Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018

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Eurovision Song Contest 2018
Country Malta
National selection
Selection processMalta Eurovision Song Contest 2018
Selection date(s)3 February 2018
Selected entrantChristabelle
Selected song"Taboo"
Selected songwriter(s)
Finals performance
Semi-final resultFailed to qualify (13th, 101 points)
Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2017 • 2018 • 2019►

Malta participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 with the song "Taboo" written by Johnny Sanchez, Thomas G:son, Christabelle Borg and Muxu. The song was performed by Christabelle. The Maltese entry for the 2018 contest in Lisbon, Portugal was selected through the national final Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2018, organised by the Maltese broadcaster Public Broadcasting Services (PBS). The competition consisted of a final held on 3 February 2018, where "Taboo" performed by Christabelle eventually emerged as the winning entry after scoring the most points from a five-member jury and a public televote.

Malta was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 10 May 2018. Performing during the show in position 12, "Taboo" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final on 12 May. It was later revealed that Malta placed thirteenth out of the 18 participating countries in the semi-final with 101 points.

Background[]

Main article: Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest

Prior to the 2018 Contest, Malta had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest thirty times since its first entry in 1971.[1] Malta briefly competed in the Eurovision Song Contest in the 1970s before withdrawing for sixteen years. The country had, to this point, competed in every contest since returning in 1991. Malta's best placing in the contest thus far was second, which it achieved on two occasions: in 2002 with the song "7th Wonder" performed by Ira Losco and in the 2005 contest with the song "Angel" performed by Chiara.[2] In the 2017 edition, Malta placed twelfth with the song "Breathlessly" performed by Claudia Faniello.

For the 2018 Contest, the Maltese national broadcaster, Public Broadcasting Services (PBS), broadcast the event within Malta and organised the selection process for the nation's entry. Malta selected their entry consistently through a national final procedure, a method that was continued for their 2018 participation.

Before Eurovision[]

Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2018[]

Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2018 was the national final format developed by PBS to select the Maltese entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. The competition consisted of a final held on 3 February 2018 at the Malta Fairs and Conventions Centre in Ta' Qali, hosted by radio presenter Colin Fitz and broadcast on Television Malta (TVM) as well on the broadcaster's website tvm.com.mt.

Format[]

The competition consisted of sixteen songs competing in the final on 3 February 2018. Five judges evaluated the songs during the show and the results of the public televote had a weighting equal to the total votes of the judges. The five members of the jury that evaluated the entries during the final consisted of:

Competing entries[]

Artists and composers were able to submit their entries between 30 June 2017 and 1 September 2017. Songwriters from any nationality were able to submit songs as long as the artist were Maltese or possessed Maltese citizenship. Artists were able to submit as many songs as they wished, however, they could only compete with a maximum of one in the final. 2017 national final winner Claudia Faniello was unable to compete due to a rule that prevented the previous winner from competing in the following competition. 129 entries were received by the broadcaster. On 15 September 2017, PBS announced a shortlist of 30 entries that had progressed through the selection process. The sixteen songs selected by a seven-member international jury consisting of representatives from several countries along with local experts from Malta to compete in the final were announced on 11 October 2017.[3][4]

Among the selected competing artists was former Maltese Eurovision entrant Richard Micallef (performing with Joe Micallef) who represented Malta in the 2014 contest as part of the group Firelight. On 19 January 2018, a new version of "Dai Laga" performed by AIDAN was released at the request of PBS as the original version of the song was said to have breached EBU regulations due to it including some instrumental music that may have been bought via the internet by the composer.[5]

Final[]

The final took place on 3 February 2018. Sixteen entries competed and the 50/50 combination of votes of a five-member jury panel and the results of public televoting determined the winner. The show was opened with a guest performance of "Breathlessly" performed by 2017 Maltese Eurovision entrant Claudia Faniello, while the interval act featured further performances by Faniello as well as performances by 2017 Maltese Junior Eurovision entrant Gianluca Cilla, the Analise Dance Studio and the Kinetic Dance Studio.[6][7] After the votes from the jury panel and televote were combined, "Taboo" performed by Christabelle Borg was the winner.[8] Each point awarded by the public televote equated to approximately 37 votes.

