THE BEGINNING OF THE JOURNEY

Watching Eurovision last night (yes that's right. I was watching Eurovision. Wanna make something of it?) I was surprised as I always am at the shocking quality of the English lyrics. A constant barrage of cliche and mixed metaphor, half arsed paens to peace and coming together across europe, or dreadful love songs. Is this the best that our European comrades can come up with when they adopt the English language?

Then watching Malta's entry - actually a pretty good number sung by a... how can I put this? A well rounded performer, the Moyet-like Chiara - I expressed my feelings about the poor quality of the English. They are -

Words of wisdom, prophets and quotes
Wise men talking, tales from the old
I reach for the stars, wherever they are, in darkness
We’re lost, fading away

What if we could be free?
Mystify our wisdom in time
and one day we’ll see
What if we found the key?
Throw the dice, unravel our lies
and learn how to be

All the madness feeding our soul
Take a wild guess out of control
There will be a star, no matter how far, shining
One day we’ll sail away

What if we could be free?
Mystify our wisdom in time
and one day we’ll see
What if we found the key?
Throw the dice, unravel our lies
and learn how to be

If you don’t know your destination
Who determines your destiny?

What if we could be free?
Mystify our wisdom in time
and one day we’ll see
What if we found the key?
Throw the dice, unravel our lies
and learn how to be

I know - what a load of rubbish.

Here's the tune -



I foolishly remarked to the gathered few (i'd like to point out - it wasn't a Eurovision party, jut a few people drinking wine and watching Eurovision. Totally different) how the lyrics just weren't good enough - at which point I was challenged "I'd like to see you write a better song in Maltese"
To which I replied - "I could - and I will!" So I am now commited to writing a song, in Maltese, of a quality higher than that produced by professional writers and musicians. Albeit professional writers and musicians - from Malta.

As well as this as a fan of the Tony Hawks/ Danny Wallace/ Dave Gorman 'challenge' novel genre I couldn't just leave it at that. What's the point in just writing a song, and playing it to a few people I know? How can I judge whether or not it is better than "What if we"?

The only way to know for sure is to -

1. To get my song (when written) selected to represent the Republic of Malta in Eurovison 2010
2. Achieve more than the 31 points/ 22nd place achieved by Chiara.

To achieve this I need to overcome some baoundaries -

1. Unlike comedian/ writers Messers Wallace, Hawks and Gorman - I've got a full time job.
2. I don't speak any Maltese, have never been to Malta, and don't know anyone from Malta
3. I'm not a particularly good song writer - i've written a handful in my life, none of which have ever been particuarly good. My main issue is that other than being able to just about hold a tune and play approximately 7 chords on the guitar I have no musical talent whatsoever.

So here we go then... come along for the ride. Who knows? It might end up being made into a Hollywood film starring Jim Carrey.

Ha jkolli mmur - Ghandi bzonn nipprattika l-Malti!