Sophie Debattista

June 2012

MY mum is from Nottingham and she met my dad while on holiday in Malta. It was love at first sight, apparently.

They were both attached to their home towns but eventually my mum gave in and moved to Malta.

We have a family restaurant based in Bugibba called The Mirabelle. Dad is a full-time manager and sometimes helps out in the kitchen. My mum used to be have her own hair salon but she now just does a couple of her friends’ hair.

I still have family in Nottingham. My nana and nanu Bow (grandfather), uncle Stew, auntie Sam, my two lovely cousins George and Ollie, who live in Hucknall and many other great uncles, aunties and cousins spread around Nottinghamshire. I love visiting them whenever I have a chance, so this summer I’ll hopefully be up to visit them more often then usual.

I recently moved to London, as did my sister Charlotte, so my parents are enjoying a break from running around after both of us.

I will be starting my very first UK tour soon, which is extremely exciting. Getting a chance to tour the UK has always been one of my biggest dreams.

As I’m half English, the UK has always been an important part of my life. I have been travelling back and forth for as long as I can remember.

I was interested in music from the word go. When we were much younger, my sister and I would always put on little musical shows for my mum and dad. We copied dance moves from Steps and S Club 7.

A I got older I realised that it was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

My parents aren’t musical at all. They are very supportive but that’s as far as it goes. My dad likes to think that he’s a good dancer but I guess every dad thinks that.

I’ve been performing shows in Malta and appearing on TV for quite a few years.

I do get recognised in the street and people ask for my autograph or to have a picture.

I think it’s so sweet when things like this happen.

It’s so hard to pick my biggest gig to date, as I have performed in a couple of huge events before which have been outstanding experiences. I opened the Maltese Tribute to Michael Jackson after he had passed away, performing at the Malta Music Awards, the Malta Fashion Awards and The Junior Eurovision.

I love being Maltese and coming from such a small but beautiful island.

My new single is a version of Bobby Hebb’s Sunny. My producer Elton Zarb and I have taken the song to a completely different level. We can’t wait to see what everybody else thinks of it. It’ll be released at the end of summer on the Thru The Mill label with my album following in September through Absolute/Universal Music.

I’ve been working on that for two years with Elton Zarb and other producers Giles Squire and Bill Young. They’re all my own lyrics. I’m really proud of it.

Sophie will be appearing at the Ashfield Festival in Sutton-in-Ashfield on Saturday July 7. For more about her go to www.totallysophie.com, follow her on Twitter @totallysophie, find her onfacebook.com/totallysophiemusic and listen to her latest single at soundcloud.com/totallysophiemusic.

Holiday hell: Malta

Condoms, stains, stale smoke and misery in Malta

Topaz Hotel, Bugibba, Malta, Spring 2007

We were part of a 10-day wedding package holiday booked through Travelcare in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire. There were 13 of us each paying around £500 each.
According to the Travelcare website: “The Topaz Hotel is one of the best in its category. The award winning performance is the result of careful attention to detail and standard of service”. Each room has “a mini bar” (nope), “cable TV” (there are two English channels), “fitness room/gym” (err, no) and “tennis courts” (there is one volleyball court).

1. We arrive at 2am to be told there is no room service and therefore we can’t have any alcohol to toast our arrival. Apparently room service is ‘peak season only’. So, we ask for water and are told it’s available to buy from a Pepsi machine. And why is there no tea/kettle facilities in each room? Surely that’s basic for a four star hotel!?

2. Within 60 seconds of entering our room we find a USED CONDOM by the bed. Has the room been cleaned at all we wonder? Whose germs will we be sleeping in tonight? Added to that the patio door doesn’t lock. There is a roof below so it’s a clear security risk. In the morning we report the condom find and are told by the receptionist ‘are you sure it was there when you went in the room?’ Unbelievable. She then says she will have it cleaned up. No. We insist on a room change.

3. The next room we move to is thankfully condom free and the patio door locks. But like the other room and all others in fact, looks like a YMCA. The hotel is badly outdated. It has been a long time since there has been a refurbishment. Clearly.

4. We have to leave a deposit to hire a remote control for the television. A small, very basic TV. It has TWO English channels.

5. We have to pay for the safe in our room. Not a deposit - an actual hiring charge.

6. The shower in our room floods the bathroom every time we have a shower. Simply because the curtain isn’t long enough.

7. The swimming pool loungers fall apart, are filthy and very dated. When was the last time they were replaced? Or even cleaned?

8. The hotel bar -- The Royal Oak -- smells of stale cigarette smoke. It is now ‘no smoking’ but has clearly not been refurbished since the ban came in to force. Or, one assumes, since the 80s.

9. The food in the restaurant is adequate (sometimes very good, other times poor) but the dining room is, again, outdated. There are some very visible stains on a few of the chairs.

10. As well as ourselves, 2 other members of our (wedding) party of 13 insist on moving rooms. One moves three times in three days. This includes the bride and groom. Complaints include: pubic hair in the ‘cleaned’ shower and another unlockable patio door. It is noted that hotel reception is keeping a WAITING LIST for unhappy residents wanting a room change.

11. As part of the wedding package it was arranged that the bride and groom would have a welcome pack. The groom had arranged that his bride-to-be would find in their room flowers and champagne. There is nothing.

12. Three members of our party, us among them, are keen gym-goers and looking forward to the gym facilities in the hotel AS STATED IN THE BROCHURE. Only to find the gym closed. None existent in fact. As a result we sign up to a local gym (I use the term loosely) at £18 each for 7 days. It is so poor -- effectively a room with cheap machines and maybe a dozen free-weights -- that we attend once never to return.

13. Noise in the hotel is phenomenal. Not because of rowdy guests but down to the carpet-free floors and corridors which amplify the slightest sound. The look of it reminds us of a hospital.

14. The games room is basic, shoddy, inadequate.


15. There are three internet terminals in reception -- that you have to pay for.

16. During our 10 day stay we heard of four incidents of guests getting trapped in the veteran lifts.

Aside from the hotel misery, there was little relief to be found in Bugibba itself, a beach free resort that had the look of Beirut - a building site that one wondered was either half finished being built or demolished. And virtually every bar/restaurant bathroom was a despicable sewer.


Following a detailed letter of complaint to Travelcare and their "investigation" in the turd in the crown of Malta, they offered no apology, no refund, no real explanation as to why this appalling hotel remains in their brochure.