Malta’s most recent national selection featured 22 songs, resulting in the selection of Emma Muscat’s “Out of Sight” being chosen as the winner. But, as you’ll recall, the song was subsequently dropped following negative reviews and fan reaction.
Now, perhaps in a bid to give the public even more of a choice, Malta has announced that it’s expanding the Malta Eurovision Song Contest to a whopping 40 songs, which will be presented across four quarter-finals.
Malta Eurovision Song Contest: 40 songs across 4 quarter-finals
A professional jury will evaluate all submissions, narrowing the field to 40 songs. The jury will listen to full playback recordings of the songs without the artist present.
The 40 selected songs will then 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. We’re assuming that the 24 songs represent six chosen per semi-final, though the rules don’t actually say that.
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 final
You can read the complete rules here.
Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2023 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
Eligibility Criteria
1.1. All artists must be of Maltese nationality or have dual citizenship, one of which is Maltese. In the case of a group comprising two or more artists, the lead artist must be of Maltese Nationality or hold dual citizenship one of which is Maltese. All artists participating in lead role must be of Maltese Nationality or hold dual citizenship, one of which Maltese.
1.2. The previous year’s winning artist(s) and/or the last edition’s ESC Maltese representative/s may not participate as a performer in the Contest.
1.3. All artists must be aged at least sixteen (16) by the 1st May, 2023.
1.4. Authors and composers may be of any Nationality.
1.5. A copy of the identity card of all participants needs to be submitted with the application.
1.6. Late submissions, incomplete submissions or submissions with missing forms, data or information will be considered void and will neither be processed nor accepted
Monetary prizes
i Winner €10,000
ii Runner-up €4,000
iii 2nd Runner-up €2,000
iv Remaining Finalists €300 each
v Remaining Semi Finalists €300 each
vi Remaining Quarter-Finalists €300 each
Malta’s NF is cruel to viewers!! Full of ads and then the juries basically decide who goes to ESC.. if the song doesn’t change! Maltese people deserve more respect than that.
I’m sorry, but this is the most useless NF. Small coumtries like Malta don’t have enough people/ material to pick from. They should hire an experienced team to work dedicatedly and create a good entry.
Malta shoud go with internal selection.
Results aren’t everything. At least it will give forty singers or bands the chance to learn, get better, and some sort of goal to aim for. That’s not nothing.
True, but probably the usual 40 “personnel” we all know, some of whom will appear multiple times, e.g. solo, duet and maybe “boyband” (again). I really recommend you attend the show!
iceland is smaller and yet their selection works wonderfully
You’re right, I believe it’s more about how rich and diverse the local music scene is, not the size of the country/population. Iceland has a rich and diverse music scene and RÚV usually makes good use of it. I don’t know anything about the musical scene in Malta but it seems that it’s either very dull, or it isn’t but PBS doesn’t use it enough. All of their competing songs are either Melodifestivalen wannabes or Melodifestivalen rejects.If Malta doesn’t have the industry to sustain a national selection then they should come to terms with it and find a better method… Read more »
The Maltese NF is open to foreign authors/ composers. Please read the full article.
Yeah and look where that’s got them
Hopefully they’ll use the actual winning song at Eurovision, and the whole thing won’t feel pointless afterwards.
Mlata needs to concentrate on quality of the songs not quantity,this is overkill and in no way will guarantee a good result
I hope one of these songs is good enough to make it to the ESC.
40 songs x 3 minutes = 120 minutes of music and at least 600 minutes of commercials. My condolences to the viewers beforehand.
I don’t know why but ‘Electric Indigo’ started playing in my head while reading this
That song was honestly a bop
Actually would love to have seen it in Milan, it was fun
This is gonna be such a disaster that i almost feel sorry for the people who have to watch this and report on it to the media. Its a way for tvm to make profit, the winning song wont even go to eurovision lol
“the interpretation should be without any choreography and props.”
I’d like to see the EBU try a back-to-basics approach like that for the contest, one year.
why is anyone surprised by tvm dragging it as long as they can when this year’s mesc brought them tons in ad revenue? they’re doing their own interests lol
They never learn lol
Quality not quantity
But why have 39 filler songs? When they did MESC before 2019 there were songs that didn’t make it through to the final that were then used in the next year
But will the winning song be the one they’ll sent to Eurovision?
Terrible idea tbh. Malta have struggled to have a quality national final every year and have consistently had some of the worst songs of the national final seasons each time. It is simply too small a country to be expected to produce 20+ good songs every year.
I’m not expecting a car crash like the San Marino experience last year, but we might be getting a lesser version of that.
they had a 56-song nf in 2009 and they survived lol
Wow, they’re really out of their minds xD
Just to warn you Malta… bigger doesn’t always mean better. Sometimes you need to have quality over quantity.
If you provide a well produced show with *quality* songs I won’t be disappointed, but if I have to sift through 37 songs of nothing to find 3 good ones, I’m gonna be of the opinion that you took a step backward :/
In the end of course it’s really the finished product that really counts though. But please for the love of god don’t make the televote worth like 14% again who thought that that was a good idea
Malta always put so much effort in and for such a tiny country too, to come 2nd twice. I really do want to see them win it someday. Winning on British soil, with the UK connection, would be very fitting.
