Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022

Prior to the 2022 contest, Malta has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest thirty-three times since its first entry in 1971. Malta briefly competed in the Eurovision Song Contest in the 1970s before withdrawing for sixteen years. The country had competed in every contest between their return in 1991, and 2022. Malta's best placing in the contest thus far was second, which it achieved on two occasions: in 2002 with the song "7th Wonder" performed by Ira Losco and in the 2005 contest with the song "Angel" performed by Chiara.^[1] In the 2021 edition, Malta qualified to the final and placed 7th with the song "Je me casse" performed by Destiny.

The Maltese national broadcaster, Public Broadcasting Services (PBS), broadcast the event within Malta and organised the selection process for the nation's entry. PBS confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2022 contest on 21 June 2021.^[2] Malta used the talent show format X Factor Malta for their 2019 and 2020 participations which resulted in the selection of a winning performer that would subsequently be given an internally selected song to perform at Eurovision. However PBS announced that they would select their 2022 entry through a national final procedure, a method that was last used in 2018.^[3]

Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2022 was the national final format developed by PBS to select the Maltese entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2022. The competition consisted of a semi-final, a special show and a final held between 17 and 19 February 2022 at the Malta Fairs & Conventions Centre in Ta' Qali. All shows were broadcast on Television Malta (TVM) as well as on the broadcaster's website tvmnews.mt.^[4][5]

The competition consisted of twenty-two songs competing in the semi-final on 17 February 2022 where the top sixteen entries qualified to compete in the final on 19 February 2022, which were announced during a special show on 18 February 2022. A wildcard finalist was also selected between the six eliminated entries.^[6] Six judges evaluated the songs during the shows and each judge had an equal stake in the final result. The seventh set of votes were the results of the public televote, which exclusively determined the final wildcard and had a weighting equal to the votes of a single judge in the final result. Ties in the final results were broken based on the entry which received the higher score from the televoting.^[7] The six members of the jury that evaluated the entries during both the semi-final and final consisted of:^[8]

• Carlo Borg Bonaci – Radio and television presenter
• Aurelio Belli – Conductor
• Maria Muscat – Singer
• Antoine Faure – Pianist, member of the band The Characters
• Nadine Muscat – Architect
• Ruth Amaira – Journalist

Artists and composers were able to submit their entries between 15 October 2021 and 15 December 2021.^[9] Songwriters from any nationality were able to submit songs as long as the artist were Maltese or possessed Maltese citizenship. Artists were able to submit as many songs as they wished, however, they could only compete with a maximum of one in the semi-final. 2021 Maltese Eurovision entrant Destiny was unable to compete due to a rule that prevented the previous entrant from competing in the following contest.^[10] The twenty-two songs selected to compete in the semi-final were announced on 29 December 2021.^[11] Among the competing acts were former Eurovision entrants Richard Edwards who represented Malta in the 2014 contest as part of the group Firelight and Jessika Muscat who represented San Marino in the 2018 contest. Francesca Sciberras represented Malta in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2009 and Nicole Azzopardi represented Malta in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010.^[12]

The semi-final took place on 17 February 2022 and was hosted by Stephanie Spiteri, Quinton Scerri and Ron Briffa.^[13] Twenty-two songs competed for eighteen qualifying spots in the final which were announced during the special show on 18 February 2022; the wildcard qualifier was announced prior to the final on 19 February.^[14][15] The running order for the semi-final was announced on 6 February 2022.^[16][17]

The special show, which celebrated Malta's 50th Anniversary since their first participation in the Eurovision Song Contest, took place on 18 February 2022 and was hosted by Ryan Borg and Josmar Gatt.^[13] The twenty-two contestants performed former Maltese Eurovision songs in duets with their respective original artists.^[18] The show was opened with a guest performance from the Analise Dance Studio, and featured a tribute to 1994 Maltese Eurovision entrant Christopher Scicluna who had passed away the same day.^[19]

