Kevin Borg

Early life

Borg was born and raised in Floriana, Malta. He discovered his love for singing as a child when he performed the lead role in the school musical Oliver. His collaboration with composer Jason Cassar led him to participate twice in both the Maltese selection for Eurovision Song Contest and the Malta International TV Song Festival (2006-07). He was a resident singer in the television programme Kalamita (2006–07). Borg has performed with noted Maltese singers Claudia Faniello and Olivia Lewis.

Borg was an footballer, playing for Floriana FC. His grandfather, Lolly De Battista, was the first Maltese footballer to win the Footballer of the Year Award.

Idol 2008

In December 2007, Borg moved to Arvidsjaur, Sweden to live with his Swedish girlfriend. In autumn 2008, he auditioned for the fifth season of the Swedish singing contest Idol. Although he made it through to the final 12 live finals, Borg was not originally among the competition's front-runners. However, his strong performances caused a rapid growth in his popularity with viewers week by week. After making it to the final 2 and performing at Stockholm's Globen Arena before a live audience of 16,000 people, Borg was declared the fifth Swedish Idol on 12 December 2008, defeating Alice Svensson. Throughout the live finals, Borg had never fallen into the bottom three contestants.

Idol performances

2008: Debut single

After having won the Swedish Idol 2008 Borg signed a recording contract with Sony BMG. Borg's coronation song With Every Bit of Me was released one week after he had won the contest. The song was a hit in Sweden, where it debuted at no. 1 and stayed on top of the charts for two consecutive weeks.

2009: First album: The Beginning

On 4 March 2009 Borg officially released his album The Beginning in Sweden. The album reached no. 3 in the charts in Sweden and was certified gold. Borg also released his second single from the album, entitled Street Lights. The single reached no. 10 in Sweden. The album was originally slated for release in February, but since Borg was at that time working on his music video for Street Lights the album was pushed back by a week. Borg made a nationwide tour in the spring and summer of 2009 in Sweden. In November 2012 Borgs music single "Christmas Time" placed No. one on Malta's iTunes chart. He has widened his career as a songrwiter/producer having written and produced the hit song Mental Breaker for the [{South Korea]]n K-Pop group, Block B. The song written by Borg and Marcos Ubeda made it all the way to No 10 on Billboard and other charts.

Borg participated again in the Maltese national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmo with the song "Needing You", which he wrote and produced together with Simon Gribbe, Danne Attlerud, Thomas Thornholm and Michael Clauss, coming in second place. Borg also wrote and composed the song "Storyline" co-written with Gribbe and Aidan O'Connor.

Personal life

In July 2011, Borg married Sofia Lundgren in Arvidsjaur.

Musical participation in Malta

Malta International TV Song Festival

Malta Song for Europe