Malta is going big in 2023, with a 40-song national final. Now broadcaster PBS has revealed which acts have been chosen to compete in the quarter-finals of MESC 2023Malta Eurovision Song Contest.

The line-up features a number of familiar names from Eurovision, Junior Eurovision and previous editions of MESC.

Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2023: Quarter-finalists

  • Aidan – “Reġina”
  • Andre – “Broken Hill”
  • Bradley Debono – “Blackout”
  • Brooke – “Checkmate”
  • Clintess – “Lura Qatt”
  • Cheryl Balzan – “La La Land”
  • Chris Grech – “Indescribable”
  • Christian Arding – “Eku Ċar”
  • Dan – “It’ll Be Ok”
  • Dario – “Pawn in a Game”
  • Dario Bezzina – “Bridle Road”
  • Dominic and Anna – “Whatever the Wind May Blow”
  • Eliana Gomez Blanco – “Guess What”
  • Fabrizio Faniello – “Try To Be Better”
  • Francesca Sciberras – “Masquerade”
  • Geo Debono – “The Mirror”
  • Giada – “I Depend on You”
  • Greta Tude – “Sound of My Stilettos”
  • Haley – “Tik Tok”
  • Ian – “On My Own”
  • Jake – “Love You Like That”
  • James Louis – “Dream”
  • Jason Scerri – “Anything Can Happen”
  • Jessika – “Unapologetic”
  • John Galea – “Trailblazer”
  • Kirstie – “Girls Get Down”
  • Klinsmann – “Piranah”
  • Lyndsay – “Haunted”
  • Maria Christina – “Our Flame”
  • Maria Debono – “X’allegrija”
  • Marie Claire – “Thankful”
  • Mark Anthony Bartolo – “Tears”
  • Matt Blxck – “UP.”
  • Maxine Pace – “Alone”
  • Mike – “Leħen Fiċ-Ċpar”
  • Nathan – “Creeping Walls”
  • Ryan Hili – “In the Silence”
  • Stefan – “Heartbreaker”
  • Stefan – “What Do You Want?”
  • The Busker – “Dance (Our Own Party)”
 
 
 
 
 
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Fabrizio Faniello has already been to Eurovision twice. He first represented Malta in 2001 with “Another Summer Night”, finishing ninth. Faniello later returned in 2006 but didn’t fair as well — “I Do” ended up at the bottom of the grand final leaderboard.

Jessika is another past Eurovision contestant, though she flew the flag of another small nation. Alongside rapstress Jenifer Brening, Jessika represented San Marino at Eurovision 2018 with “Who We Are”.

Two Junior Eurovision alumni will also be appearing at Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2023. Francesca Sciberras sang for Malta at JESC 2009 in duet with Mikaela. Meanwhile, Eliana Gomez Blanco was the country’s act for Junior Eurovision 2019.

A good number of the other MESC 2023 quarter-finalists have previously competed in Malta’s Eurovision national finals. This includes Aidan, the runner-up of the 2022 edition. Brooke also makes a return to MESC after five years, having previously finished in the top four on three consecutive attempts between 2016 and 2018.

Other Malta Eurovision Song Contest alumni include Maxine Pace, Giada, Mark Anthony Bartolo and Matt Blxck.

MESC 2023: Show details

The 40 selected songs will be randomly allocated to four quarter-finals, with 10 songs in each. 

The rules state that quarter-finalists will be recorded for television and that “the interpretation should be without any choreography and props.”

The top 24 songs will pass to the semi-final. The qualifying songs will be announced “after the last quarter-final.”

Semi-final acts will once again be subject to a jury vote and a public vote, and the top 16 will make the grand final.

Dates

13 January 2023 – Quarter-final 1
20 January 2023 – Quarter-final 2
27 January 2023 – Quarter-final 3
3 February 2023 – Quarter-final 4
9 February 2023 – Semi-Final
11 February 2023 – Grand Final

What do you make of the Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2023 quarter-finalists? Whose song are you most excited to hear? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

36 Comments
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CookyMonzta
CookyMonzta
1 year ago

Damn, I’m late for the party. Been away from this site too long.

Nice to see Chris Grech try again. His 3 songs from MESC 2013, 2014 and 2015 were all excellent.

Interesting that this time they will use the MelFest playbook, with all those rounds.

No Deborah C there? Now that’s interesting.

Benito Camelo
Benito Camelo
1 year ago

Feels like there’s too many entries, I just hope most don’t sound too much of a filler

Tomas
Tomas
1 year ago

Hoping that previous ESC contestans will not win Maltease NS – Would be nice to see new faces at Eurovision!

XOOOD
XOOOD
1 year ago

the thing with the maltesses selection is out of 40 songs there’ll be atleast 10 songwriters/producers all of them sounds the same with questionable but yet iconic lyrics.

Colin
Colin
1 year ago
Reply to  XOOOD

questionable but yet iconic lyrics” The definition of why I usually love MESC. 🙂

BLA
BLA
1 year ago

Each quarter-final will have 10 songs and 6 songs will proceed from each quarter-final in order to have 24 songs in the semi-final. So those who will sing in the first quarter-final and proceed to the next phase will have a one month time to prepare for the semi-final and those who will proceed from the last quarter-final will only have 6 days to prepare for their semi-final performance. The quarter-finals should took place in November/December so each participant will have plenty of time to prepare their MESC performances. We appreciate the effort made by PBS even though last year’s… Read more »

Dawid
Dawid
1 year ago

I’d say it’s waaay too many. Just pick 10 best songs…

BadWoolfGirl
BadWoolfGirl
1 year ago
Reply to  Dawid

Yeah, why? That’s way too many.

