Malta: Meet Dr Gianluca Bezzina

/ hulluna

gianlucabezzinaMalta – Our act of the day is Malta, and we’ll be looking at Gianluca Bezzina, a Doctor by day and Eurovision representative by night! Gianluca comes from a musical family and has 7 brothers and sisters who are all musicians or singers. Gianluca, when he is not healing patients, is the frontman of a popular indie funk band, Funk Initiative. Read more about him…

Gianluca was born on 9th November 1989 and says that he draws on a wider variety of influences as a solo artist. He is mostly inspired by Michael Bublé’s brassy standards, John Mayer’s modern blues, the nu-folk style of Mumford and Sons and Noah and the Whale, while also being deeply captivated by Chris Tomlin’s contemporary Christian music. Gianluca is also a regular singer with his prayer group and has also spent time doing voluntary work among children in Turin, Cairo and Palermo, with the sisters of Mother Theresa.

He started off his music career by playing the piano accordion, eventually shifting his focus to singing in various charity concerts around Malta, including the popular biannual Voices concerts and Rockestra, a yearly event organised by the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra and held under the Patronage of the President of Malta. It was through one of these charity events that songwriters Boris Cezek and Dean Muscat approached Gianluca with the intention of collaborating. Originally intended to be a radio hit, ‘Tomorrow’s’ feel-good factor combined with its simple yet meaningful lyrics, possessed all the necessary ingredients to take it to the Eurovision stage this year.

His song this year. ‘Tomorrow’ has been written by Boris Cezek who is is a musician and music producer who is known for being a founding member of Doyaya Studios. His recording studio has made significant contributions to the Maltese music scene. Boris also co-wrote Porn the Musical, which enjoyed critically and commercially successful runs at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Theatre503 in London. The musical went on to win the prestigious Best New Musical at the Off West End Theatre Awards. As a songwriter Dean Muscat has had songs featured on BBC radio, Channel 4’s Hollyoaks and in the UK’s X-Factor magazine. He has worked with several local artists including SALT, Thea Garrett, Raquela DG and Melanie Zammit. Dean joined Doyaya Studios in 2011.

Gianluca recently performed on a local TV show with his musical family, watch ‘Family Bezzina’ performing ‘Tomorrow‘ on Xarabank here:

The Maltese broadcaster has today published the first part of Gianluca’s Amsterdam diary, as he is attending the Eurovision in Concert show this evening. Check it out here.

Read more about Gianluca on his official Facebook page here and follow him on Twitter: @GianlucaESC

‘Tomorrow‘:

Sources: Wiki, Facebook, TVM

74 thoughts on “Malta: Meet Dr Gianluca Bezzina”

  3. Go, Dr. Bezzina! :)

    P.S.: the cards are on the table; a young, male, straight (I think), available (I think), doctor. Krista will be zeroing in on him. Shouldn’t someone warn him? :)

  5. I have just watched the ESCKaz interview from Amsterdam … and Gianluca has a very typical (and quite cute) Maltese village accent. I can already imagine introducing him to my aristocratic Valletta friend Babette … “Oh, you are from the villages, aren’t you? How quaint. Do sit down dear, do you want some tea etc.” …

    • My goodness she mentioned in the video that that have been together for EIGHT years. Just wow.

      Krista got nervous interviewing her lol. Asking for marriage advice lol. How can you not love Krista?

  10. I’m watching the presentation video from Eurovision in concert and guess who’s the most noisy..It’s Krista of course with her ding dong team.

    • The plebs entering … I am perfectly aware that it is an act though. Unfortunately, Krista’s act doesn’t do it for me … in contrast to Sylvia Night’s. :(

        • Plus it was a very witty comment on everything that was wrong with ESC in the noughties. Sylvia Night rules … and only Sébastien Tellier came close when it comes to criticising the glittering superficiality harming ESC’s artistic credibility. The camera shots of France 2008 are epic imo. :)

          • Am I the only one who see a deeper, tragi-comical aspect of Rodolfo Chikilicuatre’s “Baila el Chiki Chiki”? Rodolfo is a modern Don Quixote, living in Spain which is invaded by tourists every summer. Tourists who like to dance to catchy songs like “Vamos a la playa”, “Bailando” and “Asereje”, many og them with their own dance moves. Rodolfo wants to become a pop star, and since these sort of dance songs seem to be the only kind of Spanish music people appreciate, he has become obsessed with the idea that he will make one famous song with an associated coreography by himself. So in the end, he is ready conquering the world with a plastic toy guitar, a silly Elvis haircut and accompanied by his Sancho Panzas; two dancing girls trying to let him live in his imaginary bubble where he is a Spanish pop king and all people in the world know his dance. In fact, his conviction is so strong that he’s singing about it; how everyone in the world are dancing his chiki chiki. A victim of the charter music market, in other words.

            • Aparently Greek televoters did since he got 8 pts.I see what you mean but then again the song was not good.

            • Yeah, what do you say? Do you see any reason why the Greeks would like “Chiki Chiki” so much? Is it somewhat similiar to any kind of music they enjoy listening to? Or can it be that my point is true, that it is another Mediterranenan country recognizing this kind of music which Northern Europeans love to dance to while touristing there in the summer? :)

            • No.I just think that just like Spanish televoters they saw it as a LOL act and decided to support it.Your in-depth analysis on the points Rodolpho is trying to put through may be accurate but i don’t think it troubled the average esc televoter.And i don’t think it should.At the end of the day,it wasn’t good music and people shouldn’t be rewarding intentions but the actual piece of music.

