Last month Destiny Chukunyere secured Malta’s second Junior Eurovision title in three years. Now Maltese broadcaster TVM hopes to replicate that success as they search for their adult contestant for Eurovision 2016.
The broadcaster has now culled through the song submissions it received in October and tonight revealed their shortlisted entries. 20 of them will then be confirmed for January’s Malta Eurovision Song Contest national final on next week’s Xarabank TV programme. You can see the full list below.
Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2016 shortlisted entries
Francesca Bonanno – “96”
Jasmine Abela – “Alive”
Deborah C – “All Around the World”
Chaya Fenech – “Bare Your Soul”
Kurt Cassar – “Battle Zone”
Lyndsay Pace – “Beautiful”
Andre Curmi (Dre) – “Brave”
Cherylis & Mikhail – “Breaking Point”
Cherylis – “Breathe”
Jessika – “Can’t Let Go”
Danica Musvat – “Castle”
Ira Losco – “Chameleon (Invincible)”
Francesca Borg – “Dancing in the Rain”
Domenique Azzopardi – “Empty Hearted”
Jean Claude Azzopardi – “Expectional”
Corazon (Mizzi) – “Falling Glass”
Kelly Ann Mintoff – “Feeling Alive”
Dominic – “Fire Burn”
Iona – “Fireworks”
Raquel Galdes – “Flashing Lights”
Franklin Calleja – “Flawless”
Danica Muscat – “Frontline”
Paul Cuschieri – “Go Beyond The Shore”
Brooke – “Golden”
Nazjo Rotin – “Gone”
Q – “Higher”
Jessika – “Hush Hush”
Dario Mifsud Bonnici – “I Love You”
Franklin Calleja – “I Won’t Surrender”
Christabelle Borg – “Kingdom”
Stefan Galea – “Light Up My Life”
Kimberley Cortis – “Lighthouse”
Franklin Calleja – “Little Love”
Neville Refalo – “MI-MI-MIND”
Joseph Portelli – “Paper Boats”
Panama Band – Simaria – “Reaching”
Sarah Crytsal – “Right Here With You”
Aidan Cassar – “Rule The World”
Klinsmann Cloeiro – “Someday”
Julienne Liberto – “Tell Me What You Wanna Do”
Ira Losco – “That’s Why I Love You”
Jessika – “The Flame”
Kyle Mangani & Maxine Pace – “Tonight”
Daniel Testa – “Under the Sun”
Amy Agius – “Victory”
Kaya – “Without You”
Maxine Pace – “Young Love”
Malcom – “Your Kiss”
Laurence Gray – “You’re Beautiful”
New rules for 2016
This year’s competition is a bit more complicated than in recent years. During Part 1 of the Final Phase (aka, the semi-final, which takes place on the 22nd of January), all the artists will get to perform two songs — their original number, and also a cover of an existing song. Fourteen songs will then advance to Part 2 of the Final Phase (aka, the grand final, which takes place the day after at the 23rd of January). Here the artists will interpret just one song. As ever, expect a lot of Mediterranean Bank adverts.
Voting consists of an expert panel of six juries, each evaluating all the entries. They will make up 86% of the overall vote. The other 14% comes from the televoters, who will act as “a seventh judge”.
Last year’s winner’s Amber agonizingly missed out on a place in the Eurovision 2015 grand final, finishing 11th with 43 points. But hey: she killed it on the red carpet.
What do you think of the acts? Who do you want to win Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2016?
I am obsessed with Young Love by Maxine. Out of all the songs its stands out the most and is really catchy. I don’t get the hype about Ira, I guess you either love her or hate her
I’d be very happy for Jessika if she would win 😀 Well, if her song is good… 😉
Don’t get your hopes up too high… Since 2005, Malta have mostly sent utter crap… Could have had something good this year with Chris Grech but the Maltese are clearly clueless…
@Robyn: Most likely it’s because Ira finished 2nd; and with that outcome they believe she has the greatest potential to win it all, should she qualify for ESC again. But that was 2002, something they overlook; and 14 years henceforth, she now has to face newer competition at the MESC, and must have a song that convinces everyone that she deserves another shot at the ESC title.
Wooo Jessika is back!
I have so so many maltese favvs !!
Ira losco, Christabelle, Raquel Galdes, Maxine Pace, Stefan Galea, Jessika Kurt Cassar, and Klinsmann is finally back :D!!!!!!!!
hoping to see some new faces in the final this year!
So many great acts in that list!
Hoping to see many fresh faces like Jasmine, Stefan Galea, Maxine Pace, and I love Christabelle and Franklin!! Then there is always the super star IRA LOSCO!!!!!!!!
