Malta has just confirmed its participation at Junior Eurovision 2022 in Yerevan, Armenia. Public Broadcasting Services (PBS) has also revealed that the country will return with its national junior selection: Malta Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2022. Moreover, dates and participation rules have been published .
The Selection Process
PBS has published a call for entries for artists aged 9-14 on the day of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest (December 11, 2022). They want original songs and the winner will eventually lead to entry into the contest in Yerevan. There are two selection phases :
Firstly, a professional jury nominated by PBS will listen to the contestants’ playback version and choose 16 of the entries. An artist can present several songs but only one will be retained.
Thus, the 16 candidates will sing live in front of an expert jury team during a live broadcast of MJESC. The juries will represent 75% of the final grade and the remaining 25% will be for televoting.
In case of a tie, the singer with the highest scores awarded by the jury will be declared the winner. However, only the scores obtained by the three best songs will be made public.
Timeline
Rules of the selection
PBS has released a press release regarding all the rules for participating in MJESC, here are some of them:
- Only artists aged 9 to 14 as of December 11, 2022 can participate at the show.
- Each performance may consist of a maximum of six child artists with Maltese nationals.
- The submitted compositions (lyrics and music) should not have been commercially and/or publicly performed in full or in part before the 1st of May 2022.
- The lyrics of the song may be written and performed in English/Maltese as the national official languages of Malta. If other languages are used, they have to be limited to a maximum of 40% of the full lyrics.
- It is highly recommended that children take part in the process of the writing and the composition of the songs…
Here you will find the complete list of rules and information regarding the Maltese selection.
Malta at Junior Eurovision Song Contest
Malta has participated in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest sixteen times since its first entry in 2003. The country has participated in all contests except those in 2011 and 2012.
Overall, Malta has won the competition twice. After a two-year hiatus, Gaia Cauchi performed “The Start”, the country’s first victory. In 2015, Destiny Chukunyere won the competition with “Not My Soul”. She also represented the country in the 2021 adult edition of the competition, placing 7th.
Ike and Kaya represented Malta in the 2021 edition of the competition, having won their national selection against 11 other songs. Ranked 12th out of 19, “My Home” received a total of 97 points in Paris.
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