February 3 will be a night for admiring divas and for shaking your derrière. That’s because the Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2018 will unfold in all its glory that night at the Malta Fairs and Convention Centre. Ballads, beauty and Mediterranean Bank commercials, oh my!
Malta’s broadcaster made the announcement this evening, adding that it had conducted a draw to determine which of the 16 finalists will perform first and last.
Newcomer Aidan Cassar will open the show with his song “Dai laga”. Some of you may know him from Malta’s Junior Eurovision 2015 selection or, more recently, for his Eurovision 2017 mash-up that went viral in Eurovision circles.
He showed off his skills with a number of tongues and styles — and more importantly a real sense of vocal control.
Petra will close the show with her song “Evolution”. And as we saw at the Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2017, performing last may just give her the edge — or at least a few extra televotes.
Last year Claudia Faniello performed last and emerged as the surprise winner over pre-contest favourites Brooke Borg and Janice Mangion.
MALTA EUROVISION SONG CONTEST 2018 — FINALISTS
- Deborah C — “Turn It Up”
- AIDAN — “Dai Laga”
- Brooke Borg — “Heart of Gold”
- Christabelle Borg — “Taboo”
- Avenue Sky — “We Can Run”
- Jasmine Abela — “Supernovas”
- Richard & Joe Micallef — “Song For Dad”
- Petra Whiteford — “Evolution”
- Lawrence Gray — “Love Grenade”
- Eleanor Cassar — “Back To Life”
- Rhiannon Micallef — “Beyond Blue Horizons”
- Mikhail Attard & Cherylis Camileri — “Breaking Point”
- Matthew Caruana — “Call 2morrow”
- Miriana Conte — “Rocket”
- Danica Muscat — “One Step At A Time”
- Tiziana Calleja — “First Time”
The broadcaster’s CEO John Bundy previously confirmed that the national final will again use 100% televote to select its winner.
That news came in the wake of Malta’s poor result in Kyiv. Claudia’s “Breathlessly” — which was selected at the national final by 100% televote — placed 16th in its semi-final, with only 55 points. The placing is Malta’s worst result since the two semi-final system was introduced in 2008.
Please, no more dramatic ballads from Malta…… Chiara, Claudia Faniello and others…. Pleaaaase, something up-tempo and modern
I prefer a jury, although I’m glad they’re not letting the poor result in 2017 force them into panic changes. They’ve sent some very good songs the last few years (lets face it, Amber got screwed).
When can we hear Dai Laga? I heard aidan’s singles on his fb page and they are smashing, not the usual MESC sound for sure
I hate jury, but there’s only one reason I think jury might be good. Is because we don’t know if the viewers listen to all songs. Toilet break, or even toilet emergency can ruin the chances of many songs. At least jury is forced to pay attention.
Ugh lots of songs in English. Let’s hear some more Maltese!!!
Alas; we’ll have to wait until 2019 to see what Janice Mangion will bring to the contest.
Nothing can be worse than Malta’s selection last years so I’m looking forward to this
I may be a little biased because we share the same name, but I think AIDAN has great voice, and I hope he will represent Malta in 2018!
Poor Aidan. Being first on is a dreadful draw. 🙁
And yet it didn’t stop Voltaj from representing Romania in 2015.
Ultimately, who knows whether his song will be the best, the worst, or anything in between.
100% audience vote will have to remember Aiden after 15 more songs and all that (weird) advertising. Enjoy 2018 Aiden, but realistically start thinking about 2019.
As for Voltaj… really? That happened?! Wow. I didn’t watch that final – how many took part? Was it 100% audience result?
Yeah, it did. First out of twelve acts. The voting was both by televote and by jury, both of which they won. They won the televote with 4707 votes, ahead of second placed Luminita Anghel, who won 3828. They really impressed Romania that night.
Softengine also performed first at UMK in 2014 and they still won.
Sometimes it doesn’t affect the outcome, and sometimes it does. Last time someone who sang first and won ESC was in 1984 (Sweden), and only twice in the last 20 years (Croatia 1998, Azerbaijan 2010) has someone who sang first finished in the top 5. Were Voltaj and Softengine THE big favorites in their national contests before the contests took place? Gabi Tóth was the favorite at A Dal early this year; but the sooner she was assigned the first singing spot in the final, I knew she was in big trouble simply by the way the judges were pushing… Read more »
Needs jury though.
Agreed. You can’t trust televote, especially in such a tiny country
Have faith in the Maltese for once. Juries do more damage than anything.
Depends who they are.
(I have judged music contests before.) 😉
Considering how many of these finalists have built-in fanbases with enough moolahs to spend on televoting, I doubt that,
Just ask Jessika; first in the televote, tie for 12th (next-to-last) in the jury vote and out of the running with “Hypnotica” in 2014. In her case, the MelFest procedure would have done her no good.
Do we have a date on when the songs are coming out?
Probably mid-December.
Entries are expected to be released “in the coming weeks,” says the PR machine. It could be as early as November, but December might be more realistic for some.