The day finally arrived, and the Maltese national selection, MESC 2024, has come to an end last Saturday, when the winner was chosen equally through a combination of jury and public vote. After analysing all the entries, and their potential for Eurovision, as we anticipated, Sarah Bonnici with the song “Loop” will travel to the Swedish city of Malmö, where she will compete for qualification on Thursday, May 9th, in the first half of the second semifinal of Eurovision 2024.
“Loop”, written by Leire Gotxi Angel, Sebastian Pritchard-James, Kevin Lee, Micimago (Michael Joe Cini) and Sarah Bonnici herself, was objectively superior to the rest of the acts of the night. Combining catchy melodies and upgraded production, this revamp of “Loop” feels Eurovision ready with the dynamic and sleek choreography. Sarah took the stage with her dream team comprised by 4 dancers, who turned upside down and moved Sarah from one corner of the stage to the opposite, while Sarah flawlessly hit every single note. She even was flipped 360 degrees while blindfolded as she was in a lopp, paying a tribute to the title of the song, which was impressive and never-seen-before at Eurovision.
Skeptics will say her number lacks novelty as she uses moves that we have seen in the recent years at Eurovision from countries such as Spain, Israel and Cyprus, but song wise, “Loop” is a completely different and unique piece, and we are sure the Sarah will work hard on polishing and innovating in her dance moves so she can stand out in May in Malmo. She is backed up by a dream team of international choreographer and dancers, renowned Maltese stage director and producer, and London based music experts, so we have no doubt they will work hard on elevating “Loop’, as the potential of the song and Sarah was evident last Saturday.
In second position Matt Blxck with “Banana”, the fan favourite and winner of the public vote, showed us a crazy, in-your-face and fun performance, which sadly for the Maltese public, wasn’t enough for him to win, as he came second in the jury, well behind of the jury winner Sarah. We are sure he will be back stronger than ever in the upcoming years and as this year, climb one position up on the scoreboard and finally come first. Bronze medal went to the voice of Malta, Ryan Hili, with “Karma”. which was also elevated from the semi finals, and Ryan showcased his voice amazingly in an intimate performance.
MESC 2024 full results
The candidate selection system followed the usual Eurovision format, with Maltese citizens’ votes and the jury votes jointly taking the final decision evenly (50/50).
Find below the final detailed results of MESC 2024:
In addition to the winner’s trophy who also won the right to represent Malta in Eurovision in May, two more trophies were awarded to the second and third-placed contestants, which went to Matt Blxck and Ryan Hili respectively.
But right before the points came in, two more awards were given: The first one- the award of the best music video, which went to Greta Tude, and the second one being the award to the best emerging newcomer artist, which went to the youngest competitor of this year’s competition, Lisa Gauci.
MESC 2024: the journey to Malmö
Last November, Malta selected its 12 finalists for MESC, their national selection for Eurovision 2024, which culminated on the final week of MESC2024 when in each night, info and news on the final night of Saturday, were disclosed. In a style reminiscent of San Remo, where each night of this week had different themes, the first three nights served to introduce the candidates, with interviews or glimpses into how they prepared their music videos. On Thursday night, the music were unveiled and people were able to vote until Saturday for their favourite music video. On Friday, before the grand finale, they held a show called “Nostalgia Night,” where classic songs for Eurovision were performed by each of the 12 fianalists.
This musical celebration concluded last Saturday 3rd of February with the Grand Final, where each participant gave their best to represent Malta in Eurovision 2024 next May in the Swedish city of Malmö. This year, there was a significant innovation: the performances of all finalists were pre-recorded in a live-on-tape style. These recordings took place in December, with each participant having 60 minutes and three different takes to choose the best cut. To prepare their performances, there were no limits on creativity, and Maltese television provided a subsidy of €5,000 to help them shine and record the music videos.
Additionally, this year there was no audience in the TV studio, something that was not very well received by the artists but specially by the Maltese public. The artists gathered together with a moderator in a green room where they watched the show happening while they waited for the votes to come in.
Before the final results were announced, “The Busker” the representatives from Malta in Liverpool at Eurovision 2023, performed.
Will Sarah Bonnici manage to take Malta back to the finals and overcome all the buzz around her performance on reminiscences with other female dance numbers of Eurovision history? We really hope and think so, as she proved to be a hardworking and professional artist who can overcome any kind of odds and critics.
Malta in Eurovision
Malta first participated in Eurovision in 1971. Over the past 50 years, the country has participated in the festival 33 times, continuously since 1990. In all 33 participations, Malta has submitted 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.
Malta’s best performance in the contest includes two second places: first in 2002 with Ira Losco and her song “7th Wonder,” and the second and most recent in 2005 in Kiev when Chiara Siracusa represented the country with “Angel,” earning a total of 192 points and securing the 2nd place.
Destiny was internally selected to represent Malta in Eurovision 2020, but after the cancellation of the event due to the coronavirus pandemic, she was re-elected for the 2021 edition. Last year, the group The Busker and their song “Dance (Our Own Party)” were the surprise winners of MESC. However, their participation in the first semifinal of Eurovision 2023 was a true failure, finishing in last place with only 3 points.