Maybe they’ll choose a great entry this year.
They nearly did it here in 1998. I can see that happening.
Malta is a country passionate about Esc and Jesc, they really take these contests seriously and it’s enjoyable to see, they deserve respect and support and I will never understand this fury against Malta, what do you blame them for? Personally I wish them good luck for the new season, and I hope a good result for Malta.
A lot of half-ass made songs battling out to win, while main purpose of this is to gain money to buy a song reject that no one else needed.
I won’t be using my time for this next year, there are propper national selections and finals that actually do what they’ve supposed to do.
They’ll most probably send the most famous singer from rich family in their NF again.
Quality instead of quantity Malta…!
I can’t wait to see the 3 hours of commercials, obviously bias voting, and 38 filler songs
Bigger doesn’t always mean better, and Malta opting to use a national selection proves they learned nothing about last year’s failure. Even if the winning song won’t be tossed out for a new one, I can already tell Malta will not be getting any love from the televoting next year.
That is hardly a wild prediction?!
Looks like Malta is still far from hitting rock bottom…
I welcome this change because more songs = more chance to showcase local talent and genre variety (see Estonia 2022), but if they go for this format I expect them to stick with the winning song instead of throwing it in the bin just ’cause.
Why couldn’t they just stick with their 2019-21 selection process? The quality was much better.
Bring back Ira Losco, Michela Pace & Destiny Chukunyere 🙁
Destiny definitely needs to come back. But with a good song that suits her.
Good God, they couldn’t even cope with 22 and they never even kept the winning song! I (personally, just MY opinion!!!) don’t trust the Maltese broadcaster one bit and the Maltese public, as much as they’re very lovely people, are not,I’m afraid, very good at picking the song which would have the best chance in Eurovision. They should really concentrate on a small 8 song selection by Maltese composers/singers only and why not try for 1 year only, songs solely in the Maltese language – they’ve really got nothing to lose and non-English songs are doing extremely well in the… Read more »
Thank you, but I find it hard to be interested when we don’t even know if the winner will represent Malta. Still, I hope some people enjoy it.
Their NF this year was abysmal and they didn’t even keep the winning song but now they want to expand this crap? Good luck I suppose.
The Maltese broadcaster is obviously making a profit from this, that’s the only reason this 6-show national final is happening.
the on-screen ads every other minute are literally cringe
You might develop a sudden craving for oven chips?
that explains malta’s obesity rates…
This is going to be a disaster and I’m here for it
1. Quality> Quantity 2. Who thought that turning an already trainwreck national selection to an even bigger trainwreck was a good idea? If among 22 acts there wasn’t almost any good really good song, imagine 40 outdated, cheap and forgettable songs. 3. They should do an internal selection process, or a songwriting camp, or just send an act and a song which has at least a bit of authenticity. Just select someone who is capable of doing great, who is able to stand out because it’s not the typical Eurovision pop song that Malta sends almost every year. Just be… Read more »
This is a good news. Estonia did that last year and came-up with a great song, and a good placement. Malta will do it their way, of course. I expect the return of every Maltese singer who hasn’t won MESC yet under the sun, from Jessika and Aidan, to Janice Mangion and Deborah C. I also semi-expect one or two previous representatives who want another go. Who knows, maybe even a name like Ira Losco or Chiara. Sure, knowing MESC, most of these songs will be cheesy and fun to laugh at, which is also a good pastime, but I… Read more »
”Muscat’s “Out of Sight” being chosen as the winner. But, as you’ll recall, the song was subsequently dropped following negative reviews and fan reaction.” as generic as that entry was, it was still miles better than ”i am what i am”
40 songs, 4 quarter finals, 1 semi-final, 1final, to end up changing the winning song with a melfest reject. Are maltese people ok with that? Is anyone ever gonna complain about something that doesnt work? Why should someone watch this program?
I take out my crystal ball; winning artist – Aidan Cassar. Song may or may not be changed. I think they would have kept Ritmu, but who knows. See you all in February!
He’ll be robbed again and lose to a screaming diva
I thought that was the requirement in Albania?
correction: we’ll be saved from him by a screaming diva!
i can barely sit through MESC as it is. hopefully the song & lyrics quality is drastically improved or this will end up being similar to selectia nationala but worse. quality over quantity
I doubt that, the malteese selection i notable for cringe worthy and over the top lyrics.
no idea why we expect or even wish for good lyrics when we know they’ll mostly be terrible as last year’s. just take this show as it is: a source of comical entertainment! no one’s forcing you to watch it anyway.
i’ll always hope for artists to succeed and for countries to find their mojo in the contest. i’m not gonna laugh and make fun of the main chance maltese artists have to showcase their talent and represent their country, but i will encourage them to do better as we all should be
well, it’s their choice if they want to be laughed at or not!