MALTA 2025

The Maltese act and song was selected on February 1st via the show "Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2025". In the week leading up to the final there were two semi finals reducing the field from 24 to 16. A winner was selected by adding a equal amount of jury and televote scores. Going to Basel is Miriana Conte with the song "Kant" (Singing)

Mirana Conte may only be in her mid-twenties but she is already a seasoned singing star. She first attempted to sing at Eurovision in 2017 with the song "Don't Look Down" but unfortunately she came in last place. Undeterred, she came back in 2018 with "Rocket" and finished 12th. This same year she entered the first edition of "X Factor Malta". She and three other solo singers were placed together to form 4th Line and they got through to the live shows. Her third attempt in MESC happened in 2022 where her song "Look What You've Done Now" placed 6th in the final. She tried again in 2023 and finished 9th with "Venom"

This is giving Drag Race does Sound of Music and keeps you on your toes for the 3 minutes. Miriana starts in a white pinstripe dress with netted green fringe along her shoulder line. Underneath is later revealed a leopard print bodysuit with a leotard and bodice, in a similar print, on top. On stage are 5 dancers who start in green and white Alpine inspired outfits but later appear in furry bathing outfits. The backdrop shows pink and purple mountain scenes, echoing the Alpine concept. The song is verse - long pre chorus - chorus which runs through twice before a bridge, a short pre-chorus and final chorus. Miriana plays the Maria persona and the dancers are the Von Trapp children - there is even a point when Miriana plays a ukulele and the dancers kneel around her in awe. Later, the personas break free, showing less repressed versions of themselves. During the last 20 seconds, all six on stage bounce up and down on yoga balls, fanning their faces, as Miriana looks down the camera and says her final line.

This entry certainly puts pay to the old adage 'less is more' and is in fact the whole shebang with a kit and kaboodle on top. This show is edgy, cool and fun and could easily be placed as is on the stage in Basel. Time and money could be spent on finishing touches to the costume and tightening of the choreo, but this just works. Miriana conveys such confidence throughout the song and she shines throughout. Her voice is also very strong and I think the fact she knows she can belt this out gives her the fearlessness to go full out on the performance. We have had entries in the past which have riffed on onomatopoeia, listed names & places or leaned into double entendre but this must be the first entry ever that has used a homophone in one language that sounds like a rude word in another. It feels like the Maltese have innocently been sitting on this bombshell of a translation and now that it has been 'discovered', and have the brazenness to show it off, boy have they used this to their advantage! 

ARTIST - Mariana Conte

SONG - Kant

WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Miriana Conte, Sarah Evelyn Fullerton, Matthew Mercieca, Benjamin Schmid

MALTA 2024

The Maltese act and song was chosen on February 3rd through their national final "Malta Eurovision Song Contest". Back in October and November, a number of semi-finals were held with nine acts performing in each show. The most voted for 12 songs were selected as finalists. The final was preceded by the premiere of the finalists' music videos. The winner was calculated by adding a jury score with (7/9 weighting) to the televote score (with 2/7 weight) Going to Malmö is Sarah Bonnici performing the song "Loop".

Bonnici is from the island of Gozo. Her father is Marcel Bonnici, CEO of Mercury Towers (Malta's tallest building) and owner of football club Ħamrun Spartans the reigning Maltese Premier League champions). Aged 11, Sarah competed in the Maltese national selection for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest and finished a credible in third place. The following year, she won her age group category of the L-Għanja Tal-Maltin Song Festival, competing with a song written by former Eurovision competitor, Miriam Christine . She also returned to the Junior Eurovision selection show but came 7th but still did go the jESC that year as a backing dancer for Nicole Azzopardi. Bonnici participated in Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2022 with "Heaven" placing 12th in the final.

