Baby, it’s not a maybe — Malta will not use the third edition of X Factor Malta as their selection method for Eurovision 2022.
The Chairman of the Valletta Cultural Agency, Jason Micallef, broke the news on his social media accounts on Monday. Mr. Micallef has been linked with Malta’s broadcaster TVM for many years, and he praised the broadcaster’s decision. Writing on Facebook, he said:
“It is a wise decision by the new management of PBS that, with immediate effect, the representation of Malta in the next edition of Eurovision will be through a specially staged festival, and not [be automatically given to] the winner of X Factor Malta. I am convinced that this news will be received with great satisfaction by all Maltese singers, authors and composers”.
While nothing has been officially confirmed, Mr. Micallef is suggesting that the Malta Eurovision Song Contest or a similar selection show will be used. Eurofans will fondly recall MESC — the show that introduced us all to local jewellers and Mediterranean Bank through endless adverts that broke up the many emotional ballads.
Maltese national broadcaster PBS told the Maltese news blog Lovin Malta that Micallef’s tweet had not come from PBS. They also had no further comment to make on the situation.
Some days ago, it was confirmed that X Factor Malta will return for a third series. But there was no word on Eurovision — and Mr. Micallef’s posts would suggest why.
The talent show will nevertheless go ahead without its previous Eurovision connection. Earlier today, the application period opened. Producers of X Factor also revealed that the winner will receive 50,000 euros.
Malta at Eurovision 2022: A new contest?
Malta has traditionally used a music competition to choose their Eurovision entrant. The iconic Malta Eurovision Song Contest was a very long night filled with dramatic ballads, lots of mid-tempo tunes and a bit of Maltese-flavoured pop. The show was well known amongst fans for its zillion sponsors, and the lengthy advert breaks. Anyone remembers Hamilton Travel?
Many will also recall how lots of artists kept coming back. Claudia Faniello, for instance, only made it to Eurovision in 2017 after 10 attempts.
The contest was ditched in 2019 and 2020 for the X Factor, which produced two fan favourites who made it to the grand final of Eurovision: Michela Pace and Destiny. Destiny gave the country one of its best results, coming seventh with “Je me casse” this year.
Previously, the selection was called Malta Eurovision from 2011 to 2018. Except for 2016, when Ira Losco changed “Chameleon” for “Walk On Water“, the winning song always proceeded to the contest. However, Malta wasn’t so lucky in that era, and only Gianluca Bezzina managed to score a top 10 placing, in 2013.
From their debut in 1971 until 2010, the contest was called Malta Song for Europe, and it gave them four top 5 finishers: Mary Spiteri in 1992, Chiara in 1998 and 2005, and Ira Losco in 2002. Those last two remain the country’s best result at Eurovision.
Is Malta making a wise move changing their national selection? Do you think a new contest can produce a winner for Malta? Who do you want to see again taking part? Let us know in the comment section below!
bit sad to hear this cause Malta gave really iconic songs in the X Factor era, we can’t say the same about NF times. but hopefully great acts are set to enter for 2022
If we send Aidan, we deserve to come last in the semi final honestly. He can intentionally plagarise any song and try to tell us it’s a “fresh, upbeat dance track.” Not to mention his disgusting, arrogant attitude.
So fresh and upbeat just like Cyprus this year….
Very wise decision indeed. Now they have to step up the game of the selection board of the songs. Take notes of Eesti Laul, Melfest and Festival da canção
esti is a flop though
They should name the national final “damage control for eurovision 2022”. It fits the vibe
Wow, I actually just noticed the similarities between the Maltese and Albanian language… I wonder if that’s the reason why Albania received their only 12-pointer by them!
Just kidding, probably not, but it’s still a mystery yet to be solved…
far from a mystery. They send screaming women most of the time. and their jury voted for exactly that. Hardly shocking
What Malta needs in its NFs is variety. Where’s the point of popular vote to choose the representation if the same old names like Fabrizio Faniello compete every year?
They need to make a rule to the new national final (hopefully they choose Muzika Muzika) that people who took part in eurovision cannot compete. If they want to sing they can be guests.
They should enter a rock band called Målteskin.
They got back to that boring TV format, who gave them no major results, more NQ than a top 3 hit or a winner contender. And also, with 1000 commercials during the show. Just meh
For all the hopefuls that this news means Malta will send something authentic, bless you, but I must rain on your parade. The Maltese music industry, already small in nature, has nothing remotely ‘Maltese’. If you take the heavy hitters, even then you do not have any music that is representative of our musical culture. So don’t expect any authenticity from this national final. The only mere way is if specific artists are brought on board, like The Travellers, but they’d never compete in a national final, so the problem is not solved. To me this just looks like a… Read more »
symphonix songs are usually really good, though
It depends on the budget tho… If you can’t pay a good song like Tears Getting Sober or Beautiful Mess, which were songs who were written for winning, then you end up with Colors or Dance Alone (even dive into unknown), which were written just for participating.
