A few days ago, the Maltese national broadcaster PBS did not only confirm its participation at the 60th anniversary of the contest but announced their national selection plans along with the rules and regulations for those interested in representing the nation. Below you can take a look at the highlights of the rules and details of the Maltese national final for 2015.
Submission Phase
- As the EBU requires, entries submitted shouldn’t be released before 1st September. Songs released after this date will be evaluated individually by PBS.
- Songs submitted must not exceed 3 minutes in length.
- Artists have to be 16 years of age by 1st May 2015 and there’s no limit on the number of submissions an artist can submit.
- Firelight (2014) only are not allowed to take part. Any Maltese representative from Gianluca backwards can take part.
- Artists/lead singers must be Maltese or have a dual citizenship but authors and composers may be of any nationality.
- Besides the original song, each artist need to submit a cover version or another song in order to assess better the vocal ability of the artist.
- Each song submission costs €150.
- Submissions will be received by PBS on these dates:
28th August 2014 9:00 – 12:00, 14:00 – 16:00
29th August 2014 9:00 – 12:00, 14:00 – 16:00 - From all the submissions, PBS will choose 20 songs to advance to the televised phase of the selection. This means that the usual short listing phase, where 60 to 80 songs go through another eliminatory phase, will be skipped.
- PBS may award wildcards to any artist or song that wasn’t submitted.
- The final 20 songs will be announced in September 2014.
Televised Phase
- A semi final will take place on Friday 21st November where the final 20 songs will compete for 14 places in the final.
- Artists are allowed to compete with 2 songs in the semi-final.
- Unlike last year, backing vocals must be live on stage.
- A panel of 6 judges with televoting acting as the 7th judge will choose the 14 qualifiers. The judges will have an 86% say with the televoting carrying the remaining 14%.
- In case of a tie, the televoting will be excluded.
- The final will take place on Saturday 22nd November.
- Artists are allowed to compete with only 1 song in the final.
- A panel of 6 judges with televoting acting as the 7th judge will choose the winner. The judges will have an 86% say with the televoting carrying the remaining 14%.
- The winning artist will represent Malta at the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 in Austria.
- The winning song might not be Malta’s entry as PBS will have the right to change the winning song. The composers and authors will still be involved in the process.
- The winning artist will be managed by PBS until February 2016.
- The top 3 will be awarded with prize money:
€7,500 for the winning team,
€5,025 for the team in second place,
€ 2,550 for the team in third place.
For the full document of rules and regulations, send an e-mail to [email protected]
Firelight represented Malta at the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen with Coming Home, achieving 23rd place in the grand final.
Malta debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1971 and is yet to win the event. The beautiful Mediterranean island’s best placing at the Eurovision Song Contest has been in 2002 with Ira Losco and in 2005 with Chiara. Malta has not missed a single contest since its return in 1991.