500 entries for 2016 Gib Song Festival

This year’s Gibraltar International Song Festival has seen hundreds of entries from 30 countries including Indonesia and Pakistan for the very first time. 14 songs will compete in this fourth year in its present edition. With 500 songs received from around the world there were also entries from America, Argentina, Brazil, Finland, Israel, Mexico, Switzerland and the UK.

The hundreds of songs were whittled down to 14 after months of deliberation by the panel of judges. The competition which takes place on Saturday 23 April will once again be live streamed, and will include a performance from the tribute act the Bootleg Beatles.

“The number of entries for us is very encouraging because it means we are getting out there, we are reaching all corners of the globe,” said one of the organisers John Dawes.

At a press conference Mr Dawes, alongside Chairman Joe Carseni, Johnny Jones, James Gomez, and Joe Cortes, spoke of the multiculturalism of the participating songs. One of the songs in the final features verses in Norwegian, Polish and English, another song will be performed in Hebrew and English.