Even the last three songs i mentioned were good, but hard to stage. Symphonix know how to write a stage-friendly song and they’re gonna give it to you if you pay enough, which is perfectly fine and fair.
I love all the songs you mentioned lmao. lets just be grateful there aren’t as many Ralph Siegel songs as symphonix ones lately haha
they were good 4-5 years ago, now they sound dated and the production is kinda stuck in 2016. i hope malta switches it up a bit for once
um…no. listen to bones and tell me with a straight face that it sounds like 2016 lmao
They lack authenticity, and they’re dated af. Even Bulgaria turned their back on Boris Milanov this year.
sometimes I wonder how much people know about music when they call symphonix dated……
They are dated, and the results they get show that people are not into this 2016’d music. Just because a song doesn’t sound like it comes from the 70s, it doesn’t mean it’s not dated.
They really aren’t dated, though. But whatever, live in the delusion
i want janice mangion back! she was a star
Muzika Muzika was a great event this year. Very sanremo – esque with the orchestra and a duet night. A song in Maltese with this format could work well. Some of the entries were very current (Aidan and Miguel Bonello)
aidan is still trying? god bless
He only tried once in mesc 18 and the muzika muzika
As you probably know Aidan had two attempts in 2018, as a soloist and part of “*boyband” Avenue Sky whose ages ranged from about 16 to 40 from memory.
lordamercy
I´ve never watched MESC, was it really that bad 😀 ?
Haha, I have only ever been to the live shows so have been spared the oven chips. Great fun and highly recommended (the shows, not the chips). One artist had to perform twice in a row in 2018 due to technical difficulties with the TV show. She had already left her heart and soul on stage.
MUZIKA MUZIKA PLEASE. I dont know if I can sit through the endlessly boring songs of MESC any more, honestly the worst national selection ever for me
They are doing the second edition of Muzika Muzika but they didn’t say anything about Eurovision.
However, I checked the rules and one of them is the song has to be between 3 to 3.5 minutes and it will be held in 24,25 and 26 March 2022 so fingers crossed the winner goes to Eurovision.
Also…
I wonder what username the next Malta Stan troll on here will take next year. If MTV will be paying people to Stan next year.
Bets open now.
MTV doesn’t pay people to be diehard fans over Maltese songs (I wish they did because their behaviour some times gets out of hand)
Every year there is THAT ONE diehard fan who fights with anyone on here who isn’t a fan of the Maltese entry and accuses them of all sorts, usually being a “hater” though…
Well Darren you did a great job yourself for Lesley this year so maybe RTE should cough up!
Wasn’t just supporting Lesley though, I probably made more comments about Go_A, Victoria and Måneskin if truth be told.
And RTÉ would never part with money. I also wasn’t attacking and harassing anyone who didn’t like Lesley either so..
All true, fair play to you!
And what would you call that one or in this year’s case, hundreds of trolls who constantly post hate? enlighten me 🙂 There were screengrabs of whole facebook pages dedicated to NOT voting for malta. So I guess some damage control needs to be done. Malta will always be an underdog. Too bad the broadcaster’s attitude and practices make people hate them more.
I haven’t seen anything like that, but of course I don’t hate Malta, Destiny was my winner in 2020, it’s a beautiful country and the people are awesome proud people with a rich culture and identity.
However their broadcasters attitude does not do them any favours. But if they enter a good song, ease up on the harassment and underhanded stuff, then I wouldn’t mind seeing them win at some point, and host ESC in their beautiful country.
The mention by Jason of “ great satisfaction by all Maltese singers, authors and composers” etc sounds promising and definitely something.
I’m hoping they stay local next time around and stop throwing so much money at Sweden and other international parties.
Actually, i think that is good idea bring back national selection. Maybe 2022 we have entry in Maltese who knows
Micallef’s post just had me wondering … I think I’ve never heard Maltese in my life. Would be nice to change that some day.
You never watched MESC ?
Listen to Kewkba by Janice Mangion
If they won’t use X Factor, then they should create a new national final format, and NOT go back to MESC. They got much much better results without using it to select their singer
I think Malta needs another national final. It could be Melfest style since it works, but I’d prefer Vidbir or Supernova style.
malta only has 400k people a big selection like melefest won’t work
A small NF like Russia just did is probably what Malta should do – three amazing songs battling it out is much better than 15 mediocre ones.
