Maltasong Board has annoucned that a total of 225 song were submitted for the Malta Song for Europe 2008 competition. The process or selecting the songs that will participate at the finals of the competition will now begin.

A panel of eight foreign judges will narrow the number of songs down to 35 over the forthcoming week. These songs will progress to the second phase of this year’s selection process.

The first phase of the selection process will take place between Monday 19th November and Wednesday 21st November at St.Agatha’s School’s Auditorium, Rabat in Malta. Additional information regarding the live interpretation timings will be publishes in due course.

Partner website, escmalta.com reports that after two bad results in the Eurovision Song Contest the Maltasong board is trying to reform a bit the formula in order to improve the country's chances of success at the competition. In the past weeks Malta Song Board Chairperson Mr. Robert Abela emphasised on the fact of the song more than the singer. However, he continued to say that Malta must send a balanced package i.e. a good singer with a good song. It is not easy to find these two equally.

The 2008 Malta Song For Europe competition will move back to the Mediterranean Conference Centre. This is the traditional venue, which hosted all the editions of the Maltese National selection except two, in 2003 and 2007.

MaltaSong Board has also confirmed that the first phase selection results will also be published on www.maltasong.com on Friday 23rd November, 2007.