The Maltese public television continues its preparations on its way to Malmö. Malta will choose its representative in its national final called Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2024 (MESC). A total of 36 artists started the road to the ticket to represent the Mediterranean country in Eurovision 2024, but only 12 will remain in the final battle that will happen next January 2024 where we will find out who will fly the flag for Malta in Sweden next May.
The first national final of the season kicking off this year has been the Maltese one, as the Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2024 (MESC) started on Friday, October 27, with semifinals extending until November 24, when we will know the finalists, that’s tomorrow.
During four weeks, four semifinals took place at the XOW talk show, each week featuring 9 semifinalists presenting their songs live without any stage element. You can check our reviews on each semifinal and our predictions on each song and their chances of making to the final, in our previous MESC articles:
The last live show this Friday will unveil the 12 finalists who will compete in the grand final, featuring recorded performances, scheduled for January. The live show, like the semifinals, can be tuned from 21:00 CET on the Maltese public channel (PBS) through its TVM channel, in its program XOW.
In no particular order, our picks for the MESC finals, based on their first auditions defending their songs, taking into account their vocal capabilities, potential of doing an interesting performance at the big MESC 2024 stage and novelty and quality of the songs themselves, are:
Sarah Bonnici-Loop
Eliana Gomez Blanco – There’s Only Flowers
Nathan-Ghost
Haley Azzopardi – Tell Me That It’s Over
Denise Mercieca – Mara
Thea Aquilina – Blood Stream
Miguel Bonello – Better off alone
Stefan Galea – Numb
Karin Duff – Breaking bad
Erba’ – Sirena
Matt Blxck – Banana
Ryan Hili – Karma
It is noticeable that, most of these songs don’t come as surprise, as most of them are sang by very famous and beloved faces in Malta such as Nathan, Stefan Galea, Matt Blxck and Ryan Hilli, and both very followed artists both nationally and internationally such as Matt Blxck and Eliana Gomez Blanco. Exciting new faces that promise take Maltese talent beyond their shores are Sarah Bonnici, Miguel Bonello and Haley Azzopardi. The expectation was huge with these acts and they did not fail to the expectations as their songs ended up being the most streamed in the Malta Eurovision Song Contest Youtube channel.
Worth noticing is that most of the songs that did best during the first impressions are written by the same group of both well-known Maltese (Micimago (Michael Joe Cini), Muxu (Matthew Mercieca) and Matthew and Gerard James Borg) and internationally (Linnea Deb, Tom Hugo) but also very interesting and promising emerging talented newcomer songwriters from Spain and UK (such as Sebastian Pritchard-James and Leire Gotxi Angel). Will we be seeing any of these faces in the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest 2024 in Malmo with the Maltese delegation? We shall wait and see!
There is undoubtedly a great variety of options, who can appeal to all types and ages of the audience, from pop bangers, to dance numbers, indie and alternative acts and emotional ballads. But only one will be crowned in January as the winner. The winner of the MESC finals will become the successor to The Busker and, therefore, will be the next representative of Malta in Eurovision 2024 in Sweden next May. But for now, we can only wish to these 36 acts the best luck for tomorrow, and they all should be proud of what they have achieved until now! Seems that MESC is getting consolidated as a competitive national final, getting internationally appealing without missing that Maltese flavour, and elevating its musica quality year after year.
Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2024 mechanism
Mechanics of the popular Maltese contest This year, the popular Maltese preselection for Eurovision, the Malta Eurovision Song Contest, does not come with significant changes compared to the previous edition, although it is ahead of the schedule this year around.
For this edition, a total of four semifinals were held, broadcasted each week. In each one, a total of nine participants presented their songs live, without any stage elements – a mechanic that was repeated in the last edition – so the Maltese jury and the public could vote for the candidates they want to continue in the preselection. However, the results weren’t announced after each gala but when all 36 semifinalists have presented their songs, i.e., in the fifth show, which is expected to take place tomorrow, November 24. In this show, the songs that will qualify for the grand final will be revealed.
Out of 36 participating songs, only 12 will qualify for the grand final. The grand final will take place throughout January, with recorded performances in December at the PBS studios. The 12 finalists will have 60 minutes and three takes to achieve the perfect performance and select it for the January selection show.
In this phase, the introduction of choreography and necessary stage elements is allowed. As a novelty, at the end of January, the official video clip of the entry will be broadcast, which the finalists will prepare with their own means, although they will be granted a budget of 5000 euros.
Malta in Eurovision
Malta began participating in Eurovision in 1971. In these 50 years, the country has participated in the festival 33 times, doing so continuously since 1990.
In its 33 participations, the country has sent all its Eurovision entries in English, the island’s second official language, except for the first two entries in 1971 and 1972, which were in Maltese.
Their best placement in the contest has been two second places, the first in 2002 with Ira Losco and her song “7th Wonder,” and the second and most recent in 2005 in Kiev when Chiara Siracusa, representing the country with “Angel,” achieved a total of 192 points, securing the 2nd place.
Destiny was internally chosen to represent Malta in Eurovision 2020, but after the cancellation of the contest due to the coronavirus pandemic, she was re-elected for the 2021 edition. Last year, The Busker and their song “Dance (Our Own Party)” were the surprise winners of the MESC. However, their participation in the first semifinal of Eurovision 2023 was a real failure, finishing in last place with only 3 points.