It’s time for Malta to select their entry. They have an option I’m highly not fond of, so let’s hope they make the right choice. Especially given the fact that their selection this year is actually good for some reason.
Let’s go, MESC. It’s a much better lineup this year, so I hope I’ll like it more than I usually do.
Qualified
This has no energy at all. It sounds like a fun Mediterranean song, but it doesn’t feel like one. It actively makes me yawn despite the colourful LED backdrop (which just so happens to be the only interesting part of the song). He also sings the title approximately way too many times, and he does it in a terrible falsetto every time.
Qualified
Qualified
While the performance was definitely a bit poor, I like the song. He’s one of those vocalists who can do gritty vocals with ease but struggle with clean vocals. I think this would be great with some more work, so I think it would still be fair for it to qualify.
Ugh, this was a nasty experience. The song itself is one of the most basic we’ve heard this season and the performance was terrible quite bad as well. She couldn’t hold regular notes most of the time. She tried to compensate with some occasional show-off notes, but those just made it worse. Finally, this had a stompy breakdown I’ve grown annoyed of. Very not for me at all.
Qualified
Qualified
Qualified
We can say welcome to our old friend, strong verses/weak chorus. The drop is especially disappointing because we mostly get a bunch of “nanana” s instead. She still sells it really well because she’s a great performer. I really like her voice, for example.
Qualified
Qualified
I definitely enjoyed it more than I usually do. Instead of interval acts, they just showed a lot of ads, but there was one highlight: Adonis (I won’t use the letter “x” instead of a vowel, sorry) presented an acoustic version of his ESC entry. Honestly, it was a weird choice, but I really liked the song. There isn’t much to talk about otherwise (unless you want me to review ads).
After the voting ended, they actually did have some interval acts performed by former MESC contestants. I didn’t really care for them, but they were better than ads, I guess. And Mihai (Romania 2006 guy) performed too. He sang an original song followed by a playback performance of Tornero. And we wrapped it up with all contestants singing Marija l-Maltija as a tribute to Joe Gretch who died in 2024.
As for my opinions on the qualifiers, they were fair. Hideaway qualifying was a shock, but everything else was more or less expected. It’s a shame /Whistleblower/didn’t make it.
It’s time for the second half of the songs of this year’s MESC. I got here a little bit too late, so let’s just go to the songs right away.
There’s something about girlbops from Malta that makes me enjoy them more than usual. Maybe it’s because they clearly don’t take themselves seriously. Instead of the singers projecting the image of “ain’t I so sexy”, they just seem like they’re having a lot of fun on stage. I suppose that really helps me get into this type of song because they aren’t really different from other girlbops. But still, this is a definite like.
Qualified
While the song might be a little generic, it’s a very nice performance. She does her best to sell it. I think this song is the best way to explain why exactly the juries like Malta a lot more than the televote. It isn’t some grand conspiracy, but it’s the fact that this is exactly the kind of song that usually comes out of Malta: polished, a bit generic, but performed by a singer with a powerful voice and conviction. The juries are always left impressed while the televote just says “meh”. A lot of the time, it’s undeserved, but it’s still understandable. Me though, I happen to enjoy Maltese entries more than most people.
Qualified
Qualified
Qualified
Qualified
I like cute ballads like this. There isn’t much to analyse here, but I just think it’s a lovely listen. He has a lovely voice and actual live backing singer (wow, what a rarity these days). He also delivers it really well. All in all, this is highly enjoyable.
Qualified
Qualified
Qualified
The performance looks fairly interesting, but the song itself is kinda meh. Overall, I definitely won’t revisit it because it didn’t spark any interest in me, but I didn’t dislike it either. The overall package is simply forgettable.
This was a far stronger semifinal than the first one. I actually enjoyed watching this even more than semi 1. As for the interval acts, it was Emmelie de Forest (she’s really getting around this year), then some Maltese artists performing actually good songs (much better than their previous MESC entries) and the competing artists in this semifinal singing L’imħabba, which was a huge highlight of the evening as well and a great tribute to Joseph Cutajar, who also died last year.
The qualifiers were, once again, mostly fair. I’m disappointed that /Miegħek biss/didn’t qualify, but it was expected.
I’m watching this way too late, so forgive me if I blaze through this very quickly. I already know the winner, so I won’t pretend to be surprised.
To say that I hate this would be… a little harsh. Sure, I don’t like this because this is the kind of song I simply can’t stand, but I have to admit that it’s tongue-in-cheek enough that I can’t outright despise it. Sure, I find the “pun” entirely boring, but I’m definitely not offended. However, the song doesn’t make me feel anything, either. Still, this is one of Miriana’s favourites to win, so good luck to her. She seems nice.
There’s a lot going on here. Overall, I like it because she sings the song really well, and the song is pretty cool, too. There are some nitpicks, though: firstly, the chorus is very heavily reliant on playback vocals. On the other hand, the huge prop near the end was pretty cool.