Roger La
Roger La
1 year ago

40 seems like a lot. One hopes there are two or three great contenders. I do not care in which language the song is. A good song is a good song. A good performer is a good performer. If any of these songs has that combination it will be my winner. I will listen to the songs and then decide before useless-guessing any names. This is how it should be me thinks!

Richard Hochuli
Richard Hochuli
1 year ago

Aiden was literally robbed last year, he had the best song and performance,to be beaten by an artiste who changed her song,,what the hell was that for a competition..
REGINA sounds promising, hope its in English

Matthew
Matthew
1 year ago

I don’t think it’s in English, Re?ina means queen in Maltese

BadWoolfGirl
BadWoolfGirl
1 year ago

I think it might actually be in Maltese because there was a dot over the G. Or it could be mixed. I don’t know

Truth
Truth
1 year ago

No use watching this, they just added the quarter-finals to ensure more money from showing ads. PBS just wants to buy a better song this time, and it costs money.

NickC
NickC
1 year ago

Aidan should have won, Brooke should have won- but Aidan should have won due to a great song, whereas Brooke should have won for being a great performer. I am really curious whether they will live up to expectations. And if they do, whether the corrupt Maltese broadcaster will burn them again.

Stephanie
Stephanie
1 year ago

Wow 40 songs….. Respect….

BadWoolfGirl
BadWoolfGirl
1 year ago
Reply to  Stephanie

Frankly, the more songs that are competing in Nasha final, the more it worries me because there’s a higher rate of filler clogging up the system. I’m sure there are some gems in it, but it’s gonna be a lot of coal to go through.

microfibertowel
microfibertowel
1 year ago

Excited about

  • Aidan (Potential winner already)
  • Giada (maybe Aidan composed)
  • MATT BLXCK (for the sole purpose of seeing if he will haunt us again),
  • Brooke (Potential winner already)
  • Eliana Gomez Blanco (who was robbed in JESC)
  • and Jessika (hit or miss, very curious)
Eurovision fan
Eurovision fan
1 year ago

Aidan is there to give us all that gay moment and I’m here for it 😀

Thallo
Thallo
1 year ago

Well, it looks like we won’t have another Emma Muscat situation in 2023. It was clear the only reason she won was for her name OR thanks to her wealthy family OR thanks to her contract with a giant record label (Warner Music Italia).

Fingers crossed Aidan has a song as good as Ritmu or Nahseb Fik! I think 2023 will finally be his year.

Cello
Cello
1 year ago
Reply to  Thallo

Or how about listening to all the songs first?

Microfibertowel
Microfibertowel
1 year ago
Reply to  Cello

they are just making a prediction

Jofty
Jofty
1 year ago
Reply to  Thallo

I would prefer Ritmu to have won, however, Out of Sight had a certain charm. But we know what happened.

Escbiatch
Escbiatch
1 year ago

Looks like Malta wanted an all male Eurovision selection this year

Martin
Martin
1 year ago

Was hoping to see Kurt Cassar from last year’s national San Marino final in the list but rumour has it he’s back to A voice for San Marino once again. Also looking forward to Klinsman, still listen to She gives me wings and maybe one day we will see Michela Pace and Destiny making a come back. My early prediction is Aidan or Brooke. Good luck Malta

BadWoolfGirl
BadWoolfGirl
1 year ago

out of 40 songs, only six of them are actually in Maltese. Say what you will Sweden, at least they always try to ensure a fixed portion of songs to be sung in Swedish

Colin
Colin
1 year ago
Reply to  BadWoolfGirl

I would like to hear Maltese at ESC, but to be fair, Malta does have English as their co-official language. Also, some entries might be bilingual or entirely in Maltese with an English title. This year, ”A Lover’s Heart” and ”Army” were partially in Maltese, and ”II” was entirely in Maltese. Makes me think that Aidan’s ”Regina” will also be in Maltese. ”UP” from Matt Blxck could be in any language. I love how Sweden has a number of entries in Swedish (I’d love if some of the frontrunners would be in Swedish). Croatia does the same thing. About half… Read more »

BadWoolfGirl
BadWoolfGirl
1 year ago

And I thought Lithuania was infamous for that kind of thing but they are shortening it to five nights.

Jonas
Jonas
1 year ago

I’m always more interested in the actual song, than the performer. Not knowing if the winner of this will actually go to Liverpool leaves me with no reason to watch.

Roger La
Roger La
1 year ago
Reply to  Jonas

good point!

Microfibertowel
Microfibertowel
1 year ago

m i k e and d a n
This will be an iconic mess I know it already
?

BeniFest23
BeniFest23
1 year ago

I have just read that Tone Sekelius is back at the Melodifestivalen, it’s going to be difficult to selct among Loreen and her.

BadWoolfGirl
BadWoolfGirl
1 year ago
Reply to  BeniFest23

I am waiting for the official announcement of the 2023 melfest participants, but I guess reporting the their names in the AB tabloid (Sorry I can never get the name right) It’s like an open secret

Dan
Dan
1 year ago

Can Malta send something in Maltese please, or would that be too much to ask for?

BadWoolfGirl
BadWoolfGirl
1 year ago
Reply to  Dan

It would be a nice change of pace to have Malta send something in Maltese, but I’m not holding my breath for it.

Richard Hochuli
Richard Hochuli
1 year ago
Reply to  BadWoolfGirl

theyve had 2 good Chances
AIDAN was great..and another girl who sang in Maltese.. twice but didn’t win…
Its a nice language to be represented in Liverpool.

sri jayawardenapura kotte
Reply to  Dan

Aidan will win for sure