This IS the night

From timesofmalta.com

Kurt Calleja put paid to the doomsayers and took Malta to the final of the Eurovision Song Contest today.

He gave a confident performance of This is the Night on stage in Baku, smiling constantly as he got the crowd clapping and swinging and can now look forward to coming up against a bit of everything on Saturday – from the Buranovskiye Babushki Russian Grannies to British Crooner Engelbert Humperdinck, 53 years his senior, as well as a number of veritable newcomers.

The countries which qualified this evening – and announced in random order - were Lithuania, Bosnia, Serbia, Ukraine, Sweden, Macedonia, Norway, Estonia, Malta and Turkey.

Kurt and his band jumped for joy when Malta’s qualification was announced, throwing kisses at the cameras, hugging each other and waving small Maltese flags.

This will be the first time that Malta will be in the Eurovision final since Chiara made it for her third time in 2009.

Thea Garrett failed to qualify in 2010 with My Dream and Glenn Vella was unlucky to make it last year with One Life.

The final will be contested by 26 countries – 10 each selected from the two semi-finals, the 'big five - France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and host Azerbaijan.