During the national final live performance, Sarah was wearing what seems to be this year's Eurovision uniform - a black cutaway mesh catsuit! She is joined in the studio by 4 male dancers who are also wearing black tops with an illusion neckline, which is extremely off-putting. The stage is also predominately black with some pink/purple strobes of light throughout. With everybody wearing black, it is sometimes hard to see where everyone is! Sarah starts on her own with some soulful vocal gymnastics before going into the verse and chorus followed by a shortened second verse and full chorus. Up to this point Sarah had been dancing while singing, but here there is a long pause for more involved dancing. There is then a brief stop for vocal gymnastics finishing the song with a final chorus and a last second dance break. Sarah's vocal is not bad considering how much work she is doing on stage, is maintained throughout although at times you can hear her stopping to catch her breath.

This is an extremely full-on entry with many strengths. Sarah, as I have already stated, has a clear voice and she moves well on the stage. However on a very simplistic level many will see the show as heavily derivative of Chanel's "SloMo" and Noa's "Unicorn". One may even say this is a weaker entry compared to both of these but this may be due more to technical details than any lack of promise and talent. There are two main things I feel they need to work on to get the impact right. First one is to properly highlight the name of the song. The title is lost in the mix and either needs to be audibly louder or the words prominent on the stage. It would help is Sarah sang the word rather than just being on the backing vocals. Secondly they need to revamp the staging because it is too dark and gloomy. There was so much dancing that could not be appreciated properly because of the bad lighting and the poor camera angles. The gimmick of the blindfolded flip is honestly not worth it; the time taken to set it up was not worth the pay off. It would be nice to have something a lot more colourful as this is a great fun dance tune. The video clip that went along with the song was very dynamic -full of snappy camera changes and swooping shots - if only they could create such power on a static stage. This is definitely a Eurovision song for the modern age and might provide a bit of familiar relief amongst the niche entries.

ARTIST - Sarah Bonnici

SONG - Loop

WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Leire Gotxi Angel, Sarah Bonnici, Michael Joe Cini, Kevin Lee, Sebastian Pritchard-James

MALTA 2023

The Maltese final "Malta Eurovision Song Contest" was held on February 11th at the Malta Fairs and Convention Centre in Ta' Qali, hosted by former Maltese Eurovision competitors Amber and Glen Vella. At the start of the competition there were 40 competing songs. After a series of quarter finals and semi finals, there was a final of 16 songs. The winner was chosen by a mixture of jury and sms voting. The winning act was The Busker with "Dance (our own party)"

The Busker was founded in 2012. It started as the duo of Dario Genovese and Jean Paul Borg but was increased to four with the addition of David Grech and Sean Meachen in 2014. In 2016 they opened for Neville Staple from The Specials and Maltese band Tribali at local festivals. "Telegram" was their debut album - which won best album in the MMI Awards - with their follow-up "Ladies and Gentlemen" coming out in 2018. Genovese left the group in 2021 making the band a trio. Their music is inspired by classic bands and songwriters such as The Beatles, Beach Boys and Bob Dylan but they have a distinctive indie-pop feel.

This song is one of the few that has utilised the on screen graphics and interwoven it into an integral part of the show. On stage the three members of the band and their equipment are joined on stage by a park bench, a sofa and cardboard cut-outs of former Maltese Eurovision representatives Destiny, Ira Losco and Joe Grech. The background is full of 80's inspired geometric shapes and colours and even has some 8-bit inspired computer imagery. The song starts with an earwormy sax solo which is repeated throughout the song. The two part verse is almost of spoken and flow nicely into the pre-chorus, which actually is more memorable and catchy than the actual chorus that succeeds it. There is a vague dance routine although this not clear in the rather random camera shots. This procedure is repeated again before a longer instrumental and a final pre-chorus and chorus. There is even a costume change half way through but is again not 100% clear.

I am not saying this song has been written to "a type" but this slots into the index of previous entries from Czechia and to a point Moldova. This is a catchy, modern pop song with saxophone earworms and a well directed & choreographed stage routine. The different parts of the songs are distinct and interesting but also flow together well as a cohesive song. The on-screen graphics give the show a retro MTV video feel but not to the point it is either clinical or disguising the live show - there are plenty of shots of the audience and the band acknowledges the crowd.

