Ira Losco (born July 31 1981) is one of Malta's most famous pop singers. She was born in Sliema, a small town on the island.

Ira Losco started her musical career in 1997 as a member of a band called Tiara. They performed in clubs in the Paceville area, the musical area of Malta. They were voted best band at the Student Festival of 1999.

In 2000 Ira Losco made her first steps in showbusiness as a solo singer. She participated in the national preselections for the Eurovision Song Contest with two songs. This resulted in appearances in many tv-shows. She played one of the main roles in a Maltese musical called Rita. In 2001 she participated in the national selections for Eurovision again, now being the runner-up behind Fabrizio Faniello .

Ira participated in several festivals and was voted "Best Female Singer" at the Malta Music Awards 2001. In 2002 she represented Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest staged in Tallinn, capital of Estonia. After a desperately close run race against Latvia, her song "7th wonder" was ultimately beaten into second place, which nonetheless rated as Malta's best showing in the contest to date.

The most eye-catching moment in her performance of "7th wonder" on stage in Tallinn came when she blew glitter off the palm of her hand, a stunt familiar to Maltese viewers from her performance of "Spellbound" in the country's national selection a year earlier. In order to achieve this, however, she first had to fumble to reach the glitter which was concealed underneath her dress, a very visible and initially baffling manouevre that perhaps fleetingly quickened the pulse of the unknown percentage of viewers across Europe who were secretly hoping that Ira, in a full-blooded push for victory, might in fact have been gearing up to indulge in some trademark Eurovision costume-shedding. Bizarrely, the fact that she wasn't almost seemed to prove the vital missing ingredient in the final analysis, since the narrow victory of her Latvian nemesis Marie N was, by most observers, largely attributed to the performing of what at the time was the most elaborately-choreographed striptease in the contest's history - although there have since been a few challengers for that mantle.

In spite of the disappointment of a near miss, laced with the odd grumble in the Maltese press that a rightful victory had been denied by dubious voting patterns, Ira returned to her homeland as a heroine. Although she has not sought to represent Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest since, she was effectively afforded a 'lap of honour' at the 2003 national selection, during which she sang a string of songs. This was perhaps a slightly over-the-top indulgence for someone who had not, after all, actually won the Eurovision Song Contest, but to be fair it could also be seen as a nod to her extraordinary contribution to the national selection itself over the previous three years, performing as she had two of the contending songs in both 2000 and 2002, and no fewer than four in 2001.