The Maltese broadcaster announced today the 49 songs that have made it through to the first selection process towards the Maltese preselection shows. The final 20 songs will be revealed in the usual way on Xarabank during next week’s MESC announcement show. The shows will take place on the 22nd and 23rd of January.
The 49 songs were announced today by TVM. They were narrowed down from 153 songs, which is 19 more songs than Maltese broadcaster TVM received in 2014. A lot of artists are returning to the Maltese national final – the most famous is Ira Losco who ranked second at the 2002 Eurovision Song Contest in Estonia. A total of 20 participants will compete in two live shows including a semi-final and a grand final with 14 acts trying to win the ticket for Stockholm.
Below you can see the 49 songs that qualified to the next phase of the Maltese national selection:
| Artist | Song |
| Francesca Bonanno | 96 |
| Jasmine Abela | Alive |
| Deborah C | All Around the World |
| Chaya Fenech | Bare Your Soul |
| Kurt Cassar | Battle Zone |
| Lyndsay Pace | Beautiful |
| Andre Curmi (Dre) | Brave |
| Cherylis & Mikhail | Breaking Point |
| Cherylis | Breathe |
| Jessika | Can’t Let Go |
| Danica Muscat | Castle |
| Ira Losco | Chameleon (Invincible) |
| Francesca Borg | Dancing in the Rain |
| Domenique Azzopardi | Empty Hearted |
| Jean Claude Azzopardi | Exceptional |
| Corazon (Mizzi) | Falling Glass |
| Kelly Ann Mintoff | Feeling Alive |
| Dominic | Fire Burn |
| Iona | Fireworks |
| Raquel Galdes | Flashing Lights |
| Franklin Calleja | Flawless |
| Danica Muscat | Frontline |
| Paul Cuschieri | Go Beyond The Shore |
| Brooke | Golden |
| Nazjo Rotin | Gone |
| Q | Higher |
| Jessika | Hush Hush |
| Dario Mifsud Bonnici | I Love You |
| Franklin Calleja | I Won’t Surrender |
| Christabelle Borg | Kingdom |
| Stefan Galea | Light Up My Life |
| Kimberley Cortis | Lighthouse |
| Franklin Calleja | Little Love |
| Neville Refalo | MI-MI-MIND |
| Joseph Portelli | Paper Boats |
| Panama Band -Simaria | Reaching |
| Sarah Crystal | Right Here With You |
| Aidan Cassar | Rule The World |
| Klinsmann Coleiro | Someday |
| Julienne Liberto | Tell Me What You Wanna Do |
| Ira Losco | That’s Why I Love You |
| Jessika | The Flame |
| Kyle Mangani & Maxine Pace | Tonight |
| Daniel Testa | Under the Sun |
| Amy Agius | Victory |
| Kaya | Without You |
| Maxine Pace | Young Love |
| Malcom | Your Kiss |
| Laurence Gray | You’re Beautiful |
Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest
Malta has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 28 times since its debut in 1971. Malta has never won the contest, although it has twice finished second and twice finished third. At first, the country 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 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 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. Malta is the most successful country not to win the contest yet.
Since 2004 when semi finals were introduced to the contest, the country has failed to qualify from the semi-final round five times, in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2015. 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. The only use of the Maltese language was three lines in the 2000 entry Desire. Along with Croatia and Sweden, Malta was the only non Big Four country never to have been relegated under the previous rules of the contest.
Below you can watch Amber performing Warrior at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest.
