In an interview with TVMNews, PBS boss Keith Chetcuti has discussed the EBU’s decision to censor the word ‘Kant’ from this year’s Maltese Eurovision Song by Miriana Conte.

According to Chetcuti, PBS is currently in a process to present a former appeal against the decision, according to the rules of the EBU to protect the decision of the Maltese public which voted to send the song ‘Kant’ to Eurovision.

“We are in discussions with Miriana Conte and the songwriting team to see how the lyrics of the song can be changed so that it can be accepted by the reference group and thus being eligible to take part in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. From our end, we feel that this is discrimination against the Maltese language because the only word that is censored from the song, is the only Maltese word.

This year we have been very firm in our decision to protect the song that wins the Malta Eurovision Song Contest from being changed. We want the winning song to be the one to represent Malta in Basel and we are in discussions with the team to see what minimal changes can be made in order to make sure the song is accepted by the EBU without any major changes to the song which won the Malta Eurovision Song Contest. As we can see from the response to the song, this song is very popular in its current state.”

Keith Chetcuti’s comments come after the Reference Group of the EBU have decided to censor the word ‘Kant’ which in Maltese means ‘Singing’ but in English is an offensive term to female body parts. It is worth mentioning that the lyrics of the song have little to do with singing and the phrase ‘serving singing’ is not a commonly used phrase neither in English nor in Maltese.

What do you make of this decision? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!