Draw Artist Song Songwriter(s) Jury Televote Total Place
1 AIDAN "Dai Laga" Aidan Cassar 34 8 42 4
2 Miriana Conte "Rocket" Cyprian Cassar, Muxu 9 5 14 12
3 Jasmine Abela "Supernovas" Charlie Mason, Jonas Thander 25 6 31 8
4 Matthew Anthony "Call 2morrow" Jonas Gladnikoff, Tom Wiklund, Peder Eriksson 26 6 32 7
5 Danica Muscat "One Step at a Time" John Ballard, Ruth Mussie, Jerusalem Yemane, Irena Krstva, Kian Fakhary 2 1 3 16
6 Dwett "Breaking Point" Elton Zarb, Muxu 3 12 15 10
7 Lawrence Gray "Love Renegade" Cyprian Cassar, Muxu 3 4 7 15
8 Richard & Joe Micallef "Song for Dad" Cyprian Cassar, Richard Micallef 31 67 98 2
9 Tiziana Calleja "First Time" Tina Stenberg 4 8 12 14
10 Eleanor Cassar "Back to Life" Jonas Gladnikoff, Michael James Down 19 17 36 5
11 Rhiannon "Beyond Blue Horizons" Rhiannon Micallef, Cyprian Cassar 9 5 14 11
12 Brooke Borg "Heart of Gold" Borislav Milanov, Dag Lundberg, Niklas Lif, Brooke Borg 37 47 84 3
13 Christabelle Borg "Taboo" Johnny Sanchez, Thomas G:son, Christabelle Borg, Muxu 60 73 133 1
14[a] Deborah C "Turn It Up" Christian Schneider, Aidan O'Connor, Sara Biglert, Erik Grönwall 0 13 13 13
15 Avenue Sky "We Can Run" Jonas Gladnikoff, Matthew Ker, Glen Vella 1 15 16 9
16 Petra "Evolution" Elton Zarb, Muxu 27 6 33 6
  1. ^ Due to technical difficulties in the performance, Deborah C was allowed to perform again following Petra performing "Evolution".

At Eurovision[]

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 29 January 2018, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Malta was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 10 May 2018, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.[9]

Once all the competing songs for the 2018 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Malta was set to perform in position 12, following the entry from Poland and preceding the entry from Hungary.[10]

Voting[]

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.

Points awarded to Malta[]

Points awarded to Malta (Semi-final 2)[11]
Score Televote Jury
12 points
10 points  Romania
8 points
7 points  Australia
6 points
5 points
4 points
3 points  Australia
2 points  Moldova
1 point  Denmark

Points awarded by Malta[]

Detailed voting results[]

The following members comprised the Maltese jury:[13]

