Malta participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 with the song "One Life" written by Paul Giordimaina and Fleur Balzan. The song was performed by Glen Vella. The Maltese entry for the 2011 contest in Düsseldorf, Germany was selected through the national final Malta Eurosong 2011, organised by the Maltese broadcaster Public Broadcasting Services (PBS). The competition consisted of a semi-final round and a final, held on 11 and 12 February 2011, respectively, where "One Life" performed by Glen Vella eventually emerged as the winning entry after scoring the most points from a six-member jury and a public televote.
Malta was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 10 May 2011. Performing during the show in position 11, "One Life" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final on 14 May. It was later revealed that Malta placed eleventh out of the 19 participating countries in the semi-final with 54 points.
Background
Prior to the 2011 contest, Malta had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twenty-three 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 had, to this point, competed in every contest since returning in 1991. Malta's best placing in the contest thus far was second, which it achieved on two occasions: in 2002 with the song "7th Wonder" performed by Ira Losco and in the 2005 contest with the song "Angel" performed by Chiara. In the 2010 edition, Malta failed to qualify to the final with the song "My Dream" performed by Thea Garrett.
For the 2011 contest, the Maltese national broadcaster, Public Broadcasting Services (PBS), broadcast the event within Malta and organised the selection process for the nation's entry. PBS confirmed their intentions to participate at it on 21 September 2010. Malta selected their entry consistently through a national final procedure, a method that was continued for their 2011 participation.
Before Eurovision
Malta Eurosong 2011
Malta Eurosong 2011 was the national final format developed by PBS to select the Maltese entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011. The competition consisted of a semi-final and final held on 11 and 12 January 2011, respectively, at the Mediterranean Conference Centre in the nation's capital city of Valletta. Both shows were hosted by Keith Demicoli and Valerie Vella and broadcast on Television Malta (TVM) and Radio Malta with commentary by Tony Micallef as well as on the official Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.tv.
Format
The competition consisted of twenty-four songs competing in the semi-final on 11 February 2011 where the top sixteen entries qualified to compete in the final on 12 February 2011. Six judges evaluated the songs during the shows and each judge had an equal stake in the final result. The results of the public televote had a weighting equal to the votes of three judges. Ties in the final results were broken based on the entry which received the higher score from the judges. The six members of the jury that evaluated the entries during both the semi-final and final consisted of:
Ruth Amaira (Malta) – Journalist
Carmen La Sorella (San Marino) – General manager of the San Marino RTV (SMRTV) Husniyya Maharramova (Azerbaijan) – Head of Delegation for Azerbaijan at the Eurovision Song Contest Maia Baratashvili (Georgia) – Head of Delegation for Georgia at the Eurovision Song Contest Leonardo De Amicis (Italy) – Conductor and composer Riccardo Cocciante (Italy) – Singer-songwriter