Junior Eurovision 2021 Review - Malta: Ike & Kaya My Home

The Artist 

Malta is being represented by a duo this year: Ike & Kaya

Ike & Kaya, both born in 2010, won the National Final Malta Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2021 out of a field of 12 to earn their ticket to Paris.

Ike has been in the music industry for three years now, while Kaya has been singing since the age of five and not only participated in last year’s National Final but also won her category at Sanremo Junior. Both have regularly performed at local music festivals, and were introduced to each other at Malta’s Got Talent. 

The Song

My Home is a romantic ballad / pop song akin to something you’d hear from a Disney film, but also contains a touch of rap. The song is fully in English. 

My Home was written by Matt 'MUXU' Mercieca (popular R&B artist in Malta) and Owen Leuellen (finalist in Season 1 of X Factor Malta). 

You can find the song on our YouTube and Spotify playlists.

Malta at JESC 

Malta have taken part at JESC 17 times since their debut in 2003. They have also won the contest twice in 2013 and 2015: Gaia Cauchi with The Start, and Destiny Chukunyere with Not My Soul.

OGAE Australia JESC Team scores and thoughts: 

Ally: 4/10 ✭✭✭✭✩✩✩✩✩✩

It’s a nice enough song, but it’s not one of my faves. I’d prefer this more if there was no rap part in it to be perfectly honest. 

Blake: 3/10 ✭✭✭✩✩✩✩✩✩✩

Oh Malta, this is definitely a choice. Kaya's vocals are nice but apart from that it's really meh, it feels really disjointed and the rap doesn't really add much if anything, but I do see the appeal for some. Definitely not my favourite but it's still OK.

Danie: 5/10 ✭✭✭✭✭✩✩✩✩✩

To be fair, R&B / romance-Disney has never been my go-to genre but this is a fine entry by two really confident and talented kids. The rap does bring something to this song but I'm really not sure how this will go as I’m not the target market. 

Kurtis: 3/10 ✭✭✭✩✩✩✩✩✩✩

Unfortunately, I am not a big fan of Malta’ entry. I watched the live National Selection, and Ike and Kaya were not on my radar to represent Malta. In relation to the song, I do enjoy moments. Ike and Kaya are talented performers, there is no denying that. At times, Kaya has a sweet sounding tone, while Ike brings the dynamism.  The message is clear, talking about Home and how it is important. Overall, it feels very disjointed.

Raquel: 2/10 ✭✭✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩

At the beginning I was like: Oh, this is just a simple, nice, song :) Then the rap bit came and then it kind of ruined it… It was boring to begin with so I think they tried to fix how uninteresting it is by adding the rap but it makes it weird.

Average Score: 3.4

The JESC Team score does not reflect the views of all OGAE Australia