Mary Spiteri (born 25 October 1947) is a Maltese singer and television personality from

Naxxar Naxxar () is a town and local council in the Northern Region of Malta. The population in March 2014 was 14,891. The Naxxar Church is dedicated to Our Lady of Victories. The annual village feast is celebrated on 8 September. It formerly hoste ...

. She has participated in various national and international music festivals, one of which she came third when representing Malta 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 ...

. She is known for her support for the Labour Party in her home country.

Eurovision and later

Spiteri represented

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 ...

in the 1992

held in

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

, Sweden, with the song "

Little Child "Little Child" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1963 UK album ''With the Beatles''. It was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney for Ringo Starr, but Starr was instead given "I Wanna Be Your Man" as his album song. B ...

". Spiteri finished in third place behind Ireland and the United Kingdom. But 1992 was not Spiteri's first attempt at

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

. In 1971, she participated in the Maltese heat of

with the song "Min Int?" (Who Are You?). Another attempt was made in 1975 when Spiteri performed two songs in the Maltese final, "Live For Tomorrow" and "Try a Little Love Today". After her 1992 appearance, Spiteri became something of a diva figure to Eurovision fans and was presented with an award by

Eurovision Network Eurovision is a pan-European television telecommunications network owned and operated by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). It was officially founded in 1954 in Geneva, Switzerland, and its first official transmission took place on 6 June 19 ...

at their convention held in Coventry that year. Spiteri's subsequent efforts to return to the Eurovision stage have not been successful. She was unplaced in the 1995 Maltese final with "Just One Love" but managed third place in 1997 with "Lovers Play with Words". In September 2006, Spiteri announced that she hoped to participate in the Malta Song for Europe Festival in 2007, and submitted a number of songs, none of which were selected for the Maltese Song for Europe Festival. Spiteri tried again and she has successfully entered two songs which competed in Malta Song For Europe in 2008, but was unsuccessful in reaching the Eurovision. In 2014, it was announced that Spiteri held the longest note for 13 seconds in Eurovision Song Contest history with her performance of Little Child in 1992.

References

1947 births Living people 20th-century Maltese women singers 20th-century Maltese singers 21st-century Maltese women singers 21st-century Maltese singers People from Naxxar Eurovision Song Contest entrants {{Malta-bio-stub