Chiara Siracusa (born 25 September 1976), known professionally as Chiara, is a Maltese singer. She represented her country in the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

, and

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

and is with a second and a third place the third most successful participant who never won the contest (behind Germany's

Katja Ebstein Katja Ebstein (born Karin Witkiewicz; 9 March 1945) is a German singer. She was born in Girlachsdorf (now Gniewków, Poland). She achieved success with songs such as "Theater (song), Theater" and "Es war einmal ein Jäger". She was married to , w ...

and

Wind Wind is the natural movement of atmosphere of Earth, air or other gases relative to a planetary surface, planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heatin ...

Biography

Eurovision 1998

In 1998, she won Malta's Song for Europe, the country's national final for Eurovision, with the song "

The One That I Love Malta was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1998 with the song "The One That I Love", composed by Jason Cassar, with lyrics by Sunny Aquilina, and performed by Chiara. The Maltese participating broadcaster, Public Broadcasting Services ...

", with which she then took part in

Eurovision 1998 The Eurovision Song Contest 1998 was the 43rd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 9 May 1998 at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, United Kingdom. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster the Br ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

. She finished in 3rd place after a tense voting sequence, with the final voting country pushing her from joint 1st into 3rd, leaving her behind the victorious

Dana International Sharon Cohen (; born 2 February 1969), professionally known as Dana International (), is an Israeli Pop music, pop singer. She has released eight albums and three additional compilation albums. She was the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest ...

of Israel, and behind

Imaani Imaani Saleem (born Melonie Crosdale on 1 January 1972) is a Jamaican-English singer, best known for representing the United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest 1998 in Birmingham with the song "Where Are You". The song placed second in the ...

of the United Kingdom. That was Malta's best ever placing at the time, until the 2002 contest. Chiara told in a BBC interview two years later that she cried for several hours in the bathroom of her hotel suite after losing at Eurovision, but she came to see her high scoring as an achievement.

Eurovision 2005

In 2005, aiming for another chance at Eurovision, Chiara re-entered the Song for Europe festival, and along with 21 other entries reached the final on 19 February with the song ''Angel'', another ballad which this time she wrote and composed herself. For the first time, Malta's Eurovision entry was selected solely by a public vote. Chiara won with 11,935 phone calls, 566 ahead of her nearest rival

Olivia Lewis Olivia Lewis (born 18 October 1978) is a Maltese singer. She has competed in the Malta Song For Eurovision festival, which selects the country's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest several times. At her 11th attempt she finally won the 2007 ...

, and so represented Malta at the

Eurovision Song Contest 2005 The Eurovision Song Contest 2005 was the 50th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Kyiv, Ukraine, following the country's victory at the with the song "Wild Dances" by Ruslana. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union ( ...

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

, Ukraine. Chiara had the distinction of joining an unusually extensive list of 2005 competitors who had competed previously in the contest, including

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

's 1999 runner-up Selma, and

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

Helena Paparizou Helena Paparizou (; ; born 31 January 1982) is a Swedish-Greek singer, and television personality. Born and raised in Sweden to Greek parents, she launched her singing career in Sweden in 1999 as a member of the laïko (Greek folk music) and Eur ...

, who in the 2001 contest was lead singer of third-placed Antique. Chiara came second in the Contest with 192 points, putting her ahead of Malta's only other Eurovision runner-up,

Ira Losco Ira Losco M.Q.R. (born 31 July 1981) is a Maltese pop singer. Her career breakthrough came in 2002, when she represented Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 with the song " 7th Wonder". She placed second in the competition, Malta's best ...

and making "

Angel An angel is a spiritual (without a physical body), heavenly, or supernatural being, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in variou ...

" the most successful Maltese entry of all time. One scholarly study has claimed that, were it not for the effects of regional "bloc" voting, Chiara would have won the Contest.Derek Gatherer, 'Comparison of Eurovision Song Contest Simulation with Actual Results Reveals Shifting Patterns of Collusive Voting Alliances'. http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/9/2/1.html After the result in 2005, Chiara had been working a lot around

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

and abroad, most notably in Greece and Cyprus.. She hosted the Malta Song for Europe in 2008.

Eurovision 2009

The loss of her father in 2008 became tough time for Chiara, but as a tribute to him she was even more determined to achieve further success. Chiara returned to the Malta Eurosong finals with a song composed by Belgian songwriters Gregory Bilsen and Marc Paelinck. On 7 February 2009, Chiara won the Maltese preselection for the

Eurovision Song Contest 2009 The Eurovision Song Contest 2009 was the 54th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Moscow, Russia, following the country's victory at the with the song "Believe (Dima Bilan song), Believe" by Dima Bilan. Organised by the Eu ...

. She represented Malta in the first semi-final in Moscow with her song

What If We ''What If We'' is the second studio album by contemporary Christian musician Brandon Heath. It was released on August 19, 2008 through Provident Label Group. The album debuted at No. 73 on the ''Billboard'' 200. During mid and late 2008, the alb ...

on 12 May. She qualified to the grand final, held on 16 May, and finished 22nd in the final vote.

2010–present

Siracusa was the spokesperson for

at the

Eurovision Song Contest 2010 The Eurovision Song Contest 2010 was the 55th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Oslo, Norway, following the country's victory at the with the song "Fairytale (Alexander Rybak song), Fairytale" by Alexander Rybak. Organise ...

, giving the points awarded from the Maltese voting in the final. In June 2010, she released the Official Malta Gay Pride Anthem, "Believe (We Are One)".

Discography

*1998: ''Shades Of One'' *2000: ''What You Want'' *2003: ''Covering Diversions'' *2005: ''Here I Am'' *2009: ''What If We''

Charted Singles

Eurovision entries

" *"

References

External links

Chiara Siracusa
on

Myspace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Siracusa, Chiara 1976 births Living people 21st-century Maltese women singers 21st-century Maltese singers Maltese pop singers Maltese singer-songwriters 20th-century Maltese women singers 20th-century Maltese singers Maltese people of Italian descent English-language writers from Malta Eurovision Song Contest entrants