Following tonight’s Malta Eurovision Song Contest (MESC) show on broadcaster TVM, Sarah Bonnici has been announced as the winner with her song Loop and will represent Malta the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 in Malmö, Sweden.
Sarah Bonicci won the most votes with 102 points with runner up Matt Blxck with 80 points. The voting was 50/50 split between jury and a public vote.
You can listen to the song here:
The running order of the acts performed at the Maltese final were:
- Janvil – “Man”
- Haley Azzopardi – “Tell Me That It’s Over”
- Erbà – “Sirena”
- Nathan – “Ghost”
- Sarah Bonicci – “Loop”
- Lisa Gauci – “Breathe”
- Greta Tude – “Topichttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGOHeHyijoM (Bla Bla)”
- Miriana Conte – “Venom”
- Ryan Hili – “Karma”
- Gail Attard – “Wild Card”
- Denise Mercieca – “Mara”
- Matt Blxck – “Banana”
The competition was divided into a semi-final and a final. The semi-final phase consisted of nine performances in each of the four weekly episodes of the TV show XOW between 27 October and 17 November 2023, where a combination of votes from a jury and a public televote determined a total of twelve qualifiers for the final. TVM aired three episodes earlier this week between 29 and 31 January, where the finalists were interviewed with the music videos for their songs premiered on 1 February.
Sarah Bonicci
Sarah is a 25-year-old singer from Gozo. She started her journey back in 2009 when she first participated in the finals of the Malta’s Junior Eurovision Song Contest where she placed third. Sarah participated in last year’s MESC 2023 with the song Heaven.
Loop was co-written and co-produced by Sarah Bonnici, Sebastian Pritchard-James, Leire Gotxi Angel, Kevin Lee and Joe Cini.
Malta at Eurovision
Prior to the 2024 contest, Malta has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest thirty-five times since its first entry in 1971. Malta briefly competed in the Eurovision Song Contest in the 1970s before withdrawing for sixteen years. The country has competed in every contest since their 1991 return. Malta’s best placing in the contest thus far is second, which it achieved on two occasions. Both in 2022 and 2023, Malta failed to qualify for the final with the songs I Am What I Am performed by Emma Muscat and Dance (Our Own Party) performed by the Busker. On 30 January 2024, an allocation draw was held to determine which of the two semi-finals, Malta was drawn in the first half of the second semi-final.
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