Gianluca Cilia

Gianluca Cilia

Gianluca started participating in various local festivals where he has always been praised and encouraged to keep on nourishing his talent. In 2006 he won the overall Grand Prix of the First International Arpeggio Festival organised by Erseb Productions. This year Gianluca has won the Maltese national selection and will be representing Malta at the 2017 Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Tbilisi in November – a dream come true! His entry is called Dawra Tond, which means turning around and round, a song which depicts unity and positive energy. Dawra Tond also makes references to popular traditional Maltese rhymes. 

Gianluca looks forward to making new friends and performing in front of such a big audience for the very first time. Gianluca’s message to all his fans is to follow your dreams and to work hard at what you enjoy doing.

About the song writers and composers   

From a very young age Dominic Cini showed his passion for music and started singing at the age of six and studied playing saxophone alto until he was 14 years old. Besides singing, his passion for music also led him to write music for established and upcoming artists in Malta. Apart from music, Dominic also has a passion for acting. Musicals and pantomimes are Dominic’s forte. Taking part in several local productions has enhanced his music career and opened new horizons. A yearly appointment for him is the Christmas pantomime which is eagerly awaited every year by the Maltese public.

Dominic participated in several local and international festivals both as a singer and as a composer. In 2009 a song he composed placed third in Festival Indipendenza. 2010 saw Dominic participating as a singer in a big festival in Ukraine – Sea Song Festival – with a song he composed himself and penned by Stephen Baldacchino. His compositions have been well accepted and in 2013, during Festival Indipendenza, his songs placed first and second. Dominic has been in the finals for Malta Eurovision for the last two years. Dominic keeps abreast of the latest music trends through his access to international articles, journals which help Dominic to broaden his passion and musical talent.   

Emil Calleja Bayliss is a Maltese songwriter and has been following the Maltese music scene from a young age. One of his main passions has always been writing and slowly he developed this further thanks to his tutors. In 2012, he competed in his first competition, L-Għanja tal-Poplu, a popular Maltese contest which aims to promote songs in the Maltese language. Since then he has reached the finals of all Maltese competitions that he has entered, successfully achieving top three results in Konkors Kanzunetta Indipendenza Junior, Malta International Song Festival, Summer Hit Contest and Malta Eurovision. 

Emil has also had the opportunity to work with former Eurovision alumni including the 2015 Junior Eurovision winner Destiny Chukunyere and former Maltese representatives at the Eurovision Song Contest Miriam Christine (1996) and Fabrizio Faniello (2001, 2006). He has also worked with a number national final participants including: Danica Muscat, Domenique Azzopardi, Anna Azzopardi, Karen DeBattista, Julie Pomorski, Rita Pace, Mark Tonna, Francesca Borg and Janice Mangion. The latter finished as a runner up this year with a song written in Maltese by Calleja Bayliss. It was the first entry in the Maltese selection which was entirely in Maltese since the early nineties.  

Emil always seeks different opportunities and is never afraid of trying out new things when it comes to songwriting. He considers himself as a relatively new author on the scene, and strives to learn more about the craft of songwriting from the various composers he has had the pleasure of working with. He strongly believes that one can learn something new from every experience you go through.