Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest

Malta
Member station	TVM
National selection events	National Final Malta Song for Europe 1971–1972 1975 1991–2018 X Factor Malta 2019
Participation summary
Appearances	31 (24 finals)
First appearance	1971
Best result	2nd: 2002, 2005
Worst result	Last: 1971, 1972, 2006
External links
Malta's page at Eurovision.tv
For the most recent participation see Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018

Malta has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 31 times since its debut in 1971. The contest is broadcast in Malta on the PBS channel, TVM. Malta has yet to win the contest, but is the only non-winning country to have achieved four top three results.

Malta finished last on its first two attempts in 1971 and 1972, and had a 16-year absence from the contest between 1975 and 1991. Malta's return proved more successful, reaching the top 10 in 12 out of 15 contests from 1991 to 2005, including third-place results for Mary Spiteri (1992) and Chiara (1998) and second-place results for Ira Losco (2002) and Chiara (2005). Since finishing last for the third time in 2006, Malta has struggled to make an impact, with its only top 10 result being Gianluca Bezzina's eighth-place in 2013.

History

Malta first participated at Eurovision in 1971, although the history of National song contests organized in the Maltese islands dates back to 1960 when the first Malta Song Festival took place. Malta has never won the contest, although it has twice finished second and twice finished third. At first, the island state sent songs in its native language, Maltese, but it failed to rank highly, finishing last in its first two attempts in the contest in 1971 and 1972 and withdrew after the 1975 contest.

Malta's return to the contest in 1991, after a 16-year absence, proved to be more successful, with eight consecutive top 10 placings (1991-1998) and finishing in the top 10 in 12 out of 15 contests from 1991-2005. These results included third-place finishes in 1992 for Mary Spiteri and in 1998 for Chiara and second-place finishes in 2002 for Ira Losco and in 2005 for Chiara, who in 2009 became the first performer to represent Malta at three contests, finishing 22nd.^[1][2] Malta's two seconds and two thirds, make it the most successful country not to win the contest.

In the last 12 contests, Malta has only once reached the top 10, when Gianluca Bezzina finished eighth in 2013. Fabrizio Faniello, who had previously finished ninth in 2001, finished last in the 2006 final, and since then the country has failed to qualify from the semi-final round seven times, in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2015, 2017 and 2018.

Together with France, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom, Malta is one of the few countries that has not missed a contest since 1991. All of Malta's entries since 1991 have been sung in its other official language, English, which it was one of the few countries allowed to use in the contest between 1977 and 1999, being a former British colony which (as seen below) has had a close relationship with the UK within the contest. The only use of the Maltese language was three lines in the 2000 entry "Desire", performed by Claudette Pace. The Maltese broadcasters of the show are the Public Broadcasting Services (PBS). All shows are transmitted live on TVM (Malta) and Radio Malta. Also, along with Croatia and Sweden it was the only country never to be relegated, under the previous rules of the contest, that wasn't a part of the Big Four.

Contestants

Table key

• NOTE:

a. If a country had won the previous year, they did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year. In addition, back in 2004-2007, the top ten countries who were not members of the big four did not have to compete in the semi finals the following year. If, for example, Germany and France placed inside the top ten, the countries who placed 11th and 12th were advanced to the following year's grand final along with the rest of the top ten countries.

b. ^ Spain originally gave its 12 points to Israel and 10 to Norway. After the broadcast it was announced that Spanish broadcaster wrongly tallied the votes and Germany should have got the top mark - 12 points - instead of being snubbed, as it happened. The mistake was corrected and so Germany was placed 7th over Norway. Israel and Norway both received 2 points less than originally and Croatia, Malta, Portugal, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Belgium, Estonia and Turkey all received one point less than indicated during the broadcast..

Voting history

As of 2018, Malta's voting history is as follows:

Most points given in the grand finals only Rank Country Points 1  Italy 149 2  United Kingdom 144 3  Sweden 122 4  Cyprus 88 5  Greece 86  Ireland 86 Most points received in the grand finals only Rank Country Points 1  United Kingdom 103 2  Ireland 95 3  Spain 84 4  Croatia 82 5  Turkey 78

Most points given in the semis and finals Rank Country Points 1  Sweden 186 2  Italy 149 3  United Kingdom 144 4  Greece 126 5  Israel 119 Most points received in the semis and finals Rank Country Points 1  United Kingdom 146 2  Ireland 107 3  Croatia 105 4  Sweden 94 5  Turkey 93  Spain 93

Marcel Bezençon Awards

Press Award

Commentators and spokespersons

Conductors

All conductors are Maltese except Vince Tempera.

• Anthony "Twanny" Chirchop (1971, 1994)
• Charles Camilleri (1972)
• Vince Tempera (1975)
• Paul Abela (1991–92, 1996)
• Joseph Sammut (1993)
• Ray Agius (1995, 1997)

Prior to 1999, the Maltese entry was performed without orchestral accompaniment in 1998.^[3]

Photogallery

• 
  Julie and Ludwig at Istanbul (2004)
• 
  Olivia Lewis at Helsinki (2007)
• 
  Morena at Belgrade (2008)
• 
  Thea Garrett at Oslo (2010)
• 
  Gianluca Bezzina at Malmö (2013)
• 
  Firelight at Copenhagen (2014)
• 
  Amber at Vienna (2015)
• 
  Ira Losco at Stockholm (2016)
• 
  Claudia Faniello at Kyiv (2017)
• 
  Christabelle at Lisbon (2018)

External links

• ESCMalta Community website
• EurovisionMalta.com
• Points to and from Malta eurovisioncovers.co.uk
• OGAE Malta - The local branch of the official Eurovision Fans Club