More details concerning Malta Song for Europe, the Maltese national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, have been revealed. The first phase of the selection will be held between 19th and 21st November at the St. Agatha�s School Auditorium in Rabat.

In the first phase, all submitted entries will be performed twice in front of the jury -in the morning with the pre-recorded backing vocals and in the afternoon the songs will be sung live again but this time without any backing vocals. About 35 songs will be chosen to reach the second phase, where 16 songs will be chosen for the televised national semi final on 21st February. These 16 songs were supposed to be joined by another two from the Opportunity 2 Challenge, but this show is likely to be cancelled due to legalistic and logistic copyright. Nevertheless, this has yet to be confirmed. Eventually, eight songs will compete in the national final on 23rd February and televoting (80%) and a jury (20%) will choose the winner.

You can read more about the rules of the competition, including information on how to submit a song, here.

Despite a second place in 2005, Malta was not succesful the last two years: Fabrizio Faniello finished last in Athens in the final with I do; Olivia Lewis finished 25th in the semi final in 2007 with Vertigo, thus not reaching the final. The winner of Malta Song for Europe will enter one of the semi finals in Belgrade.