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Malta Eurovision Song Contest Resurrection

Here are some first thoughts from Toni Sant’s Blog on the return of the Malta Eurovision Song Contest:

Someone somewhere saw it fit to decouple Malta’s Eurovision Song Contest entry from Malta’s X Factor. So far, so good.

Malta Eurovision Song Contest

A slew of singers, songwriters and lyricists rejoiced at the opportunity to churn out a number of new pop song onto the Malta music scene once again. Nothing wrong with that, as long as you take the product as it comes, without reading the warning label.

A number of old-timers still call the re-booted Malta Eurovision Song Contest by its former name: MaltaSong, or worse, Malta Song for Europe. The latter is a political remnant from the time the government of Malta pandered to pro-EU sentiments as well as a misguided idea that the Eurovision Song Contest is somehow aligned with the European institutions led from Brussels. Enough of this, please.

The Malta Eurovision Song Contest is little more than a television show designed to help (if that’s the right word!) PBS (Malta) Ltd. pick the next entry for the EBU’s Eurovision Song Contest. And I’m quite sure it will be quite a televisual spectacle, by pop music standards.

As the 2022 Eurovison Song Contest will be taking place in Torino, many in Malta are already hailing Emma Muscat as “the best option” for Malta’s entry to this year’s contest. I can see why they’d think and say this, even if not necessarily in that order. Emma has many talents but, in my book, these only make her “the best option” for Malta, if the goal is to do little more than take part in this year’s contest.

My money is on Aidan Cassar and his Rimtu. He’ll need to clear the significant local hurdle first – i.e. competing against 21 other local pop star wannabes singing songs in English, some of whom are singing English-language songs written by Aidan himself. Not only is Aidan the freshest kid on the block (as a songwriter) but he has also dared do something that to many seems unspeakable: propose a song in Maltese as the Malta entry for the Eurovision Song Contest.

I haven’t heard any of the songs yet, of course, but I’m mindful that this is ultimately a television show we’re talking about here. I’m also aware that Aidan’s Ritmu is not the only Maltese-language song.

I’m sure I’ll hear (most of) the songs over the coming weeks before the February broadcast. It’s also likely that I’ll be back with more comments around the time the 22 become 16, or just after the one has been picked. I’m voting for Neo.

(This blog post is partly intended to preclude me from being involved in the official selection of Malta’s entry to the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest.)

Malta Eurovision Song Contest

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