The Maltese national broadcaster announced the 69 songs that qualified to the second phase of the Maltese selection. The list of qualifiers include William Mangion (ESC 1993), Miriam Christine (ESC 1996) and Fabrizio Faniello (ESC 2001 & 2006). Last month 182 songs were submitted with a total of 120 entries were penned by Maltese writers.

The songs submitted were judged on CD by a panel of jury and 69 entries qualified to the second phase. The 69 songs will be shortlisted again to 24 songs. The 24 entries will compete in a semi-final show expected to take place on the eve of the final show. 16 entries will compete in the final where the Maltese hopeful will get selected through a mixture of jury and public vote. The 24 semi-finalists will be revealed in a television show on 30th November. The national television station said that some of the qualifiers might be called upon to perform live in front of a panel of judges in order to confirm their talent.

Yesterday during the PBS news bulletin it was reported that the national final should take place at the end of January. Therefore it is more likely that the semi-final and final show will take place on 25th and 26th January. In the last Eurovision Song Contest, Malta managed to qualify to the final but finished 21st in the final contested by 26 songs.

The qualified songs can be seen by clicking here

Source: PBS