Earlier this week, the Chairman of the Valletta Cultural Agency confirmed that Malta will return to using a national final to select its act for Eurovision 2021. While the new series of the X Factor Malta won’t be used as its Eurovision selection, the previous two series did reveal a plethora of new Maltese talent that we hadn’t seen before.

The first two series of the X Factor Malta revealed that there’s no shortage of talent on Malta’s islands. And while it will be nice to see national final favourites return to have another shot, here are some acts from the X Factor Malta that we’d also like to see in Malta’s new national final.

Owen Leuellen

Owen was one of the stand-out acts of the first series. The young rapper finished second after Michela and even performed with Ira Losco on a remix of one of her singles. Owen might not quite be suitable to head to Eurovision on his own, but he might be the perfect performance partner if he teamed up with a singer.

Nicole Frendo

Nicole placed third in the first series. One of her stand-out performances from the live shows was her cover of Prince’s power ballad “Purple Rain”. The same song worked wonders for Ruth Lorenzo on The X Factor UK, so could Nicole end up following the same path to Eurovision?

Claudio Zammit

Claudio made it as far as the Judges Houses in the first series. He proved himself with his rich soul voice with a cover of Eden’s dreamy indiepop song “XO”. The judges recognised the potential in Claudio, and the Maltese national final could be the next step in his music career.

Justine Shorfid

Justine was the runner-up of the second series, finishing just behind Destiny. She delivered consistently good performances and proved herself a strong R&B vocalist. Just brought loads of attitude and style to the X Factor stage — something that would also work at Eurovision.

Aidan Cassar

Aidan made it as far as the Judges Houses in series one. He might also be a familiar face from his appearance in the last Maltese national final, where his song “Dai laga” placed fourth. But since then, he’s been building his music career. Earlier this year, he placed fifth in the Maltese-language song competition Mużika Mużika, while his entry “Naħseb Fik” went on to be an even bigger local hit than “Je me casse”.

Chantal Catania

Chantal was one of the stars of the second series Overs category and made it as far as the Bootcamp. She delivered powerhouse vocals on her Bootcamp cover of Joss Stone’s “You Had Me”. Chantal was able to deliver consistently good vocals — something essential for Eurovision.

Giovanni

Giovanni was a contestant on the second series as made it as far as Judges Houses in the Boys category. He proved himself to be a pleasant enough singer, performing with both guitar and piano, but at the Bootcamp, he went in a totally different direction. Giovanni covered Ira Losco’s “7th Wonder”, bringing a sexy gangsta cowboy vibe to the performance. Eurovision could handle this.

Celine Agius

Celine placed seventh on series two. She wasn’t a conventional X Factor act, but Celine served loads of attitude and her grunty pop-soul vocals. It look a while Celina her to find her groove, but her week two performance of “Sweet Dreams” showed where her strengths lay.

What do you think? Who would you like to see compete in Malta’s new national final? Should the contest focus on new talent or old favourites? Tell us your thoughts below!

Read more Malta Eurovision news here

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Rifki
Rifki
2 years ago

will the supposed new national final be “Muzika Muzika” itself? or a return of MESC? regardless, I would like it to be production-wise at least similar to this year’s UMK or France’s CVQD (not too small, not too big, but doesn’t look too cheap).

Nicolas
Nicolas
2 years ago

Ira Losco will win MESC 2022….

Jofty
Jofty
2 years ago
Reply to  Nicolas

But they might keep the song and replace her with another singer?

Carl
Carl
2 years ago

Something in the lines of ‘Nahseb Fik’ will do well I presume, albeit nothing new. But good tune, catchy, national language.

Jo.
Jo.
2 years ago

send the rapper with a banger, no female singer attached

The truth
The truth
2 years ago

Please not Justine Shorfid. She is terrible live. Her vocals are inconsistent as hell and she just screams out her high notes. Owen Luellen has great charisma and very good stage presence and confidence but he can only sing rap. Otherwise his vocals are also not that great. Nicole Frendo is excellent. Her vocals are incredible and consistent plus being also very versatile. She should have won XFactor1, if it weren’t for the manipulation and machination to make Michela win. Nicole was in a class of her own and she outshone Michela in every performance. You fail to mention another… Read more »

Eugenie
Eugenie
2 years ago

Didn’t watch X-factor and ain’t gonna to, so stupid question to people who watched it here: Celine sung Beyonce’s song or Eurorhytmics’?

Sot
Sot
2 years ago

I have high hopes for Malta this year… 20 years after their best result to date (tied with 2005) I think they will at least accomplish a top-5 spot… The Maltese broadcaster doesn’t deserve this placement but the Maltese people certainly do because they’re full of talent!