            • in his joke he included a lot of reggeaton cliches (“perreo perreo”) after credible stars like alejandro sanz and shakira started flirting with it, so you might be onto something

          • I’ve always read Estonia 2008 as a clever criticism of the need for most countries to perform in English, which is why I’ve always had it far higher than most fans.

            • The most annoying thing about Estonia 2008 is that I can’t help laughing at it – even though it’s very bad humor indeed and though it represents all the things I don’t want Eurovision to be about.

              They clearly have a point in mocking the worst clichées of ESC performances, but then they just become a part of what they critisize.

            • That’s actually what I really like about it. Much like Sylvia Night, they take Eurovision cliches to the furthest possible extent… to the point where if you don’t realize it’s a parody, you’re looking for a reason to say the song is a regular Eurovision song.

              More importantly, what I am talking about is entirely a lyrical issue. The godawful grammar in the Serbian lyrics, even with such simple phrases, has to be entirely intentional (even in 2008, something like Google translate would have given you a better translation than a majority of those lyrics). To me, the grammar and simple phrases reflect that awful English phrases that had become prevalent in Eurovision from 2000-2008, such as Romania 2006’s memorable: “Like when was together in that dream that could’ve been so right.”

              They also included a meaningless chorus (well, the entire song is meaningless, but the chorus is so meaningless the grocery list verses sounds like poetry) in Serbian, German, and Finnish. This could be a parody of two things. First, it could be a parody of the transition to national language in previous entries. Once again, Romania 2006’s chorus comes to mind. OR the simple phrases that make up the chorus could be a parody of the limited extent of many contestant’s grasp on the English language. I mean, “Sommerlicht, das ist Sommerlicht” can be constructed by a second-week student of the German language. I should know, I wrote a similar phrase my second week learning German. Anyway, the criticism is that using an unfamiliar language that the person is not fluent in was damaging the ability of the song to carry meaning, losing the desired meaning in translation from native language to English. Of course, they couldn’t convey this point by translating lyrics to English thanks to songs like Romania 2006, which already butchered the English language to an extent that it would lessen the effect of the song (Well, I probably wouldn’t have made this interpretation if they sang in English). They had to pick languages that hadn’t been thoroughly butchered in Eurovision yet, and that is why the song is in the three languages that it is in.

              …If I knew enough Serbian to identify all the grammatical errors in the Serbian text, I would write a “Dissecting the Lyrics” about this song.

            • It’s clearly an interesting aspect of the song, but I think most of the viewers were missing it. If you know nothing about Serbian language you’ll never notice the grammatical errors anyway.

            • We can say the same about every unsuccessful critical joke act though. Sylvia Night was a parody of Eurovision costume changes, bad singing, gimmicks, cheap songs, and it was a parody of pop music in general. However, many missed the point of the joke. However, it’s brilliant to those that get it. I think this is the case for all parodies.

              I know many people that didn’t understand that Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” was satirical. That doesn’t lessen its brilliance.

            • But still it should be a song contest rather than a parody contest. So even if the satire in acts like Sylvia Night or Kreisiraadio is on the spot, it’s not promoting credibility.

              That’s not to say I don’t like humor in Eurovision songs. I actually have a weak spot for songs like “Hupa Hule” and “Lost and Forgotten”, and I quite enjoy Guildo Horn’s performance as well. But it should not dominate the contest.

            • I agree with you on all points. While I do believe that Sylvia Night deserved the final, especially in such a weak year, for her parody, the parody in Kreisiraadio probably was too obscure for most voters to care about/understand.

              I do believe that there is a place for joke entries in the contest though.

            • Thanks a lot, Patrick. This is the first time I find sth Leto svet-related interesting. :) If you write a proper essay, you might even get Estonia 2008 out of my ESC hell.

      • I’ve come to terms with her victory and now i’m enjoying the whole act/ding dong thing.Of course,i will never love the song but i can enjoy it.On the other hand,i never liked Sylvia Night.

    • She is so cute, I love her positive attitude..She is the female equivalent to Gianluca this year imo, a bit more restrained probably..Pregnant women always have a certain spark :)

  13. “Originally intended to be a radio hit, ‘Tomorrow’s’ feel-good factor combined with its simple yet meaningful lyrics, possessed all the necessary ingredients to take it to the Eurovision stage this year.”

    I think this pretty much sums up Malta 13. It is a lovely entry on many levels, from the lyrics to the way Gianluca sings with all his positive spirit. I just want to pinch his cheeks whenever I see the official video (and I am following him on facebook) :)

    • having watched brandon flowers live last sunday, it makes me annoyed by andrius’ performance a lot more

      he has a very good song, but no charisma at all

    • Andrius is a rather talented singer-songwriter, but I’m sure he is more than capable of performing small acoustic club gigs, he is certainly not cut out for performing such large concerts where the focus is almost solely on him. Boy oh boy did Lithuania make a huge mistake choosing him for Malmö :(. Gerai Gerai & Miss Sheep would have brought bundles more of charisma and something musically unique to the contest, not to mention a greater chance of qualification.

      Andrius is rather cute though… *blushes profusely*

  16. Off-topic: I just watched ESCKAZ’s interview with Amandine Bourgeois and now I love her even more :D

    She rivals Krista in the charisma stakes, has a great sense of humour and doesn’t take herself too seriously, which is refreshing. She also seems to have a genuine interest in the contest and has the exact same favourites as me :D – the Netherlands, Norway and Montenegro!

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