The Maltese national broadcaster TVM announced that they are canceling their traditional “Malta Eurovision Song Contest”, and that for the first time ever they are going to select their Eurovision entrant in the first ever X Factor Malta.

After the submission period, all acts who applied were auditioning in front of the producers of the show, and the best (and we guess the most interesting ones) are now going to proceed to the second round, which is the auditions in front of the judges. This stage of the show is the first televised part, ahead of the boot-camp, judges’ houses and the actual live shows.

It is still unknown who the judges are going to be, but what we know is that Ben Camille is going to be the host. This will be his third Eurovision-related show to host, after hosting the Malta Eurovision Song Contest in 2016 and Junior Eurovision 2016. Apart from this, Ben was also the spokesperson of the Maltese jury votes at Eurovision 2016.

Various artists who previously took part in MESC have also auditioned and made it to the second round of the X Factor Malta. These include Josef Tabone, Franklin Calleja, Janice Mangion, Stefan Galea, Lyndsay Pace, Mikhail Attard in between others. Anna Faniello (the mother of Fabrizio and Claudia, both of who have represented Malta in Eurovision) has also auditioned for the show.

The exact dates of when X Factor Malta is going to start being broadcast on TVM are yet to be announced, as well as the names of the judges. Stay tuned for more information to come on ESCBubble.