Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest 1971

Eurovision Song Contest 1971
Country	Malta
National selection
Selection process	Song For Europe 1971
Selection date(s)	20 January 1971
Selected entrant	Joe Grech
Selected song	"Marija l-Maltija"
Selected songwriter(s)	Joe Grech Charles Mifsud
Finals performance
Final result	18th (last), 52 points
Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest
1971 • 1972►

Malta was represented by

Song For Europe was the national final format developed by MBA which determined the song that would represent Malta at the Eurovision Song Contest 1971. The competition consisted of two parts. The first part was the Malta Song Festival 1970, where the top 6 songs would then go on to the Song For Europe contest. The two contests were organised by two separate organisations; the Malta Song Festival was organised by the Malta Song Festival Board, while Song For Europe was organised by the Malta Broadcasting Authority. The use of Malta Song Festival as part of Malta's national final was a cooperation between the two organisations, this led to the broadcaster not actually being in control of the songs in its own national final.[1]

Competing Entries

The Malta Song Festival Board received 60 submissions, from which 12 were chosen to compete in the Malta Song Festival.^[1][2]

Malta Song Festival 1970

Malta Song Festival 1970 was held on 28 November 1970 at the Malta Hilton. All songs were sung twice, and the top six qualified to Song For Europe 1971. The order in which the songs were performed is unknown.^[3]

Song For Europe / Kanzunetta Għall-Ewropa 1971

Song For Europe 1971 (Maltese title: Kanzunetta Għall-Ewropa 1971) was held on 20 January 1971 at the Malta Television Studios, hosted by Victor Aquilina, Mary Grech, Charles Micallef, and Yvonne Zammit. The voting was done by an internal and external jury. The internal jury consisted of ten people affiliated with the music industry who each gave out 21 points (6 to their favourite, 5 to their 2nd, 4 to their 3rd, 3 to their 4th, 2 to their 5th, and 1 to their last), all the internal jury votes were multiplied by 10 after they were given out. The external jury consisted of 10 groups of 10 members of the public, representing the 10 electoral districts of Malta, and were chosen at random. Each of the jurors gave out 21 points in the same way the internal jury did.^[4][5]

A clause in the rules of the national final stated that the selection was only to select the song that would represent Malta and not the artist, however, Joe Grech was selected as the singer of "Marija l-Maltija" for the Eurovision Song Contest anyway.^[6]

At Eurovision

On the night of the final Joe Grech performed second in the running order, following Austria and preceding the eventual winner Monaco. At the close of voting "Marija l-Maltija" had received 52 points, getting Malta a last place on their debut.

The Maltese conductor at the contest was Anthony Chircop.

Each country nominated two jury members, one below the age of 25 and the other above, who voted for their respective country by giving between one and five points to each song, except that representing their own country. All jury members were colocated at the venue in Dublin, and were brought on stage during the voting sequence to present their points.^[7] The Maltese jury members were Gaetan Abela and Spiro Sillato.^[8]

Voting

Points awarded to Malta[9] Score Country 10 points 9 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points  Spain  Netherlands 4 points   Italy 3 points   France 2 points   Switzerland  Luxembourg  Sweden

Points awarded by Malta[9] Score Country 10 points 9 points 8 points  Spain  United Kingdom 7 points  Luxembourg 6 points   Italy 5 points   Monaco 4 points  Sweden  Finland 3 points   Austria 2 points   France  Netherlands  Belgium

References