After a long hot summer of silence, Malta’s PBS has finally confirmed its plans for Eurovision 2020. And, just like last year, the sunny island will be represented by the winner of X Factor Malta.
X Factor winner will represent Malta at Eurovision 2020
The TV network broke the news on Friday afternoon.
The final of the popular reality show will take place on Saturday 8 February.
However, fans don’t need to wait that long to get their fill of X Factor realness. The show is already back on screens, with the first round of auditions being broadcast last week.
X Factor Malta 2019-2020
The series one judging panel is back for another year. Sitting behind the desk is music manager Howard Keith Debono, rock legend Ray Mercieca, singer-songwriter Alexandra Alden and Malta’s Eurovision queen, Ira Losco.
As a fresh batch of hopefuls faced the judges, fans wondered if the island nation had enough talent left for a second series of the international reality show franchise. Spoiler alert: iva! (That’s “yes” in Maltese, something often heard in this bilingual show).
Standout auditionees included Lisa Marie Tabone, Justine Shorfid and Giovanni. Check out our full recap of episode one here.
X Factor Malta and Eurovision
Eurovision and X Factor Malta were intrinsically entwined last year. From the off, it was known that the winner would sing for the island at Eurovision 2019. However, before today, producers had kept shtum on whether the two competitions would be linked going forward.
Following Michela’s somewhat disappointing finish on the right-hand side of the Tel Aviv scoreboard, questions had been raised regarding the show’s suitability for selecting a song contest act.
This led to some off season speculation that Brooke Borg could be working on an entry with Bulgarian hitmakers Symphonix. This evidently is not the case.
Are you happy about Malta’s continued use of the X Factor? Or would you rather see the Malta Eurovision Song Contest Return? Let us know in the comments.
Do the contestants know the from the start that if any of them win X factor, they will represent Malta at Eurovision 2020? I hope this isn’t sprung on them unexpectantly like in OT last year where most of those contestants didn’t want to go to Eurovision.
in the last two editions of OT the contract included the possibility of going to ESC, and even tho RTVE announced it late for ESC 2018 they had already announced OT as NF for ESC 2019 before the shows started — it’s got nothing to do with OT that they didn’t want to go
its just a matter of time before DESTINY will be the Maltese entrant and maybe win Eurovision….She just needs the right song.
So is she on the list of this years X factor?
As it should be. The winner deserves to represent Malta
i think internal selection for malta’s song issa good thing since their mesc entries are always way too outdated. i’m very hopeful for this year!
Depends on whos to decide in the internal selection as the jurors of last years were really oldfashioned and biased.
Off topic.. Since the deadline for participation fee was yesterday when will we know about how many countries will participate and which ones?
last year it was revealed on the 11th November, in 2018 it was revealed on 22nd of October, in 2017 on 31st of October, in 2016 on 26th of November. So yeah or in late October or in mid November…
If they bring another banger like chameleon then I’m down for it!
They better find someone who can dance this time.
They need to stop playing games and just send Destiny Chukunyere !
It was such a blasphemy to hide her behind the stage this year. Her JESC would have killed even in the real Eurovision.
Did the competing singers know what they were signing up for? It would be strange if they didn’t.
I would regard Chiara as Malta’s Eurovision queen, by the way, but Ira has a legitimate claim too, I suppose.
The winner would be a real winner if the gift was a song that was custom-made for them specifically. 2019 proved that much. It ain’t the show’s fault that “Chameleon” was chosen. Clearly, Malta prefers spending money on marketing and staging, more than on their song. I still loved Michela’s reaction in the semi final results announcement, though. The best part of this year’s voting by far. Strangely enough, in a way, she also had the best reaction in the final when the producers very unfairly showed her getting that disappointing result. Her face perfectly reflected what I was thinking… Read more »
I guess the Judges House has already been filmed and they already know who are going to the live shows in january.
there’s no aidan cassar this year so there’s no risk of embarrassment anymore
At last! I don’t know what took them so long to confirm that, but that’s good news. The format has its pros and cons – it obviously helps select very talented singers, but at the same time many of X Factor winners lack the experience, and thus can find the whole Eurovision experience extremely challenging. Yet it also gives the broadcaster a lot of time to find a fitting song for the champion, and “Chameleon” was the proof that they know how to use it. In any case, as we’ve seen last year, Malta is a country full of people… Read more »
Last year was an excellent example of how not to match a singer and a song. “Chameleon” was completely unsuitable for Michaela.
indeed Michaela was good in ballades, they gave her a song she couldnt sing and was unabke to france to. A ballad for Michaela would have been a perfect fit probably. Hence the result now.
I hope they will choose a better performer than michela…
Are FYROM and Thunder and lightning it’s getting exciting the same person?
No
It seems so
Uhm, no, they are not, cause our “Thunder” is a ESC-Fan from Czech Republic who often writes comments here, whereas our “FYROM” always likes to “troll” a bit here 🙂 I feel a bit sorry for Thunder at the moment, cause everybody who reads the comments regularly should know our community instead of making one a victim while the other person is the one who “trolls” 🙁 Mankind, mankind…
I hope they will choose a better performer than michela…