  • Elton Zarb (jury chairperson) – composer, musician, producer
  • Dorian Cassar – radio and TV presenter, business owner
  • Olwyn Jo Saliba – producer, video editor
  • Alexander Kitcher – event coordinator, technical director at Valletta 2018 Foundation
  • Amber Bondin – music artist, represented Malta in the 2015 contest
Detailed voting results from Malta (Semi-final 2)[11] hide
Draw Country Jury Televote
D. Cassar O.J. Saliba A. Kitcher A. Bondin E. Zarb Average Rank Points Rank Points
01  Norway 1 1 2 2 4 1 12 5 6
02  Romania 8 11 7 8 13 9 2 14
03  Serbia 14 15 9 7 17 10 1 15
04  San Marino 13 7 10 5 7 8 3 1 12
05  Denmark 2 2 5 4 6 3 8 3 8
06  Russia 17 17 8 13 11 16 8 3
07  Moldova 6 16 6 14 3 7 4 7 4
08  Netherlands 9 13 12 16 10 11 6 5
09  Australia 7 4 3 6 1 4 7 2 10
10  Georgia 16 8 11 15 14 14 17
11  Poland 10 14 17 10 12 15 10 1
12  Malta
13  Hungary 11 12 15 17 8 13 11
14  Latvia 12 10 14 9 16 12 13
15  Sweden 3 6 1 3 2 2 10 4 7
16  Montenegro 4 3 4 11 9 6 5 16
17  Slovenia 15 9 16 12 15 17 12
18  Ukraine 5 5 13 1 5 5 6 9 2
Detailed voting results from Malta (Final)[12] hide
Draw Country Jury Televote
D. Cassar O.J. Saliba A. Kitcher A. Bondin E. Zarb Average Rank Points Rank Points
01  Ukraine 13 22 16 11 26 17 21
02  Spain 21 24 14 19 18 21 25
03  Slovenia 23 23 18 20 19 23 24
04  Lithuania 12 13 11 12 11 13 6 5
05  Austria 18 9 12 9 8 10 1 15
06  Estonia 19 21 19 15 25 22 14
07  Norway 6 8 7 6 7 7 4 17
08  Portugal 26 25 17 22 20 24 26
09  United Kingdom 22 16 9 18 16 16 10 1
10  Serbia 25 19 20 26 23 26 19
11  Germany 10 11 15 10 15 12 7 4
12  Albania 24 18 4 21 22 11 18
13  France 3 3 3 3 3 3 8 13
14  Czech Republic 4 7 5 7 6 6 5 8 3
15  Denmark 11 12 26 13 24 15 9 2
16  Australia 9 10 10 8 9 8 3 5 6
17  Finland 14 17 21 25 13 18 16
18  Bulgaria 20 4 23 14 10 9 2 4 7
19  Moldova 15 15 24 24 17 20 22
20  Sweden 5 5 6 5 5 4 7 12
21  Hungary 17 26 25 23 21 25 23
22  Israel 7 6 8 4 4 5 6 3 8
23  Netherlands 16 20 22 16 14 19 20
24  Ireland 8 14 13 17 12 14 11
25  Cyprus 2 1 2 1 1 1 12 2 10
26  Italy 1 2 1 2 2 2 10 1 12

References[]

  1. ^ "Malta Country Profile". EBU. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  2. ^ "Malta Country Profile". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 16 July 2014. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  3. ^ http://assets.tvm.com.mt/mt/wp-content/uploads/sites/1/2017/06/Malta-Eurovision-Song-Contest-2018.pdf
  4. ^ "Eurovision 2018 - Christabelle (Malta)". ESCKAZ. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
  5. ^ "Change in instrumentation of one of the finalist songs in MESC 2018 - TVM".
  6. ^ Stanton, John (3 February 2018). "#MALTA: Live blog of MESC #AllAboard at 20.45 CET". Eurovision Ireland. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  7. ^ Saliba, Norma (2 February 2018). "Se jkun wieħed mill-aqwa Eurovision li qatt rajna fl-aħħar snin – il-Ministru Owen Bonnici". TVM (in Maltese). Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  8. ^ Mercereau, Damien (21 February 2018). "Eurovision 2018 : Malte désigne Christabelle Borg" (in French). Le Figaro. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
  9. ^ Jordan, Paul (29 January 2018). "Which countries will perform in which Semi-Final at Eurovision 2018?". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
  10. ^ "Running order for Eurovision 2018 Semi-Finals revealed". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. 3 April 2018. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  11. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Results of the Second Semi-Final of Lisbon 2018". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 9 May 2021. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  12. ^ Jump up to: a b "Results of the Grand Final of Lisbon 2018". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 9 May 2021. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  13. ^ Groot, Evert (30 April 2018). "Exclusive: They are the expert jurors for Eurovision 2018". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
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