This is definitely really good. I would’ve preferred the epic ethnic wailing from the start to make an appearance more, and the poppy elements were reduced, but even as is, this is really nice. The old man and the young dude have good chemistry on stage and make the song really pop. And I love that a lot of Maltese people actually got excited about a song in Maltese, judging by the audience’s reaction. That’s so great to hear.
This is among the worst songs I’ve ever heard in my life. To say that this was torturous would be an understatement. I think I’d rather be waterboarded than listen to this ever again. These people have no harmonies, couldn’t stick to the same key or even sing on beat. And it’s not like the song was any good in the first place - it was a total piece of shit, even in the studio. Since I’m an evil man, I’m going to recommend listening to it at least once just to know what they play in hell.
A cute indie ditty like this will never go wrong with me. The performance wasn’t amazing, but the song is cute, and they’re cute, and everything about this is cute. It very much isn’t a Eurovision song because it doesn’t really leave a strong first impression though, but all NFs need something like this for diversity and to appeal to nerds like me.
It would be a mistake not to send this. This is the kind of song that resonates with the televote. It’s fun, it’s catchy, and it actually performed well. I have basically no complaints about this. They should win, and it’s clear to me.
Even though I dislike self-empowerment anthems like this most of the time, this one is actually really nice. I think the reason why I lean towards it more than towards most other songs like it is that it isn’t a ballad, which makes it come off as significantly less cliché. Plus, she’s a really strong performer, which also makes me enjoy this significantly more. It’s surprising that Malta just keeps serving good songs in genres I don’t like.
On the other hand, this is a very typical self-empowerment anthem, but it isn’t really unpleasant. She delivers it well, but the staging for this is all over the place. There are circles of lights, interpretive dancers and everything you could imagine.
There were some positives and negatives about this. I enjoyed her performance for sure, she really did her best to sell it. And I’m always down for some Drum’n’Bass music in Eurovision. Unfortunately, it also felt like she was trying to sing lower than she’s comfortable with, which made it a little uncomfortable. And it lacks something near the end as it lost me a little.
This was better than I expected. They work well live, even though I don’t like their harmonies that much. What I do like is the staging. It was very pretty and added a lot to the performance. It really helped the song transcend the language barriers, which is especially important when it comes to a language like Maltese - one most Europeans aren’t familiar with.
The performance is pretty good, but the song is just meh. It has one of those cringe metaphors that always ruin a song for me. Here, he compares himself to concrete, which seems tough but can actually crumble apart. I don’t know why, but it just makes me cringe, and I can’t take the song seriously at all.
This is everything Kant wants to be, but better. This is very sassy, but in a way that makes me love it, which is, again, hard to pull off because I’m not into girl-power songs. But this simply works. Once again, you can see that Martina (and her backing dancers) are having a load of fun on stage. And I actually like the lyrics - for a change, a girlbop actually has some meaning. I especially appreciate the double entendre of 2020 days, which also means 2020, the year. Sure, it was still mid-2019 2020 days ago, but some creative licence is fine. It really does come across as her hating being together with her boyfriends during lockdown and breaking up with him as soon as she could. More girlbops should have meaningful lyrics (or at least lyrics that pass as meaningful).
This feels like it’s supposed to be cute and intimate, but it comes off as annoying and desperate. He sings most of the song in a combination of off-key normal vocals and off-key falsetto. This makes it absolutely impossible to listen to. The song additionally has some rage-inducing “woo” s on the backing track that makes me even madder. And, of course, it has a stompy breakdown section. This is everything I hate in music rolled into one song.
I think that I should probably hate this, but I really don’t. It’s actually fun and inviting - way better than his 2012 entry. I think it helps that the song doesn’t sound common and dated, but rather like a fun throwback to a style that was popular before. He also looks a lot hotter than he did in 2012.
I was worried about the live, but she pulled it off basically perfectly. She was a bit breathy at some moments, but this was a better performance than anything in Benidorm Fest. I wish the staging was a little more dynamic as right now, she’s just stating there. This is one of those rare songs that need some dancers to give it that extra kick.
While it’s a little disjointed, it’s actually a surprisingly enjoyable experience. It has a really memorable stage performance, which manages to look both chaotic and coherent at the same time. The verses are better than the chorus, but I’ve repeated this phrase so much that I don’t even care now. Surprisingly, he also had a good vocal performance. All in all, this is a very strong attempt and wouldn’t fare too poorly in Eurovision, actually.
This was by far the best MESC since 2022. The good songs were really good and the bad songs were (mostly) not awful. The production was also great. This seemed like Malta was saying “yes, we’re absolutely capable of hosting Eurovision”.
The results were a little less inspiring. Heaven Sent landslid the jury, as expected, but Kant was second in the jury. The televote massively favoured Kant, which gave it the overall win, but the two songs in Maltese got 2nd and 3rd place from the televoters, which is really inspiring. Overall, I’m not that happy with the outcome, but I am happy with the show as a whole.