🇲🇹 Road to Malmö: Malta

We can not wait for the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö. Therefore, we have a closer look at one of the contestants every day. Today: Malta.

Sarah Bonnici

Sarah Bonnici is a singer from Malta, born in Gozo on May 30, 1998. Her dad, Marcel Bonnici, is a big deal, being the CEO of Mercury Towers and a football club. Sarah is super smart too, with a master’s in accountancy. When she was younger, Miriam Christine taught her about music. In 2009, she did really well in a song contest in Malta, getting third place. The next year, she won a singing festival with a song Miriam Christine wrote and was even named the best singer there. She also danced in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest that year.

As a teenager, Sarah sang in song contests all over, like in Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary. She even won a festival in Romania with her song. In 2018, she was on X Factor Malta and kept making music. In 2022, she sang “Heaven” in another big Malta song contest. Then, in 2023, she sang “Loop” and won, making her Malta’s choice for the Eurovision Song Contest in 2024.

Malta Eurovision Song Contest

The national preselection in Malta is called Malta Eurovision Song Contest. This year, four semifinals were held with 9 songs each. Kurt Calleja (eurovision 2012) was one of the participants, but didn’t make it to the final. Twelve other songs did. Sarah Bonnici’s “Loop” was the clear favourite of the jury, while the televoter prefered Matt Blxck’s “Banana”. However, it was not enough for “Banana” to win the contest. 

Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest

The first ever Maltese entry came in 1971. Joe Grech sang in Maltese “Marija L-Maltija” end ended up at the bottom of the scoreboard. After participation in 1972 and 1975, Malta quit. They returned in 1991 to never quit again. “Loop” will be the 36th Maltese Eurovision song. Malta never won the contest, but in 2002 (Ira Losco with “7th wonder”) and 2005 (Chiara with “Angel”) they were the runner up. The last few years it is quite hard for Malta to do well in the contest. Destiny did well with a 7th place in 2021, but last year The Busker didn’t make it to the final.

 

Chiara

The Bookmakers

At this moment, Malta doesn’t do very well in the betting odds, with a 30th place to win the final. But staging and performance in Malmö might change all that as we all know.

The song

And this is the song:

 

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Weekly update

It’s time for another weekly update on Eurovision! Broadcasters across Europe are firming up their plans for Eurovision 2026 in Vienna. New confirmations and selection news rolling in. Here are this week’s top stories: Participation Confirmations: Montenegro & Ukraine 🇲🇪 Montenegro: Montenegro’s public broadcaster RTCG has signaled it intends to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026. At an RTCG council meeting on 25 August, General Director Boris Raonić stated that “Montenegro’s participation in Eurovision is not in question”. This comes despite some internal debat. One council member argued against the expense. The exact method for selecting Montenegro’s 2026 entry will depend on budget and is set to be finalized in September. Montenegro last took part in Eurovision 2025 with Nina Ĺ˝iĹľić’s “Dobrodošli”. source: vijesti.me đź“· EBU/Sarah Louise Bennett 🇺🇦 Ukraine: Ukraine has confirmed its participation in Eurovision 2026. Suspilne (the Ukrainian broadcaster) officially announced that Ukraine will “take part in the 70th Eurovision Song Contest” It’s the first time Ukraine returns to a contest in Austria after missing 2015 due to financial issues. Suspilne will once again select Ukraine’s representative for Vienna through the Vidbir national final, and the broadcaster is discussing improvements to the selection process. Head of Delegation Oksana Skybinska highlighted Eurovision’s importance as an opportunity to showcase Ukraine’s unique “musical DNA” to the world source: corp.suspilne.media. Song Submission Windows Close in Finland & Switzerland 🇫🇮 Finland: Finland’s Eurovision selection UMK 2026 has closed its song submission window. Yle opened applications for Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu on 18 August and accepted entries until 24 August. All aspiring artists and songwriters have now sent in their songs. The Finnish broadcaster will next review the submissions – with the chosen UMK contestants to be revealed in January. The UMK final is set for 28 February 2026 in Tampere, where Finland’s next Eurovision act will be selected. source: YLE 🇨🇭 Switzerland: The Swiss selection for Eurovision 2026 has also hit a major milestone. Its song submission window closed on 25 August. SRG SSR’s open call for entries ran from 4 August until today 25 August at 23:00 CEST. Artists, producers and writers could submit up to five songs each. With submissions now shut, the Swiss selection moves into several audition rounds to pick the nation’s entry. A mix of juries, including Swiss and international audience panels and an expert jury of former Eurovision jurors, will assess the songs in the coming weeks. The winning song and artist are expected to be chosen by late 2025, with an official announcement in early 2026  source: eurovoix.com. đź“· EBU/Alma Bengtsson Stay tuned for more Eurovision news next week. The countdown to Vienna 2026 continues. We’ll keep you updated on all the developments! Share

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August 26, 2025 No Comments
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Martijn

Weekly update

It’s time for another weekly update on Eurovision! Broadcasters across Europe are firming up their plans for Eurovision 2026 in Vienna. New confirmations and selection news rolling in. Here are this week’s top stories: Participation Confirmations: Montenegro & Ukraine 🇲🇪 Montenegro: Montenegro’s public broadcaster RTCG has signaled it intends to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026. At an RTCG council meeting on 25 August, General Director Boris Raonić stated that “Montenegro’s participation in Eurovision is not in question”. This comes despite some internal debat. One council member argued against the expense. The exact method for selecting Montenegro’s 2026 entry will depend on budget and is set to be finalized in September. Montenegro last took part in Eurovision 2025 with Nina Ĺ˝iĹľić’s “Dobrodošli”. source: vijesti.me đź“· EBU/Sarah Louise Bennett 🇺🇦 Ukraine: Ukraine has confirmed its participation in Eurovision 2026. Suspilne (the Ukrainian broadcaster) officially announced that Ukraine will “take part in the 70th Eurovision Song Contest” It’s the first time Ukraine returns to a contest in Austria after missing 2015 due to financial issues. Suspilne will once again select Ukraine’s representative for Vienna through the Vidbir national final, and the broadcaster is discussing improvements to the selection process. Head of Delegation Oksana Skybinska highlighted Eurovision’s importance as an opportunity to showcase Ukraine’s unique “musical DNA” to the world source: corp.suspilne.media. Song Submission Windows Close in Finland & Switzerland 🇫🇮 Finland: Finland’s Eurovision selection UMK 2026 has closed its song submission window. Yle opened applications for Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu on 18 August and accepted entries until 24 August. All aspiring artists and songwriters have now sent in their songs. The Finnish broadcaster will next review the submissions – with the chosen UMK contestants to be revealed in January. The UMK final is set for 28 February 2026 in Tampere, where Finland’s next Eurovision act will be selected. source: YLE 🇨🇭 Switzerland: The Swiss selection for Eurovision 2026 has also hit a major milestone. Its song submission window closed on 25 August. SRG SSR’s open call for entries ran from 4 August until today 25 August at 23:00 CEST. Artists, producers and writers could submit up to five songs each. With submissions now shut, the Swiss selection moves into several audition rounds to pick the nation’s entry. A mix of juries, including Swiss and international audience panels and an expert jury of former Eurovision jurors, will assess the songs in the coming weeks. The winning song and artist are expected to be chosen by late 2025, with an official announcement in early 2026  source: eurovoix.com. đź“· EBU/Alma Bengtsson Stay tuned for more Eurovision news next week. The countdown to Vienna 2026 continues. We’ll keep you updated on all the developments! Share

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August 26, 2025 No Comments
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