As we reported earlier, PBS, the Maltese national broadcaster, has confirmed their participation in Eurovision 2024 and confirmed that their entry will be selected through a national final once again. Starting from today and until the 20th of September, all interested artists and composers can send in their songs to PBS via their online form on eurovision.pbs.mt.

Apart from the standard Eurovision rules, the following rules also apply for Malta Eurovision Song Contest:

• All artists wishing to compete in MESC 2024 must have Maltese citizenship. In case of a group or a band, the lead singer must have Maltese citizenship
• The Busker, as the 2023 winners, are not allowed to compete in MESC 2024
• Artists can submit as many songs as they wish to submit
• Authors must sign a declaration that the submitted song(s) will not be submitted to any other similar shows neither in Malta, nor internationally
• Artists and their teams will not be allowed to promote their song through social media, announcements, or any other platforms, as these could influence the public vote. Artists and their teams will only be allowed to share posts by PBS, or posts approved by PBS.

All entries must be submitted via the online form at eurovision.pbs.mt. The submission period ends on the 20th of September – any and all late submissions will not be accepted, nor considered for the national selection.

MESC 2024 will consist of various phases:

Selection phase

In the first phase a pre-selection jury will listen through all of the submitted songs, and select the best ones to proceed to the second phase of the competition. In case of an artist submitting multiple songs, only the highest scoring song of each artist may qualify for the second phase, whilst all other entries of that artist will automatically be eliminated.

Semi Final phase

The songs that reach the second stage of the competition may be re-mastered. Changes to the melody and/or the lyrics can be done only with a prior approval from PBS. There will be multiple semi finals that will be held once a week, but the exact number of contestants and the number of semi finals are yet to be decided.

No props and no choreography are allowed in the Semi Finals, and each semi finalist will have one shot on stage that will be b. Similarly to last year, the results will be decided overall – after all semi finals have been broadcast, a mix of jury votes and televoting will decide on the 12 finalists.

Final phase

PBS allocated 5,000 EUR for the 12 acts that reach this stage, which is intended for producing a high quality video clip, that is going to be broadcast during the Final. Apart from this, each of the 12 finalists will have a one-hour dedicated slot for shooting their “Live-on-tape” recording on the specially dedicated stage, and this time they can come prepared with a full choreography. During this hour, each act will be allowed to rehearse their song, and three takes will be recorded, out of which the artist(s) will need to select the best one which will then count as their act in the Final of MESC 2024.

The winner will once again be selected by a mix of jury votes and televoting, but the exact format of the vote is yet to be announced.

Whilst the rules and regulations of MESC state that winning MESC 2024 gives the winning artist the privilege of representing Malta in the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest, it remains unclear whether the winning artist is going to be allowed to change their song or not.

The Busker won MESC earlier this year, and they went on to represent Malta in Eurovision in Liverpool with the song “Dance (Our Own Party)”. They finished in last place in the first semi final, thus failing to qualify for the Grand Final. You can check out their performance from Liverpool right here: