The journal Popular Music has published an extensive study co-authored by Dr Philip Ciantar (UM) and Dr Rene' Mamo (MCAST) about the popular Maltese song from the late 1960s 'Viva Malta'. The article, entitled "‘Viva Malta’: national unity, loyalty and the familiar in a post-independence Maltese song," provides an in-depth discussion on how and why this song became so popular at that time and is still popular nowadays.
The paper analyses the song's music, its lyrics, as well as the production process behind it, and how each one of these tapped into that which is familiar in order to convey sentiments of national unity, which are central to the sense of loyalty that the lyrics call for.
More details can be accessed through this link.