Last night saw the eighth episode of Lovin Live continue the madness, and this time it featured singing sensation Brooke Borg and culinary genius Marvin Gauci. In between the jokes, the real talk and the constant code-switching, 30 minutes flew by. Here’s a rundown of last night’s episode.

1. Brooke’s Eurovision past… and future

You can’t really talk about Brooke without mentioning her Eurovision past. The young Maltese singer has only been participating in the widely famous competition for two years now, but she’s managed to finish in second and fourth place in 2016 and 2017 respectively. This year, she’s coming back for one more year with her new song Heart of Gold.

Of course, it wouldn’t be an episode of Lovin Live without Chucky trying to elicit some shade, and the subject quickly turned to Brooke’s first year the Eurovision. That was the year when she came second to Ira Losco, who eventually ended up changing her entry by the time she got to represent Malta abroad.

Contrary to some reactions that notorious decision had evoked, Brooke seems to have agreed wholeheartedly with the change because “the song needed changing.”

We don’t know about you, but that sounds a lot like subtle shade (even if Brooke meant it in the best way possible).

2. Marvin arrives… with a sword and a huge bottle of prosecco, of course

Malta’s very own culinary genius, Marvin Gauci is known for his over-the-top antics, amazing gimmicks and mouth-watering dishes, but his pièce de résistance a party trick where he opens large bottles of champagne and prosecco with a sword straight out of the Napoleonic era. Yep, you read that right.

And of course, what better to come on our show, than to do just that? And wouldn’t you know – we had a big old bottle of Santa Margherita Prosecco straight out of P. Cutajar‘s Christmas Hamper Catalogue ready for Marvin to do his thing!

The whole thing went off without a hitch, probably considering Marvin does this on a regular basis (and has even done with 15 litre bottles before).

3. So about that sword…

Chucky was quick to ask for more information about the infamous sword, and Marvin was happy to oblige.

The star chef traced the purchase of the sword back to his son’s baptism, saying he wanted to celebrate such a momentous occasion by purchasing something very special.

4. “Marvin called me fat… “

Remember what we said about shade? 

Well, there was some thrown Chucky’s way even before this week’s episode, when the first thing Marvin told him when he met him was that he had gotten fat since the last time they met.

Marvin quickly cleared the air, smiling and saying he meant Chucky got, “bigger”.

5. Q: What would a Xarabank-themed dish look like? 

A: Better than a Benjamin-themed one, apparently!

Chucky had an interesting proposition for Marvin; seeing as he had just unveiled a new Narcos-themed dish at one of his restaurants, how would he reinterpret some of Malta’s biggest shows on TV?

Well, it was a very interesting (and actually accurate) one for Xarabank, where Gauci focused on Mark Laurence Zammit as the pretty-much-new-host.  

As for a dish representing Benjamin’s Ben Camille? “Mhux naqa ħassa, qisu Ken ta’ Barbie!”

6. Marvin Gauci… or is it Galea?

Back when the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was all the rage, Marvin had taken up the challenge, nominating Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to do the same.

Many people may have called out the Prime Minister’s name at the end of their own short clips, but it was Marvin who managed to catch Muscat’s attention. 

In the now-viral video, a significantly more casually-dressed Prime Minister (alongside Konrad Mizzi) can be seen getting a bucketful of ice-cold water, but not before thanking his nominator… Marvin Galea. 

A genuine mix-up stemmed from a harsh critic of the Prime Minister with the same surname, the episode was very hilarious, albeit a bit awkward. Marvin seems to have taken it all in his stride though.

7. The ghosts of Brooke’s past come back to haunt her

Leave it up to Chucky to dig up some cringeworthy moments from his guests’ past!

Being a child star in the late 90s and early 00s, Brooke has definitely worked on a wide variety of projects in her life. 

And while some moments like her appearances on retro children’s show Tinu and her performance at the 2003 Junior Eurovision Song Contest for Like A Butterfly alongside her brother Brendan (check out that Naughties rap style!) were quite old, a certain clip alongside Ben Camille was just a couple of weeks old…

Props to her for taking it all like a proper champ though!

8. Mary Spiteri, Claudia Faniello and Ira Losco impersonations: GO

And just like that, Brooke was off, perfectly copying the three popular Maltese singers of Eurovision past like it was nothing. 

It soon became clear that Brooke had studied some of Malta’s most popular female singers to get to where she was, especially Ira Losco (who she could imitate down to a tee).

And that’s a wrap!

Here’s the episode in all its glory, and as always, stay tuned for next week’s episode!

We’d like to thank our sponsors throughout the show, Satariano Home for the stunning furniture, Laferla for insuring Chucky, P. Cutajar for the wine, Kaxxa Packaging, and Muscats Motors for graciously providing Chucky’s ride!

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David Grech Urpani

Lovin Malta's Head of Content, Dave has been in journalism for the better half of the last decade. Prefers Instagram, but has been known to doomscroll on TikTok. Loves chicken, women's clothes and Kanye West (most of the time).