In reply to an interview the Times of Malta published with Maltasong chairman Robert Abela, former chairman Grace Borg heavily criticised her successor. Abela gets back his critics on the way Maltasong operates back like a boomerang; “As to Mr. Abela's comments regarding the number of people on the organising committee, I believe it's not the number of people that counts but what each one can contribute. As to why I resigned my post as chairman of the Maltasong Board, I would like to make some clarifications”, Borg said.

Although Grace Borg resigned from the Maltasong board, she continues to criticise her successor on his policy and his position before the transfer took place.

Borg refers to complaints from Robert Abela about the quality of songs: “I would like to ask Mr. Abela who advised him that the songs were not up to standard. I say this in view of the fact that Mr. Abela could not possibly know this for himself as he only showed up for a few minutes during the preliminary judging of the songs submitted for Malta Song for Europe”, she emphasized. “Incidentally, I would like to add that, in the interest of Maltese authors and composers, I had introduced a policy that each song submitted was to be played twice not only once for the jury and this in order to be in a better position to give a final judgment. Is Mr Abela aware of the fact that during the 2005 preliminaries, songs were only played once”, she added.

During his interview with the Times of Malta, Mr. Robert Abela told that he doesn't fully agree with 100% televoting and that there should be at least 10 to 15 per cent of the vote in the hands of musically minded judges. Mr. Abela's vision to produce a Maltese Eurovision winning entry is to change the present song festival format. “We would have a singers' festival, followed by another event for composers. I believe it's possible and this way we'll reap better results.”, he explained. However, Portugal, Spain and Ireland tried this format in recent years but they failed to produce a winner.

Mr. Abela also said that the decision on whether to shoot a video or not will be based on the genre of the song. “I can't see anyone playing the video of a ballad and it would be a waste of money”, he declared.

Ms Borg heavily criticised him again by stating that “It was also upsetting to read of Mr Abela's dislike for ballads and that there will be no shooting of videos for ballads as he believes this genre of music does not merit a video.”

� The complete letter of Grace Borg can be found here
� The complete interview with Robert Abela can be found here