News
No Maltese participants in Eurovision Dance Contest
By MaltaMedia News
Sep 6, 2008 - 7:28:12 PM

The second edition of the Eurovision Dance Contest is being held in Glasgow on Saturday evening but none of the participating couples is Maltese.

14 countries from all across Europe are vying for the winning title at Glasgow's SECC.

Meanwhile, preparations are in full swing for the Junior EuroSong 08, the festival through which the Maltese entry for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest will be chosen.  The contest will be held over three televised shows from PBS studios next week.

Show producer and director of Unique Promotions, Adrian Mizzi, told MaltaMedia that “We are currently very busy with final preparations for the semi-finals on Tuesday and Thursday, and for the Saturday finals; setting of lights and rehearsals, generally just making sure that everything is in order for a smooth running of the three evenings which we hope will be lead to three wonderful shows.”

The contest is open to participants aged between 10 and 15 years who may participate with songs in the Maltese and/or in the English language.   

According to the regulations, child participants are to be involved in composing/writing their own songs with the active assistance of adults.  The children’s participation in the composition is essential. The lyrics of the songs, the dance movements (if any), and their clothes, are to respect the young age of the participants and not make the children seen like small adults.

The PBS Eurosong Team is engaged in further work towards the upcoming Eurosong 2009 which will lead to Malta’s selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009.

The second phase of the Eurosong contest will be aired on TVM as new voting regulations were announced earlier on Thursday 4th September.  Judges will be promoting 15 entries for the final, while the public will have the right to promote 5 more entries through televoting; singers will retain only one entry each in the final phase and a super-final with the top 3 entries open for televoting. 
 
Changes are meant to give more promotion to the local artists, songwriters and authors.  “The system caters for a finer judging process, keeping in mind the public’s opinion”, PBS claimed.

On commenting about these new regulations, Eurovision Song Contest observer and MaltaMedia Creative Director, Dr Toni Sant said “The new TV series planned to air the preliminary selection process from the Malta Song for Europe is both a great and a terrible idea at the same time.  It's good that more performers and songwriters will be seen by the Maltese TV viewers, however, it's terrible that the selection for the Malta's entry to the Eurovision Song Contest is being given even more importance than it has already been given in recent memory.  There's much more to music in Malta than the annual selection of a song to go to the Eurovision and it would be a good thing if PBS recognized that too. The upcoming series Hard Rock Cafe' Unplugged [starting in October on Saturdays at 2230 CET] is a step in the right direction, but it's not enough in my view.”

Up to a maximum of 80 songs will qualify to the second phase, where all songs will participate in a live weekly TV programme to be aired on TVM every Saturday night between November 08 and January 09.   

The winning entry will represent Malta in Moscow at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009.

The full rules and regulations for Eurosong 2009 can be downloaded from: http://www.pbs.com.mt

For more detailed information about Malta's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest see EurovisionMalta.com.





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