The final took place on 19 February 2022 and was hosted by Stephanie Spiteri, Quinton Scerri and Ron Briffa.^[20] The seventeen entries that qualified from the semi-final were performed again and the votes of a six-member jury panel (6/7) and the results of public televoting (1/7) determined the winner. The show was opened with a guest performance from the Analise Dance Studio, while the interval act featured performances by the Concept of Movement dance troupe, Malta's Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015 winner and 2021 Eurovision entrant Destiny Chukunyere and 2021 Maltese Junior Eurovision entrants Ike and Kaya.^[20] After the votes from the jury panel and televote were combined, "Out of Sight" performed by Emma Muscat was the winner.^[21]

Following Emma Muscat's win at the Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2022, rumours began circulating that the singer would perform a song other than "Out of Sight" in Turin.^[23] This was in accordance with the rules of the selection, which stated that the winner could replace their national final winning entry and send any song they wished, as long as it abides by the rules of the Eurovision Song Contest.^[24][25] The singer confirmed the heavily speculated theory during an interview broadcast on the TVM programme TVAM on 14 March, where she stated that she would instead perform her new single "I Am What I Am".^[26][27]

The song, written by Dino Medanhodžić, Julie Aagaard, Stine Kinck and Muscat herself, was selected from a catalogue of songs submitted by Danish music company The Arrangement, with two songs shortlisted prior to the selection of "I Am What I Am"; PBS had commenced a search for a replacement entry the day following Muscat's win at the Malta Eurovision Song Contest.^[28][29] In June 2024, fan site Eurosong-DK reported that the other song in contention was "Sand", which would go on to represent Denmark in the 2024 contest, performed by Saba.^[30]

Prior to the contest, Muscat made appearances across Europe to specifically promote "I Am What I Am" as the Maltese Eurovision entry. She first performed at the Barcelona Eurovision Party, which was held on 26 March 2022 at Barcelona's Sala Apolo,^[31] and later performed at the London Eurovision Party, which was held on 3 April 2022 at London's Hard Rock Hotel venue.^[32] On 7 April, she performed during the Israel Calling event held at the Menora Mivtachim Arena in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Eurovision in Concert at Amsterdam's AFAS Live on 9 April.^[33] On 16 April, she performed at the PrePartyES which took place in Madrid's Sala La Riviera.^[34] In addition to her international appearances, Emma Muscat recorded her 'live-on-tape' performance in Sofia, Bulgaria on 19 March.^[35] This would have been used in the event that she was unable to travel to Turin, or subjected to quarantine on arrival.^[35]

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 25 January 2022, an allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Malta was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 12 May 2022, and has been scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.^[36]

Once all the competing songs for the 2022 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Malta was set to perform in position 6, following the entry from Georgia and before the entry from San Marino.^[37]

The two semi-finals and the final were broadcast in Malta on TVM. The Maltese spokesperson, who announced the top 12 points awarded by the Maltese jury during the final, was Aidan Cassar.

Emma Muscat took part in technical rehearsals on 2 and 5 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 11 and 12 May. This included the jury show on 11 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries.^[38]

The Maltese performance featured Emma Muscat wearing a mini dress made out of small mirrored panels with silver trainers and performing together with four dancers. The performance began with Emma Muscat playing the piano on a platform in front of the stage with the LED screen floor displaying a white square followed by Muscat climbing on top of the piano during the first chorus and walking down to the satellite stage with the dancers to perform a choreographed routine during the final chorus.^[39][40] The creative director for the Maltese performance was Gordon Bonello. The four dancers featured during the performance were: Frank Ksey, Giulia Santoriello, Lorenzo De Rosa and Shadia Taghi.^[41]

At the end of the show, Malta was not announced as having finished in the top 10 and did not qualify for the grand final. It was later revealed that Malta placed sixteenth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 47 points: 20 points from the televoting and 27 points from the juries.^[42]