The songs in the Russian national final were average at best. I personally didn’t like Russian Woman, but at least that was a good song. Russia was taking the piss on national finals with their corrupted show, which winner was already decides beforehand. But, I agree that Malta needs a national finals with like 3 or 4 songs.
are you for real? all 3 songs were amazing, especially manizha and therr Maitz’s. on of the strongest national finals of the year, easily.
I’d agree more with Gojo rather than Ashton. Don’t know if Manizha had infact been internally selected or not
said no one ever lol
Vidbir is the best NF, change my mind
if they go back to mesc then it’s not good. since using x factor they’ve received two respectable results, while with mesc they failed to qualify a lot and the songs were usually mediocre
I think they were disappointed with the last two results though. They looked a lot more expensive than some other Maltese entries, probably costed a lot.
That’s all a matter of opinion and taste if not a little insulting. Warrior, Breathlessly and Taboo probably all deserved to qualify and in fact did so with the juries. The Swedish tat only helped a little with the Televote issue, no disrespect to Destiny, Ira or Michela. Malta is a surefire winner in the next 10 years provided something authentic and heartfelt is submitted (on the lines of 1998, 2002 and 2005). Covid permitting I can’t wait to go back to attending Maltasong once again in February 2022!
So basically internal selection which brought them a top 10 result(2021), and two top 15 finishes (2016,2019) was ditched for a selection that brought them a qualification 7 years ago (2014) and 3 NQ (2015, 2017, 2018) make it make sense! Literally may I ask why? And do not answer with a reason such as supporting local talent and authenticity since their entries from those years were generic and low-quality. Probably worst decision ever, it’s like Switzerland would decide to go back to their nf after succeding with internal selection… hope at least at mesc will not actually be the… Read more »
There’s been a lot of pressure by disgruntled Maltese ‘artists’ who really want to go to esc but are too established to go through X-factor. Remember that in the Maltese music scene, going to Eurovision is a huge deal and they felt that internal selection/X-factor was robbing them of that one and only chance. I agree with what you said completely. The last two entries selected by the Maltese public were Claudia Faniello in 2017 and Christabelle in 2018, and we all know how they ended. I hope at least that these so called Maltese artists who so forcibly pushed… Read more »
Malta wants to win and they really TRIED this year. Swedish pop clearly ain’t cutting it anymore, so they’d rather wait for a moment of brilliance than try and force it. Thats imo at least
It’s either because someone famous expressed interest in competing (Ira Losco – third time’s the charm?) or they are doing damage control because of the hype/betting odds inflation investigation? Probably both…
but why couldn’t they just do an internal selection? now we will most likely end up with amateur products…
I have a bit of hope since Malta got quite a few new artists from x-factor…
Luke Chappel seems great, Maxine Pace and Gaia Cauchi would also be great… we shall see.
As I said, the investigation… Not sure how the public would react if they just picked Ira on their own. Though I could be completely wrong…
I think it’s both, and I’d rather have Ira Losco than Brooke Borg if they go with a bland generic song
The results came at a cost, foreign writers preferred over Maltese songwriters which meant that they killed all the chances for local songwriters as the team behind X Factor was only interested in foreign writers.
Also, Malta is full of talented singers. Some are rather too established to participate in X Factor. Why bother going on a show where some of they have done more things than one particular judge? Few did that mistake and served the established singers a lesson. Most notably Janice Mangion (2017 Runner-Up).
This means established Maltese artists (or past Eurovision acts) have expressed their interest in competing at Eurovision in 2022 – which is exciting. I wonder if Michela Pace, Ira Losco or even Destiny will return?
Someone I’m sure will participate in the NF is Aidan Cassar – his most recent song ‘Nahseeb Fik’ is a hit in Malta and honestly could’ve done really well at Eurovision.
That was the upbeat one from Muzika Muzika right? If I’m being totally honest, I would’ve preferred that to Je me casse
There s been a lot of backlash towards Aidan, claiming he ripped off the song completely. It is still however doing very well, and if I’m not mistaken has always done better in the local charts than Je Me Casse.
Aidan also used a copyrighted instrumental from youtube for his NF entry in 2017 that had to be changed last minute. Sounds like he needs a better production team.
sounds like he needs some talent which, unfortunately, can’t be bought
The song is totally ripped off Tick Tock by Clean Bandit! Very obvious and would have resulted in disqualification. That guy doesn’t seem to know that ripping off music is illegal.
sameeee! it’s such a vibe and i dont understand a word ofc
it’s been since 2013 malta has sent a guy! (and was one of their best results) I’m sure aidan will participate with an international banger
aidan for 2022, vote wisely malta
Maybe Franklin Calleja should finally get his deserved chance
aidan is overrated garbage imo