I would say that the stage ideas are really interesting but the camerawork and stage direction needs to be much tighter. The section where they are pretending to be in a car needs to be a top half shot and all the dancing during the chorus needs to be shot from static cameras - maybe even a three way split screen - so you can actually see what they are doing. The long instrumental section lacks direction and is the only part of this song that feels empty or under-rehearsed. Maybe some audio revamping here could help fill the time a little better? Basically, the production people need to tell the story of the song better! This song is cool and feels relevant and they sell the song in an honest way. This is also a style of Eurovision song that has done well in the recent past. This should qualify with ease and may even give Malta an excellent result.

ARTIST - The Busker

SONG - Dance (our own party)

WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Jean Paul Borg, Matthew James Borg & Michael Joe Cini, Sean Meachen, Dav Jr

MALTA 2021

The Maltese song was revealed on March 15th, with the video being uploaded to the Eurovision youtube account. Destiny, who was due to be their entrant in 2020 after winning X Factor Malta, was internally reselected to appear in 2021.Her song is titled "Je me casse" (I break)

The video is a mish mash of various scenes and situations with Destiny in a number of different outfits and hairstyles - all of which look fabulous! At some points she is singing to a topless man (as you do) as well as having a number of different backing dancers around her, also in different states of costuming. There doesn't seem to be a specific storyline to the video apart from near the end when Destiny is looking rather presidential and shouting  through a loudhailer.

The song starts with a very catchy, repetitive and funky bassline. Destiny's vocal style really suits this  style of song as her voice contains so much character you don't need many instruments. The parts of this song thought are short and sharp and soon enough we are in the pre-chorus which is more chanted/spoken before getting into the chorus proper which is rather plain compared to everything before it. The outro of chorus has a terrible brass earworm running through it which makes it sounds a bit silly. We then return tot the start of the cycle after just over a minute. After the second rendition of teh chorus we have a rather long bridge - I say long in comparison to all the other bits in the song - and then a final chorus which ends a little too abruptly.

As a child, Destiny participated in various singing competitions in Malta and the Mediterranean region including SanRemo Junior in Italy. In 2015 she came to worldwide prominence by winning Junior Eurovision with "Not My Soul" In 2017 she entered Britain's Got Talent, qualifying to the live shows but not reaching the final. In 2019, Destiny came to Eurovision as a backing singer for Michela Pace who won the chance to represent Malta by winning X Factor Malta. The next year Destiny took part on the competition herself winning the competition and was therefore was supposed to represent Malta in 2020.

This song has so much promise and potential but a couple of production decisions have killed this song for me. I love the start and the verses, but from there things start to unfurl. The chanting parts before the chorus are totally unnecessary, as well as including some super basic rhyming which makes it sound a little tacky. As for the chorus, it's not bad; I almost wish that the verses were actually the chorus and vice versa (I don't know if that is actually possible) Also, I don't actually understand why the words "Je me casse" are in the song at all. The meaning of the phrase doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the song plus - unless it's just to make the 'excuse my French' gag or curry favour with Francophiles - I don't get why it's in French at all. I end up listening to this song feeling a little crestfallen. Destiny is Premiership standard but this song is barely in the Vanarama National League. That all said and done, she will perform the hell out of this and the those who have been with her throughout her jESC/ESC journey will support her to the end.

ARTIST - Destiny
SONG - Je me casse (I break)
WRITING CREDITS - Pete Barringer, Malin Christin, Amanuel Dermont, Nicklas Eklund 

04/02/12 MALTA

The Maltese Final was held on February 4th at the Malta Fairs & Convention Centre in Ta' Qali, hosted by Ronald Briffa & Elaine Saliba. Before the final there was a semi-final, where the cast of  24was reduced to a final of 16. The winner was chosen by an "expert" jury (6/8) and televoting (2/8).  The eventual winner was Kurt Calleja and “This is the night” after a dingdong battle with seemingly perpertual runner up, Claudia Faniello.

