Malta reveals first phase participants

Malta reveals first phase participants

Gianluca who represented Malta in 2013

Valletta, Malta - TVM in Malta have announced details of the 70 entries which have reached the first phase of the contest to represent Malta in next year's Eurovision Song Contest. A record number of 210 songs were submitted in total, and these have now been reduced down to 70 for the first phase. Only 20 of them though will make it through to the televised semi-final stage.

Multi-national submissions

Entries were received from not only Maltese composers, but also from composers from Sweden, Norway, Spain, Israel, Greece, Germany, Slovenia, Austria, Ireland, USA, United Kingdom, Moldova, The Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal.
Amongst the artists there are several familiar names including Miriam Christine who represented the country in 1996 and Fabrizio Faniello who was the Maltese entrant in 2001, whilst Daniel Testa represented the country in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2008. There are also a number of artists who have competed in the Maltese finals before, as well as a number of newcomers to the contest.
There are familiar names also amongst the composers, Glen Vella, Gerard James Borg, Philip Vella, Stephen Rudden, Jonas Gladnikoff and Marc Paelinck.
You can find a full list of the songs, artists and composers on the website of TVM.
On Friday the 29th of November, the details will be announced on the television show Xarabank as to which 20 songs have qualified for the semi-final.

The Judging

Those 20 songs will be judged in a live television show on Friday 7th of February 2014, by six judges, and televoting will make up the votes of a seventh judge. 14 songs will then progress forward to the final. Artists however will only be allowed to perform one song in the final.
In the live final on Saturday 8th of February, the winning song will also be determined by the votes of six judges and televoting will make the votes of a seventh judge, In the event of a tie, the votes of the judges (therefore excluding televoting) will be used to ascertain the order of tied songs.
The winning song will go forward to represent Malta in the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen.

History

Malta have yet to win Europe's Favourite TV show since their debut in 1971, though they have come close on several occasions, finishing as runners up in 2002 and 2005, and in third place in 1992 and 1998. Last year Gianluca finished in eighth place in the Grand Final with the song Tomorrow for the island nation.

Have you any early favourites from the artists announced?