Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022

Eurovision Song Contest 2022
Country	Malta
National selection
Selection process	Artist: Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2022 Song: Internal selection
Selection date(s)	Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2022: Semi-final: 17 February 2022 Special evening: 18 February 2022 Final: 19 February 2022 Song selection: 14 March 2022
Selected entrant	Emma Muscat
Selected song	"I Am What I Am"
Selected songwriter(s)	Dino Medanhodzic Emma Muscat Julie Aagaard Stine Kinck
Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2021 • 2022

Malta is scheduled to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Turin, Italy. Emma Muscat was selected as the Maltese representative via the national final Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2022, where she competed with the song "Out of Sight". As the rules of the Maltese national final allowed for the winning artist to change the winning song either partially or entirely with the consent of the winning composers, on 14 March 2022 it was announced Muscat would perform the song "I Am What I Am" instead.

Background[]

Prior to the 2022 contest, Malta has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest thirty-three times since its first entry in 1971. Malta briefly competed in the Eurovision Song Contest in the 1970s before withdrawing for sixteen years. The country had competed in every contest between their return in 1991, and 2022. 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.^[1] In the 2021 edition, Malta qualified to the final and placed 7th with the song "Je me casse" performed by Destiny.

The Maltese national broadcaster, Public Broadcasting Services (PBS), broadcast the event within Malta and organised the selection process for the nation's entry. PBS confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2022 contest on 21 June 2021.^[2] Malta used the talent show format X Factor Malta for their 2019 and 2020 participations which resulted in the selection of a winning performer that would subsequently be given an internally selected song to perform at Eurovision. However PBS announced that they would select their 2022 entry through a national final procedure, a method that was last used in 2018.^[3]

Before Eurovision[]

Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2022[]

Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2022 was the national final format developed by PBS to select the Maltese entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2022. The competition consisted of three shows held between 17 and 19 February 2022 at the Malta Fairs & Conventions Centre in Ta' Qali, Attard. All shows were hosted by Stephanie Spiteri, Quinton Scerri, Ron Briffa, Josmar and Ryan Borg, and broadcast on Television Malta (TVM) as well on the broadcaster's website tvm.com.mt.^[4][5]

Format[]

The competition consisted of twenty songs competing in the semi-final on 17 February 2022 where the top sixteen entries with the addition of a wildcard qualified to compete in the final on 19 February 2022. The special evening took place on 18 February 2022 where the first sixteen qualifiers were announced. Six judges evaluated the songs during the shows and each judge had an equal stake in the final result. The seventh set of votes were the results of the public televote and announced prior to the final on 19 February, which had a weighting equal to the votes of a single judge. The wildcard was selected by an additional televote following the special evening, while the six members of the jury that evaluated the entries during both the semi-final and final consisted of TVM representatives: Carlo Borg Bonaci, Antonio Belli, Maria Muscat, Antoine Faure, Nadine Muscat and Ruth Amaira.

Competing entries[]

Artists and composers were able to submit their entries between 15 October 2021 and 15 December 2021.^[6] 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 semi-final. 2021 Maltese Eurovision entrant Destiny was unable to compete due to a rule that prevented the previous entrant from competing in the following contest.^[7] The twenty-two songs selected to compete in the semi-final were announced on 29 December 2021.^[8]

Among the selected competing artists were former Eurovision entrants Richard Edwards who represented Malta in the 2014 contest as part of the group Firelight and Jessika Muscat who represented San Marino in the 2018 contest. Francesca Sciberras represented Malta in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2009 and Nicole Azzopardi represented Malta in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010. Among the songwriters, Matthew Mercieca, Gerard James Borg and Philip Vella were all past writers of Maltese Eurovision entries. Dimitri Stassos co-wrote the Spanish entry in 2009 and the Greek entry in 2012; Nektarios Tyrakis co-wrote the Greek entry in 2004, the Belarusian entry in 2005 and the Sammarinese entry in 2016; Peter Boström co-wrote the Swedish and Norwegian entries in 2012 as well as the Spanish entry in 2015.

Semi-final[]

The semi-final took place on 17 February 2022. The running order for the semi-final was announced on 6 February 2022.^[9][10] Twenty-two songs competed for seventeen qualifying spots in the final, one of them being a wildcard among the six songs that originally failed to qualify from the semi-final, awarded to Jessika with the song "Kaleidoscope".^[11]

Special evening[]

The special evening, which celebrated Malta's 50th Anniversary since their first participation in the Eurovision Song Contest, took place on 18 February 2022. The twenty-two contestants performed former Maltese Eurovision songs in duets with their respective original artists.^[12] The show was opened with a guest performance from the Analise Dance Studio, and featured a tribute to 1994 Maltese Eurovision entrant Christopher Scicluna who had passed away the same day.^[13]

Final[]

The final took place on 19 February 2022. The seventeen entries that qualified from the semi-final were performed again and the votes of a six-member jury panel (6/7) and the results of public televoting (1/7) determined the winner. The show was opened with a guest performance from the Analise Dance Studio, while the interval act featured performances by Malta's Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015 winner and 2021 Maltese Eurovision entrant Destiny Chukunyere, 2021 Maltese Junior Eurovision entrant Ike and Kaya, and the Concept of Movement dance troupe.^[14] After the votes from the jury panel and televote were combined, "Out of Sight" performed by Emma Muscat was the winner.^[15]

Ratings[]

Song selection[]

Following Muscat's win at Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2022, rumours began to surface that she would perform a song other than "Out of Sight" at the Eurovision Song Contest.^[17] The national final rules set by PBS allowed for the winning song to be partially modified or completely changed. "I Am What I Am" was released on 14 March 2022, and on the same day, the song was confirmed to replace "Out of Sight" as Muscat's entry at Eurovision.^[18] In an interview with DR, the Danish public broadcaster, producer Anders Fredslund has revealed that PBS was looking for a new Eurovision entry for Emma Muscat the day after her victory in the Maltese selection.^[19] Anders Fredslund, who runs the music company The Arrangement, explained that he had been informed the representative has been chosen, but the broadcaster was looking for potential songs to represent it in the contest.^[19] The company then sent a number of songs to PBS, from which two were selected to be recorded as demos, with the broadcaster subsequently selecting "I Am What I Am".^[19] According to Anders Fredslund, the song was written in 2021 as part of a songwriting camp that The Arrangement and Autor organised for the Eurovision Song Contest.^[19] Originally, it was claimed that the song had been submitted into Melodifestivalen but rejected by the Swedish national broadcaster, SVT;^[19] however, it was later announced that it was just intended to compete in Melodifestivalen, but never officially submitted due to the lack of an "appropriate artist for the song".^[20]

At Eurovision[]

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (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 25 January 2022, an 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 has been placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 12 May 2022, and has been scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.^[21]

Notes[]

References[]