Malta’s own party: The Busker wanna dance in Liverpool

The trio smashed through the quarter-finals and semi-finals of the Malta Eurovision Song Contest, where the country chooses which act to send to Eurovision. After the competition started out with a whopping 40 songs (that’s even more entries than the Eurovision Song Contest this year), The Busker landed amongst the 16 chosen for the Grand Final. And following a public and jury vote, they won overall with a 36-point lead.

The Busker say they feel better in a sweater, and on that note they turned up to their first rehearsal wearing not one, but two sweaters - all courtesy of a classic Eurovision Song Contest outfit reveal. The band brought some serious funk on Sunday 30 May, as they made their own technicolour party on the Eurovision stage. They lit up the arena with vibrant lighting, smooth moves, and the presence of a saxophone goes without saying. The answer is most certainly yes, we wanna dance.

Between busting moves in the green room, the official Eurovision Live Blog reported: "Staging-wise, The Busker have brought ALL the props, with a four-part set that features a party house (featuring the Destiny cardboard cutout!), a yellow park bench and a lamppost, a red car and a tiny room with a sofa. The band dance between each part of the set, and it's a clever bit of visual storytelling in 3 acts."

Dance (Our Own Party) is all about escaping to spend time with friends in a comfortable setting. The Busker put that into practice when they gathered with buddies to watch the Euro 2020 final between Italy and England, dressed in England football shirts and singing It’s Coming Home at the tops of their voices. It might be best not to mention that match in Liverpool.

Much like their sound that borrows from different genres, The Busker listen to a wide range of music. They might be found swaying to Jason Mraz’s The Remedy, air-guitaring to Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody or doing karaoke to David Bowie’s Life On Mars? A lot of classics make up their playlist, and they’re clearly inspired by vintage vibes.

The morning after the London pre-Eurovision party, The Busker chatted with the Official Eurovision Song Contest podcast, with David saying, “For us, Eurovision is such a big thing. It is the main event really to music.”

Sax player Sean explained how most Maltese people follow Eurovision very closely, and how he got spotted the day after they won the national selection in his usual coffee spot. “Cars honking, stopping saying hello, people coming to buy me coffee… It was really surreal to be honest,” he said. “Having the Maltese people behind you is something words can’t really quantify.”

There’s more from The Busker on Episode 12 of the Official Eurovision Song Contest Podcast.

You can learn more about The Busker from Malta right here.