MALTA • BALLADS AND SUNG CONTEST

The Maltese are so fond of their folk poetry that immigrant communities in Europe, America or Australia regularly invite popular singers to enable them to revive their culture and their memories. The Maltese folk songs comprises the ghana tal fatt or narrative poem in verse: tragic ballads, moral tales or satires, and the spirtu pront, improvised quatrains that the singers throw at each other like in a joust. Frans Baldachino "Il Budaj" known as the best ballad singer of his time sings the The ballad of the bride of Mosta and The ballad of serenity and Karmenu Bonnici "Il-Bahri", a fisherman, challenges him in the spirtu pront.