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, each member of a national jury may only take part in the panel once every three years, and no jury was permitted to discuss of their vote with other members or be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member in an anonymised form as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Malta and awarded by Malta in the second semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:

Points awarded to Malta (Semi-final 2)^[43]

Score	Televote	Jury
12 points
10 points
8 points
7 points		Sweden
6 points		Ireland  North Macedonia
5 points
4 points
3 points	Azerbaijan  Estonia  Ireland  North Macedonia
2 points	Belgium  Serbia  Sweden	Azerbaijan  Israel
1 point	Cyprus  Montenegro	Czech Republic  Estonia  Georgia  San Marino

Points awarded by Malta (Final)^[44]

Score	Televote	Jury
12 points	United Kingdom	Spain
10 points	Italy	Sweden
8 points	Ukraine	United Kingdom
7 points	Spain	Italy
6 points	Serbia	Australia
5 points	Sweden	Estonia
4 points	Norway	Poland
3 points	Romania	Czech Republic
2 points	Poland	Azerbaijan
1 point	Finland	Greece

The following members comprised the Maltese jury:^[45]

• Antoine Faure
• Claudia Faniello
• Daniel D'Anastasi
• Gaia Cauchi
• Maria Abdilla

Detailed voting results from Malta (Semi-final 2)^[43]

Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		Juror A	Juror B	Juror C	Juror D	Juror E	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Finland	14	8	14	4	11	8	3	5	6
02	Israel	10	5	11	10	12	9	2	14
03	Serbia	17	11	12	15	4	11		1	12
04	Azerbaijan	2	15	8	12	13	7	4	15
05	Georgia	15	7	13	9	8	10	1	16
06	Malta
07	San Marino	12	16	10	14	16	17		3	8
08	Australia	3	6	2	1	2	2	10	4	7
09	Cyprus	8	17	9	13	17	15		10	1
10	Ireland	9	9	17	17	14	16		8	3
11	North Macedonia	13	12	5	7	5	6	5	13
12	Estonia	5	4	3	6	3	3	8	11
13	Romania	11	13	7	11	10	12		6	5
14	Poland	7	2	6	5	6	5	6	7	4
15	Montenegro	16	10	15	8	7	13		17
16	Belgium	4	14	16	16	15	14		12
17	Sweden	1	1	1	2	1	1	12	2	10
18	Czech Republic	6	3	4	3	9	4	7	9	2

Detailed voting results from Malta (Final)^[44]

Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		Juror A	Juror B	Juror C	Juror D	Juror E	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Czech Republic	9	10	7	9	8	8	3	20
02	Romania	22	17	8	11	9	11		8	3
03	Portugal	10	19	14	12	20	16		17
04	Finland	13	11	21	10	15	15		10	1
05	Switzerland	12	9	17	22	12	14		23
06	France	25	22	23	19	25	25		21
07	Norway	20	24	18	15	22	22		7	4
08	Armenia	19	13	13	20	24	20		22
09	Italy	4	2	3	8	6	4	7	2	10
10	Spain	3	5	2	1	1	1	12	4	7
11	Netherlands	23	18	9	13	21	17		16
12	Ukraine	21	16	20	5	23	13		3	8
13	Germany	16	21	24	21	19	24		19
14	Lithuania	14	12	16	18	14	18		15
15	Azerbaijan	11	15	15	14	3	9	2	24
16	Belgium	18	14	25	24	11	19		18
17	Greece	8	7	12	16	17	10	1	14
18	Iceland	24	25	11	23	18	21		25
19	Moldova	17	23	22	25	16	23		11
20	Sweden	2	3	1	4	2	2	10	6	5
21	Australia	6	6	6	2	5	5	6	12
22	United Kingdom	1	1	4	3	4	3	8	1	12
23	Poland	15	4	10	6	10	7	4	9	2
24	Serbia	5	20	19	17	13	12		5	6
25	Estonia	7	8	5	7	7	6	5	13