The sixth and last semi final of the Maltese selection for the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest is about to be held. Another six acts will compete to be among the 20 that will reach the grand final on 20th February.

Webcast

You can follow the show via webcast here.

The line-up

Composer/lyricist in brackets.

1. Ruth Portelli – Three little words
   (Philip Vella/Gerard James Borg)
2. Roger Tirazona – Silver rain
   (Paul Abela/Joe Julian Farrugia)
3. Jessica Muscat – Fake
   (Philip Vella/Gerard James Borg)
4. Silver Clash – Broken
   (Robert Parde)
   
5. Lawrence Gray – Stories
   (Ray Agius/Godwin Sant)
6. Dorothy Bezzina – Moments
   (Chan Vella/Alexia Schembri)

Your opinion

You can vote for your favourite song out fo the first five semi finals below. After the last song was performed tonight, another poll will be launched for the sixth semi final.

• 1st semi final poll here.
• 2nd semi final poll here.
• 3rd semi final poll here.
• 4th semi final poll here.
• 5th semi final poll here.

LIVE

The performances are starting!

1. Ruth Portelli – Three little words

Ruth Portelli competed in the Maltese semi final last year with two songs but did not make it past the semi finals. Tonight, she performs a song by the familiar team of Philip Vella and Gerard James Borg, who already wrote the Maltese entries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000, 2002, 2004, 2007 and 2008.

Now what could those "three little words" mentioned in the title be? Have a guess, it's not too hard! Ruth Portelli performs a gentle ballad that creates a musical atmosphere on stage. The melody is not too memorable and the vocals are rather shaky, which should not make this effort a favourite to qualify. Ruth herself seems a bit uncomfortable on stage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww0d7qqJZZ0

2. Roger Tirazona – Silver rain

Roger Tirazona competed three times as a soloistso far and another three times as part of Trilogy. The band achieved their best result in 2007 with Starlight when they came second behind Olivia Lewis.

While it is raining gold in Switzerland, Silver rain is a motto in Malta tonight. The song itself is a rather simple ballad which gains most of its dramatic atmosphere from the over-the-top (but flawless) vocal performance and stage performance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XngS9mP-SyY

3. Jessica Muscat – Fake

Jessica Muscat already compete in the semi finals in 2008 and 2009 but never qualified for the final. She tries to be third time lucky with the first up-tempo song of the night. Fake is a classic pop/dance song with some customary sound effects but a rather catchy melody. The song obviously suffers from the low sound quality of the broadcast but could be more impressive in a high-quality studio version despite its simple structure. The singer delivers a confident performance although her facial expressions look slightly worried at some points.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EmLF5vvcV4

4. Silver Clash – Broken

SilverClash try to follow in the footsteps of Bobbysocks, the only female duo to win the Eurovision Song Contest to date. Both ladies seem very nervous and the whole performance therefore suffers from the lack of exerience compared to the previous three acts. The song, which has a rather monotonous melody, could be classified classic girl group pop, a genre that has never done very well in the Eurovision Song Contest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX9SH1-jfcw

5. Lawrence Gray – Stories

Lawrence Gray has already taken part six times, the last time in 2004. Half of his previous participations resulted in a

We are in for another ballad. While the song itself is not overly outstanding compared to the other ballads in the running this year (it could well fit in the Disney films The hunchback of Notre Dame), it might well gain popularity thanks to the operatic/musical-like vocals, which are flawlessly performed by the singer. The number of operatic entries in national finals has increased all over Europe in recent years, although those eventually selected for Eurovision have only received medium results.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ9gr_bTIoo

6. Dorothy Bezzina – Moments

This is the second time that Dorothy Bezzina competes for the second time. Last year, she finished 16th with Promises, performed as a duet with Vittorio.

We stay in the musical theatre. The song is not too different from the previous one, although the vocal performance is more in the pop genre. Dorothy delivers a confident performance with strong vocals. Although it is generally among the stronger efforts this year, it might need some more work to win the hearts of the jury members and the televoters in the Eurovision Song Contest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8zhd61cswI

This concludes tonight's performances. As always, the televoting will be open until this Saturday, 16:30 CET. The 20 qualifiers will be announced next Wednesday.

• You can now vote for your favourite in the sixth semi final here.