After a tense 24-hour voting period, Malta now has the names of the acts who will compete in the grand final of the Malta Song Contest 2022 on Saturday. Among the confirmed finalists are fan favourites Emma Muscat, Aidan and Matt Blxck.
Yesterday, 22 acts performed in the semi-final round, giving viewers the first taste of the live versions of their MESC 2022 entries.
Tonight, in a special show dedicated to former Maltese Eurovision stars, the semi-finalists performed alongside Malta’s Eurovision icons. The show paid tribute to Malta’s history at Eurovision, showing the country had a rich history of compelling performances and is more than ready to get back on track.
And to end the show, the names of the grand finalists were confirmed.
Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2022: Semi-final
MESC grand final qualifiers
Acts are listed in the order they were announced in.
- Enya Magri – “Shame”
- Sarah Bonnici – “Heaven”
- Matt Blxck – “Come Around”
- Denise – “Boy”
- Norbert – “How Special You Are”
- Raquel – “Over You”
- Mark Anthony Bartolo – “Serenity”
- Baklava feat. Nicole – “Electric Indigo”
- Aidan – “Ritmu”
- Janice Mangion – “Army”
- Nicole Hammett – “A Lover’s Heart”
- Nicole Azzopardi – “Into the Fire”
- Richard Edwards – “Hey Little”
- Giada – “Revelación”
- Emma Muscat – “Out of Sight”
- Miriana Conte – “Look What You’ve Done Now”
Non-qualifying acts
The six acts that didn’t directly qualify for the grand final now face a wildcard vote for the final grand final spot. Among these six acts is San Marino’s Eurovision 2018 singer Jessika, hoping to represent her own country this time.
- Derrick Schembri – “II”
- Francesca Sciberras – “Rise”
- Jessica Grech – “Aphrodisiac”
- Jessika – “Kaleidoscope”
- Malcolm Pisani – “We Came for Love”
- Rachel Lowell – “White Doves”
The qualifying acts will compete in the grand final, tomorrow night.
Who do you think will win MESC 2022? Who should represent Malta in Turin? Tell us your thoughts below!
I HOPE Azzopardi wins the national selection!! 😀
I thought Derrick and Jessika’s songs were some of the better in a field that isn’t very strong.
Top 5 now for me
1. Ritmu
2. Shame
3. Electric Indigo
4. Boy
5. Out of Sight
Y’all i’m Maltese and I have no idea what the casse is going on ?? First the delayed voting/results and we have wildcards now ??
There are my top 5:
I think “Into the Fire” has a good chance of moving past the semi-finals, because Ritmu will have to compete with Estonia “Hope” by Stefan for the whole comboy theme. Out of Sight could win too!
what a weird format, to have so many qualifying entries? feels like it was a pointless semifinal…
anyway RITMU looks like it’s a standout song but i am not sure about the staging.
Anyway, cant wait for Destiny in the final!!
BTW, why does WIWI use Aidan’s photos all the time for the Maltese news?
Did I miss Claudette Pace tonight?
I know she is now Deputy Speaker of the Maltese parliament, maybe that’s why she was not there.
I do feel like it’s a bit weird to hold a semi-final that only eliminates 6 songs. Why not just go directly to the final? If they were eliminating like, half of them it would make more sense.
Yeah, six is too few to eliminate. There should 10 to 12 finalists
Those that (I think) did not qualify were: Francesca, Derrick, Rachel Lowell, Malcolm Pisani and Jessika. Quite an odd set of results. The first six acts all qualified; does this suggest that people in Malta watch the beginning of the show and then switch off when they get tired? I wonder. Or was it a jury, which makes even less sense? Sarah qualifying is a complete mystery to me, as even her playback clip contained those awful vocal moments. Someone obviously liked the song though. Mark Anthony qualifying?… okay Malta. 🙂 If there is a wildcard, it’s either Francesca or… Read more »
Ah so I missed out the other Jessica, who also didn’t qualify. And yes, there is one wildcard, thanks Oliver for letting us know in the article above.
Very sad that Jessika didn’t make it, i really enjoyed her song and had hoped she would qualify to the final as there were much more than 5 weaker songs than hers. I didn’t understand at the end of the show, is there a wildcard entry? I hope if so, Jessika gets that
Jessika and Derrick not winning this selection… I get it. Not qualifying in top 16, behind songs like Heaven, Over You, and Revelacion? I am honestly surprised. Not sure about the wildcard, but if there is one, I’d be happy if it’s Jessika.
Why are they still voting?
Ah my bad, they were just re-showing those who didn’t make it. Strange.
There is a wildcard for tomorrow s show which will be announced tomorrow
Finalists:
Enya
Sarah
Matt
Denise
Norbert
Raquel
Mark Anthony
Why Sarah? Odd. And Mark Anthony? Someone made a mistake, lol
Electric Indigo
Aiden
Janice
Nicole Hammett
Nicole Azzopardi
Richard
Giada
Emma
Miriana
Meaning, 2 of my top 5 are out, and 3 out of my bottom 5 are in. Oh, well… congrats, everyone!
I have enjoyed tonight a lot more than last night.
