The 9th country to select their entry for Eurovision 2024 is Malta. On Saturday 4 February they held their national selection “Malta Eurovision Song Contest”. A total of 36 acts competed in 4 semi finals. After each semi final the voting was opened however no qualifiers were revealed. A fifth and final voting round was opened a week later after which 12 qualifiers out of the 4 semi’s were announced. The final took place nearly 2,5 months later. After a jury and televoting round Sarah Bonnici was announced as the winner with her dance track “Loop”.
Malta in Eurovision
Despite being such a small nation, Malta has proven to be a force to be reckoned with at the Eurovision Song Contest. They may not have won the contest yet, but they have already produced 14 top 10 finishes amongst which 4 top 3 placements. They first starting competing in 1971 with the song “Marija I Maltija”, sung by Joe Grech. Unfortunately they came last on their first 2 attempts, which ironically were the only 2 entries they sent that were sung in Maltese. All their other songs have been sung in English, which as we all know is one of their official languages.
In the 35 times that they competed they saw 4 artists returning to the contest a second time. They were Fabrizio Faniello, Ira Losco (who came second in 2002), Destiny (returned in 2021 after the 2020 contest was cancelled) and of course Chiara, who came 3 and 2nd in 1998 and 2005 respectively. Since the introduction of the semi finals in 2004, Malta have managed to qualify 8 times and were automatically qualified for the final twice following success the years before. They came last in the final 3 times and once in the semi final, last year.
Malta 2024
As mentioned above, this year Malta has chosen 25 year old pop singer Sarah Bonnici to represent them. Her song “Loop” is a catchy dance track that features multiple dance breaks, including one where she does a complete back flip with the help of her dancers, all whilst being blindfolded! Sara was born in Gozo and rose to fame from a very early age having competed in ‘Malta Junior Eurovision Song Contest’ twice in 2009 and 2010. She didn’t win but was offered a spot as a dancer for the eventual winner Nicole Azzopardi. She also participated in the 2022 edition of ‘MESC’ along with fan favourite Aidan, but again failed to win. This time however she finally has that ticket to Eurovision as lead singer! Will she bring Malta their first victory? Can Sarah qualify? Read what we think in our review below!
Niall
Firstly, let me start by saying Malta were ROBBED in 2023.
I saw quite a lot of hype on my timeline around this song and I was absolutely looking forward to it, however the performance left me wanting a bit more.
Yes, we can talk about choreo a lot (and we do in our reaction video below), but this song needs more power! I mean what’s the point in doing a blindfolded flip if the track fails to excite the crowd? I really hope Team Malta can pull something out of the bag because this is a solid track with a lot of potential – it’s just not quite there yet!
Early prediction: NQ (but maybe 10-20 with a good revamp)
Tomas
35 years and not a single victory. That’s rough. And I would love nothing more than to see Malta win the contest. However I fear 2024 will not be the year where that happens. Hear me out: “Loop” is fun and catchy, but it’s hardly groundbreaking. We’ve seen it all before. Quite literally. The performance in the final of ‘MESC’ was just a little too similar to a certain other performance from a few years ago, which shall remain unnamed. Obviously all dance breaks will have similarities but there are hundreds of moves you could be doing, without blatantly copying another act. If Malta changes the choreo, I could see a path for them to the final. If not… well…
Early prediction: as it stands now: NQ
Well that’s what we think – how about you? As always you can let us know in the comments and you can shout at us on our socials @niallpointblog (yes I get our handle wrong in the video). There’s more to come so make you subscribe to our YouTube channel and catch up on the rest of our videos (handy playlist here) after you’ve watched this:
