For the second year in a row, the expert jury does not participate in the semi-finals, which is quite bad for some countries, especially small countries, because it is more difficult to reach the final. One of these countries is Malta, which has been struggling with televote for years, which is unfair considering that they often had very good songs worthy of big votes.
This year Malta is represented by Sarah Bonnici with the song Loop. It is a classic pop song to which you can perform a good dance choreography. It has a good rhythm, it is quite seductive and I think it can make a very good impression on the viewers. To me, the song is average, there is nothing specific that makes it stand out from other songs. I can’t say anything negative either. A solid Eurovision song that will try to attract attention with the staging.
Malta is in the second semi-final group, which opens the door to the final for many countries that have been struggling to qualify for years. Malta constantly has a problem with the votes of the audience, but considering that we expect a “weaker semi-final”, I think there are chances to enter the top 10 televotes. Malta can be a borderline qualifier, maybe they can catch the last train to the final. If they manage to make it to the finals, they can’t make more than the top 20.
I hope that Malta will raise the stage performance to an even higher level and go to the final. Many of us are waiting for a new winner of the Eurovision Song Contest, so I hope that there will be as many countries in the final as possible that have never won and that the dominance of the big countries will finally be reduced. My rating for the song Loop is 6.5/10.