Sure, much more good songs on average + the nostalgia factor. Also, this only shows how most of these people only need songs with better lyrics, and they could go there too!
Mary Spiteri, woww. I must be dreaming; that really took me back in time.
That was a *powerful* moment indeed. I discovered 1992 via ESC again last year, and Malta is easily in my top 5. Mary Spiteri was probably in her 40s back then, and she sounds better than ever. Wow, what a performer! I got chills…
Maybe Eunice has done you a favour by making you stay at home.
What a beautiful styling and singing from Claudia Faniello! Just reminded me why I still have Breathlessly on my 2017 playlist. 🙂
Also, Debbie Scerri and Mary Spitteri – WOW! 🙂 Is is just me, or does Ms. Spitteri sound even better than ever?!
Yeah Claudia is fantastic. I remember her from LEP that year. The song “Breathlessly” touches me for personal reasons. What I thought was really interesting tonight was hearing Francesa and Emma’s voices on some of that song – how they both took interesting liberties with the melody. I would have liked to have heard where that would have taken the song, but I guess now we’ll never know.
It should be legally forbidden to be this emotional for hearing a song like This Is the Night live, but so I was. It was my 1st year watching as a superfan, and I was watching the show and voting with my grandparents. Malta wasn’t my winner, but it was pretty high up my list. The song is so catchy, and Kurt is so handsome. This totally reminded me of that time. Thanks, MESC! 🙂
So it’s your 10-year eurovision anniversary this year. Congrats. 🙂
It’s year 32 for me. One of the things I love about Eurovision is that it generally makes me feel much younger than I actually am, haha. Except for tonight’s show. This is going on a bit isn’t it? I don’t think we’re going to get the results, are we?
Thanks! 🙂 Oh, I hope so. Malta is known for taking their time with adverts, no? 🙂 But, what a show! Also, hearing my favorite Maltese entries Vertigo and Tomorrow being performed live was fantastic! Transportative, yet so contemporary. Love this concept. Wish other countries also do it from time to time.
Bravo Chiara. 🙂
And now the results, surely? Like, any time soon?
After 1000 ad breaks…maybe
Maybe I should buy a new kitchen.
I don’t understand why Aidan went the cowboy route as there is nothing country western about this song–this should’ve been staged with a more Maltese steamy hot summer nights vibe
Cowboys shoot guns, something Aidan pretends to do…
Standing ovation for Renato too because he just performed for his last time. Due to health reasons he will not continue performing on great stages and concerts anymore.
Gosh. Thanks for explaining the gravity of that performance.
Ira Losco perfect as always
The cheer when the audience knew it was 7th Wonder. Amazing!
She should’ve won in 2002
Agreed!
Why do you always have only Aidan s picture? He has not won yet and there are other favourites such as Emma and Denise and Nicole but you never have any articles with their cover pictures.
True. That’s so annoying, they have some bloody Aidan cult, when there are other singers as well
There are two Malta articles on page one… the other one has all 22 singers. Which means you are wrong.
There are four, two of which have Aidan.
Which means you are still wrong.
It’s okay to make mistakes though. This discussion isn’t a contest or anything; save that for the actual performers. 😛
It just bothers me because it doesn’t seem very grateful to the people allowing us to have this discussion.
Sorry Fred, it means Chris is wrong. They seem to be the only two with just Aidan.
All good, all good. I do see their point, as it is two out of four, that is solely Aidan. The other two are the same group picture. So there do seem to be a bit of favourtism towards him. They could use some stills from the performances to create other visuals instead of going for Aidan. I believe that is the point expressed 🙂
A standing ovation and tears for Chris Scicluna. He deserves it.
Amber, Morena, Thea Garrett. Thank you Malta for the memories.
Thea Garrett can still power-sing. Oh yes.
P.S. I was a little uncomfortable with Amber’s song back when it was at ESC, and that performance all in black just now made it even more disturbing to me given current events. It’s a powerful song; a bit too powerful.
I love that they are showcasing songs, that didn’t necessarily do well in the contest. A lot of these songs didn’t qualify from the semi. It is so nice! A lot of countries, like my own (Denmark), always seem to try to brush those under the rug, instead of embracing them – like we did when they won. At least since the turn of the century. E.g. Everybody loved Malene Mortensen and Tell Me Who You Are (Vis Mig Hvem Du Er) when she won. No love for her since. And the songs that didn’t qualify for the final seem… Read more »
I love living in the past. It brings me closer to contests I wasn’t even alive for.
the biggest winners tonight are the botox dispensers in Valletta
I am loving how our 2022 singers are passing the mic around. That looked awkward for Richard; perhaps he wasn’t sure if Aidan was going to pass the mic? 😀
It is oddly nostalgic to see the past acts one-by-one. I don’t remember them all, sorry about that. Of course it is hard to forget Glenn Vella; it was good to see him again, he looks great. And Kurt of course. 🙂
Mike Spiteri looks like Billy Joel.
I am watching it this evening.
Admittedly I had other plans, but Storm Eunice decided to blow them away. Literally.
I hope somebody sings More Than Love tonight.