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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 23 NOVEMBER 2014 3 News CHUCKY BARTOLO AMBER has won Saturday night's final with her compelling perform- ance of the power ballad Warrior. The win comes after she received the most combined points (72) from both the public's televoting as well as the jury members. All five members of the jury awarded her 12 points, as did the votes of the viewers back home. Christabelle Borg placed 2nd while Glen Vella took the 3rd place. Flanked by writer Matt (Muxu) Mercieca and composer Elton Zahra, an emotional Amber took to the stage to once again perform her winning song. The duo behind Warrior are no strangers to Eurovision success after having worked together on Gaia's The Start which won the Junior Euro- vision in Kiev just last year. They also penned Federica's Diamonds and last night's runner up Rush. Saturday night's show opened with Conchita Wurst, the bearded-Bond girl and last year's controversial win- ner, who took to the stage to belt out her winning anthem Rise like a Phoe- nix. After all the acts were done, she returned to perform her new single: Heroes. Hosted by Lyona Xuereb and Dan- iel Chircop, Saturday night's final was held at the newly renovated Marsa Shipbuilding. In true Eurovision style the presenters attempted to enthuse the crowd between performances with a series of jokes that almost al- ways fell flat. However not all Euro- vision traditions were upheld, with Lyona only undergoing one costume change towards the end of the show. Last year's winners of the Malta Eurovision Song contest Firelight also performed on the night. Starting with Coming Home (the song that took them to Copenhagen earlier this year), the band then performed two new songs they've penned since their win. Although Amber's song was hotly tipped to win, other audience favorites included the runner-up Christa- belle, Franklin and the Ekklesia Sis- ters. Between her stage presence and the catchy tune, it's no surprise that Christabelle's Rush placed sec- ond scoring a combined total of 47 points. Malta's own Disney prince Fran- klin placed 5th (totaling 26 points) after his powerful performance of Still Here. In a surprising twist, the Ekklesia Sisters became one of the more controversial acts, with some people supporting them for their at- tempt, while many others voiced their concern over the novelty value of the act not compensating for the flat per- formance of their song. This year also saw the return of two Malta Eurovision Song Contest veter- ans. Ludwig Galea who formed part Trilogy, placed 10th, while Lawrence Gray's comeback found him tied in 8th place. Vocally most acts were on point, however the song selection this year was lacking to say the least. A lot of the songs didn't have that defining quality that would help them stand out from the rest, and if it weren't for the impressive stage and exciting vis- uals a number of performances would have verged on the boring. Amber will be representing Malta in the 60th annual Eurovision Song Contest, which will take place in Vi- enna, Austria. Read Chucky Bartolo's blow-by-blow live blog of last night's performance on MaltaToday's portal: http://bit.ly/1BZjRoy Amber battles her way to the top of the Eurovision crop Amber wowed the crowds at the Marsa Shipbuilding last night, winning the Malta Eurovision Song Contest with fan-favourite power ballad Warrior Amber raked in 72 combined points to win last night's contest Christabelle placed second place with the uplifting dance number Rush Eurovision returnee Glen Vella secured third place Malta's Disney prince: Franklin was another fan-favourite Fail better: Lawrence Gray's valiant attempt to yet again secure a win landed him in 8th place The Ekklesia Sisters were the curiosity of the night and tugged at the public's heart strings, but ultimately only managed 7th place PHOTOGRAPHY BY WWW.PICTURETHIS.COM