Kurt is joined on stage by  a static drummer, 2 guitarists (who also do some backing dancing and singing), a DJ/dancer and a female backing singer. The song, like last year, is an uptempo dance number. Kurt has a very strange voice, almost operatic in places and at times doesn't fit the song. That said his voice is nice and clear and seems to cope really well singing the song live. Kurt also does a very annoying stamping dance routine during the 'oh-oh-oh' bit at the end of the chorus, which is also copied by his guitarists. Is this really the best of Maltese choreogaphy? If so I'm on the next plane to Valetta to share my degree level skills! He commands the stage quite well but the whole act is a little stiff and needs some sprucing and freshening up before May.

The song has quite a striaghtforward structure and has its fair share of earworms. It sound like several different songs (Usher, JLS and Ed Sheeran are just three examples) I don't think it is a bad song, or a bad performance but it does seem a little dated and amateurish. They really need to push the earworms and get people to remember those parts and get them addicted. Otherwise it will be another DNQ.

SONG  - This is the night

ARTIST – Kurt Calleja

COMPOSERS – Johan Jämtberg, Kurt Calleja and Mikael Gunnerås

LANGUAGE – English

UPDATE 5

More news and videos !

MALTA -The official video came out this week. The vocal and background of the song has changed very little but I think that the video is very clever. Shame that such enthusiasm and message cannot be relayed onto the ESC stage.




SAN MARINO – As partially previewed in the TV presentation, Senit has released a video for “Stand By” It was filmed in a very snowy San Marino, which is a bit strange for a summer song contest!




ICELAND – Firstly, the boys have decided to sing their entry in English – which I am a little disappointed at. The song is now “Coming Home” and a video for this new version was realised this week.




NETHERLANDS – Like Iceland, 3JS will be singing in English. The video for “Never Alone” can be found below.




POLAND – Magdalena has released an English version of “Jestem” called “First class ticket to heaven”. However, due to a poor reception of the song, it has been confirmed that she will be singing in Polish in Germany.




UKRAINE – The controversial winner of the pre-selection, Mika Newton, has released an official video of her song, to be sung in English, “Angel”




FYROM – Vlatko has been very busy in the studio. As well a the Macedonian version, he has been working on an English, Russian and Serbo-Croat version on his song “Rusinska”, however it looks like he will be signing the original Macedonian version during Eurovision. His new video clip of the song is below.




TURKEY – The internally selected Yüksek Sadakat have finally released their video clip of “Live it up” I think the video clip re-affirms that their show at Eurovision will not be much of a ‘show’

MALTA

The Maltese final was held on February 12th at the Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta. The semi-final was held the day before when 24 songs had been reduced to 16. The Maltese entry this year is “One Life” sung by Glen Vella who has three female backing singers and two male dancers. The visuals of this song are trying to be a bit Lady Gaga/Kylie/Pet Shop Boys with the backing singers in black coats and red glasses and the dancers with stage triangular kneed trousers and red full face visors.

The song is more or less a late ‘80s early 90’s Hi-NRG record. The intro to the song is very retro. I get the feeling it is trying to be modern but to me it feels very dated and old. The song contains a lot of stereotypical lyrics and doesn’t really go anywhere new. The chorus itself is actually very long and have lots of separate tunes and parts, and attention is lost quite quickly. In fact the whole song feels very short even though it lasts the whole 3 minutes. Will be interesting to know if the song undergoes any remixing or tweaking before it enters the semi final.

Glen is an OK singer. His voice is a little shrill at times and his diction is not always perfect, especially during the lower toned verses. In fact during the choruses, the quality of the backing singers just shows you where his flaws are. He is very enthusiastic and gets a lot of audience participation during his performance. It is definitely the type of song that will get the Eurovision crowd up on their feet. The song could have been done so much more justice by someone with a much rounder voice with a bit more soul.

A poor effort from Malta this year, do you agree?


SINGER – Glen Vella
SONG – One Life
MUSIC – Fleur Balzan
WORDS - Paul Giordimaina