I speak as a true maltese, that we are always 5-6 years backwards here in terms of what’s trending in the arts. So while in mainstream musical markets, a sort of trend would be emerging, we would be catching up with what was happening to the music scene perhaps 5-6 years ago. Not to mention that the Maltese public in general has quite a particularly outdated mentality when it comes to arts. Keep in mind, a few weeks ago, PBS organised a song contest for songs in Maltese and while the quality of the production was… Read more »
The answer is: Yes, of course ! Much more countries should send an entry in national language, why not Malta ?. Let´s keep on living diversity !
The translation wasn’t very musical sounding , but I remember hearing very musical sounding phrases in one of their JESC entries.
I really feel sorry about Destiny. She was treated as a puppet that can bring the victory by the broadcaster. I don’t feel sorry though about PBS because next year nobody would want to bet in Malta thinking that it’s the country which pays fake bets.
And even like a puppet on a string.
I think you mean “like a puppet on a striiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing”
Funny how hard Malta tried to fabricate hype this year when they completely threw away Kewkba in 2017. The song was authentic, beautifully sung, and powerful. I’m still not over Kewkba not being sent to Eurovision… it would’ve 100% qualified and seriously challanged Gabbani and Sobral for the win. Even if it hadn’t won, it would’ve been so heartwarming to hear Maltese on the Eurovision stage. Malta c’mon, give us more MALTA!
Also kind of off topic, but Latvia not sending Madara in 2018 made me equally as sad. Another pure, authentic, etherial unique sound the Eurovision stage had not heard before, all sung in beautiful Latvian. And Ireland can we please have a song in Irish? It’s only been like 50 years since the last time you didn’t sing in English, lol
Or Lithuania repeatedly dumping Baltos Varnos several times.
kewkba was not bad but frankly it would have been a borderline qualifier at most
Maybe, maybe not. It’s all speculation what could have been. Just like we fans think this song or that song will win or won’t do well. Post Eurovision, when millions of other people vote, it is very rarely the way we thought it would go initially. Read comments from when songs were released this year, and how things have progressed. It happens every year for as long as I can remember. So my conclusion is that one can never tell what will happen with a song (no matter the language) until the final rehearsals/show.
Malta should send J’aime le Cash sang by its politicians.
why won’t malta send anything in Maltese. its a really nice language, and I bet if destiny sent Caw u Bye instead of Je Me Casse, the people who keep accusing the song of being safe and calculated would be at least slightly quelled
They probably would but objectively listening to this version vs the english one the english one sounds better.
Eurovision is such a great platform to share your special language and culture to a biggg audience, everyone should at least give sending a song in their language a go 🙂
I totally agree with you. But it´s not only the language. I´m also looking forward for some fresh and original entries like Iceland and Lithuania this year.
I agree with you very much!
Yes when it comes to showcasing your culture it’s not only the language. It’s also (for me even more important) the instruments and the music/signing styles. Tbh I have observed that fans sometimes reduce everything too much to language problem.