In which case, with 6 jurors on the panel, that amounts to 348 points being given away, if you use the 12-10-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 system. For a 50-50- system, they ought to award 348 points based on the televote. Someone with 50% of the vote could conceivably get 174 points on the televote alone, unless they tweak the system where 50% of the vote will earn 72 points, the maximum that a jury can award for a unanimous decision.
Did I miss something? They’re going to have SIX jurors this time around?!
That indeed amounts to 85.71% of the total score, with 14.29% for the televoters. Very, VERY not good. A song that runs away with the televote could get absolutely massacred by the jury if they don’t agree with the people.
Methinks the Maltese should follow the example of MF; assign points to each entry according to the percentage they get from the public vote.
@PP: The jury score represents 83.33% (or 5/6) of the total score; quite lopsided in favor of the jury. If a song wins the televote, it could conceivably fail to finish in the top 3 if the jury buries it. Again, consider Jessika’s “Hypnotica” from 2014; 1st in the televote, 12th in the jury vote; 8th overall. If the voting had been 50-50, she would have finished 4th.
Wow. Lots of the Maltese heavyweights are back.
Im definitely going to watch this semifinal and final.
OMG SOOO many favss !! Ira losco <3, Christabelle, Jessika , Franklin,Daniel testa, Lawrencegray, Jasmine Abela (from chogm i think), Raquel Galdes, Aidan Cassar, Maxine pace, Danica muscat……. It's gonna be a tough one !! But i think this year malta should go for a young and fresh face ( but then there's Ira!!) So I am rooting for Ira Losco, Daniel Testa, Maxine Pace, Aidan Cassar & Jasmine Abela !! GOO MALTA <3
Ira Losco!!!
RAQUELLE BACK AFTER BEING ROBBED <3 IONA BACK AFTER BEING ROBBED <3
My last paragraph refers to the 2015 contest, where Amber got 12 points on all 5 judges’ cards and 12 from the televoters.
@Jak, Anthony Ko: With 5 jurors on the panel, the televote scores should have been multiplied by 5 to match the maximum jury score (60). That is how Melodifestivalen does it, to maintain a 50-50 split. Had there been a 50-50 split, where the maximum televote points matched the maximum jury total, Jessika (who was buried in 12th by the jury despite being 1st in the televote) would have moved up from 8th to 4th at MESC 2014; but Amber would have dropped from 4th to 7th. A 50-50 split would have done no one any good. Amber was unanimous… Read more »
With 86 % points from juries, modern song don t have chance to win, song like Hyponotica….
I’m quite sure Ira Losco is gonna win. She is awesome
IF they sing 2 songs in semifinal and in semifinal we have 20 song, semifinal wili be 5 hour long.
ayyyy Raquel came back
loved her song last year
also good on Iona for returning even after everyone bashed “could have been me” in the 2014 contest
Jessika is really going for it. I loved ‘Hypnotica’ and ‘Fandango’ (though the latter live was not fantastic). I’d love to see her represent Malta. Likewise, Christabelle slayed the pack last year (ignoring Amber who truly slew) so I hope she does well.
Malta had a 83% 5 member jury panel with 17% televoting on last year’s national final and Amber topped the entire lot.
Eighty-six percent jury vote? Oh my god!
Ira Losco is going yo be the favorite
🙁 No Chris Grech for 2016. Given his last 2 appearances at MESC, it looked like this could be his time.
If one of Jessika’s songs is as good as “Hypnotica” (which the televoters in 2014 loved but the jury murdered), she could get her ticket to Stockholm.
Ira vs Jeasika
I hope Daniel Testa’s song will be as fantastic as his “One last ride”.
14% that’s nothing hahah
It’s going to be Ira VS Jessika this year!! Will it finally be Jessika’s turn? I hope so!!!!
I also hope that Lyndsay Pace is amazing too because she’s fantastic and I loved her last year!
ira losco its your turn honney
Ira Losco, Jessika, Franklin Calleja, Cherlys, Maxine Pace and Danica Muscat are probably among the 14 acts in the final given that each one of them has 2 different acts shortlisted…and you can’t have a final without Laurence Gray, a representative for the Cassars, the Borgs, the Azzopardis and The Abellas and JESC graduate Daniel Testa, so you pretty much get an an idea of who’s likely to make it to 14. I hope it’s not gonna be so clear cut in favor of Ira Losco’s comeback…
IRA LOSCO IS GONNA SLAY
Will be rooting for Ira and Christabelle if their songs are good.