They’re a country that has long had their eye on a Eurovision victory. Now Malta is looking at making a radical change in the way its national final winner is selected, with a suggestion that the 2017 competition will no longer use a jury vote.

Gianluca: Not an audience favourite
Gianluca: Not the televote favourite

John Bundy, the new CEO of Malta’s broadcaster PBS, has suggested that the 2017 edition of the Malta Eurovision Song Contest national final will use 100% public vote to determine its winner — or at least make the jury vote equal to the televote.

Previously, the winner of MESC was largely decided by the jury vote. In recent years, the televote only accounted for one-sixth (16.66%) of the overall vote, with the five jury members making up the remaining five-sixths (83.33%) of the vote.

Using 100% televote wouldn’t have changed the result in the past two years, with Ira Losco and Amber proving favourites with both televoters and the jury.

However, in 2014 the televote winner was Jessika’s dance-pop tune “Hypnotica”, while in 2013 the audience favoured Kevin Borg’s emotional ballad “Needing You”.

In both years, the jury favourites and overall winners — Firelight’s “Coming Home” and Gianluca’s “Tomorrow” — qualified for the grand final at Eurovision, with “Tomorrow” giving Malta its best placing in the past decade. It’s debatable whether the audience favourites would have given Malta similar Eurovision results, suggesting that there is still a need for a jury vote.

The news follows public criticism of Malta’s 2016 Eurovision spending, with reports that PBS spent excessively more than in previous years, determined to secure a win for Ira Losco. A recent media request for the broadcaster to reveal a full breakdown their 2016 Eurovision spending was denied, with the Maltese data commissioner stating the broadcaster had no obligation to release details of “commercial activities”.

Meanwhile, Malta is preparing to host Junior Eurovision 2016, with the show due to take place on 20 November at the Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta.

What do you think? Should Malta ditch the jury vote entirely? Share your thoughts below!

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(J)ESC Fanatic
(J)ESC Fanatic
7 years ago

@jj

I don’t like this idea but this year the favorite of the audience was probably Austria.

jj
jj
7 years ago

I think Eurovision should have an “audience favorite song/performance” award and allow the audience to vote from their seats, BUT the host act cannot be included. (Also one is not considered a good host if they win the prize anyway, and they already have the honor of having won to be the host.) It would be interesting to know what came across to the audience as the best.

(J)ESC Fanatic
(J)ESC Fanatic
7 years ago

@Polegend Godgarina Then 100% jury. I don’t want Eurovision to become again a contest full of “performers” who can’t sing, cheap songs, joke acts, etc. And I don’t want to see certain countries always doing well just because of their huge amount of diaspora all around Europe. All these sad memories belong to the pre-2009 era and they’d better stay there. I want real music and the juries are the ones who brought that to the contest. Before they were introduced nobody could take it seriously. Do you think high-quality entries like Spain 2012 or Moldova 2013 would dare to… Read more »

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
7 years ago

@ (J)ESC Fanatic – nobody would bother to waste their coins on televotes if that was the case. The juries need to go, they’re even more biased than the televoters from certain countries and 2015 is the perfect example of this.

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
7 years ago

National finals should always use the 100% televote formula. Look at Sweden for example – in 2005 they had top 5 on lock with Nanne Grönvall, who won the televote, and the juries decided to send that flop Martin guy who ended nearly last. Same with their 2008 pick: Sanna Nielsen’s “Empty Room” would’ve done FAR better than the generic Charlotte Perrelli song the juries picked. So yeah, keep it 100% televote and don’t let the decision of a dozen of jurors be more important than the televoters’ word.

jr esc nl
jr esc nl
7 years ago

what would the results have been if this method was used in other years or are the televoting results unknown?

(J)ESC Fanatic
(J)ESC Fanatic
7 years ago

100% televoting is dangerous, especially when we talk about a country with such small population.

I guess they were like “We always do well with the juries so if we want to win we should please the televoters as well”.

I personally think it should be 75% jury and 25% televoting at Eurovision but since this is never going to be applied, it should be 50% televoting and 50% jury at national selections too. In few words, the voting system at national selections should be the same with the one at the main contest.

johanleekens
johanleekens
7 years ago

This could go terribly wrong for Malta and since I always like Maltese entries, I suppose they shouldn’t change anything, but a 50/50 seems better to me, since it is that way in real Eurovision as well. If they really want the televote to be the most important, they could get a rule that televote wins in case of a draw

I am not Jamala
I am not Jamala
7 years ago

If Malta does so well with juries it seems stupid to throw that advantage away. Though I understand they are now trying to appeal to the public AS well as the juries, but this method could lead to them appealing to NO-ONE. Risky Risky Risky move that might not pay off.

UmerKim
UmerKim
7 years ago

I’m slightly worried because idk if the televoters will pick the best song but it’s better than having 5 puppets giving out the votes PBS gave them.

Maya G
Maya G
7 years ago

I’m usually all for 100% televote, but when it comes to a country as small in population as Malta there’s the question of how easy it would be for people of interest to manipulate the televoting in their favor.

escphilippines
7 years ago

this could go thier way, really good or horrible. i think a 100/100 jury vote would better than a suppesed televote. both jury and public are useless if your songs a average.

Marc
Marc
7 years ago

What Malta needs is to stop trying hard to be like Sweden.
Sending bad generic songs is clearly not working for them. That’s why Televoting is not supporting Malta.
“Tomorrow” is the exception that proves that. Send something fresh and different, and people will vote for you.