[WATCH] Isle of MTV festival rocks crowds at Floriana

Isle of MTV festival rocks crowds at Floriana

Some 50,000 music lovers, locals and tourists alike, turned up at the Granaries in Floriana for the annual Isle of MTV music festival last night.

Now in its 11th year in Malta, the annual summer festival shows no sign of slowing down and indeed attracted some of the world’s big names in pop music. 

The show kicked off with a performance from Raye, a 19-year-old English singer who rocked the stage with her hit song ‘You Don’t Know Me’. 

Raye (Photos by James Bianchi/MediaToday)

She also performed the hit single ‘By Your Side’, as part of a duet with DJ Jonas Blue, who was himself one of the four acts who were invited to the stage. 

Indeed, Jonas Blue treated the crowds to his pop dance songs, with the crowd going wild when he turned on his hit ‘Perfect Strangers’. 

Jonas Blue (Photos by James Bianchi/MediaToday)

New dance-rock band DNCE, which features former Jonas Brother Joe Jonas as its lead vocalist, didn’t fail to come up to expectations, rocking the crowd with hits like ‘Toothbrush’ and ‘Cake on the Ocean’. 

DNCE (Photos by James Bianchi/MediaToday)

The headline act of the night, and the last to take to the stage, was the US duo The Chainsmokers, who belted out hits such as ‘Paris’, ‘Don’t let me Down’ and ‘Closer’ – the latter song of which has garnered 1.6 billion views on YouTube. 

The Chainsmokers (Photos by James Bianchi/MediaToday)

The stars had words of praise for Malta during a press conference on Tuesday afternoon at the Radisson Hotel. 

“We’ve just landed in Malta, and it feels like summer, it feels like where we should be,” Alex Pall from The Chainsmokers said.  

“We’ve never been here before and we only just arrived from Belfast this morning, but we’ve looked at Google images of Malta and its beautiful,” the other ‘Chainsmoker’, Alex Taggart quipped.

Joe Jonas had set his expectations high for the night, telling the press that he wants the Isle of MTV festival to be one of the band’s “most memorable shows”. 

“It’s a tiny island, but there will be 50,000 people at the show tonight so it won’t be a tiny crowd,” he said. “It will be exciting for people who don’t get to see shows like this so often. We hope to have loads of fun and energy and to take this energy to other shows.”

Not a stranger to Malta, Jonas Blue said that he has DJed a couple of times at Cafe del Mar before but hasn’t had any time to explore the island yet. 

“As a DJ, you don’t get to see many places besides clubs… I’ve been in many hotel rooms and I can tell you a lot about the Malta Airport,” he quipped. 

Raye said that Malta is a beautiful country, and had gushing thanks for the organisers for inviting her to the show. 

“I went on a jet ski for the first time in my life this morning,” she said. “Playing in a sunny country is so different from what I’m used to.”

The Isle of MTV festival was broadcast live on TV in 20 countries and was streamed live on Facebook and Snapchat. 

Some 170 police officers and 300 security guards were on duty on the night, and their duties included ensuring that no prohibited items entered the Granaries. Apart from weapons, glass bottles, fireworks and professional recording equipment, the list of prohibited items also included rucksacks, selfie-sticks, drones and umbrellas.