Malta participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 with the song "My Dream" written by Jason Cassar and Sunny Aquilina. The song was performed by Thea Garrett. The Maltese entry for the 2010 contest in Oslo, Norway was selected through the national final The GO Malta Eurosong 2010, organised by the Maltese broadcaster Public Broadcasting Services (PBS). The competition consisted of a semi-final round and a final, held between 9 December 2009 and 20 February 2010, where "My Dream" performed by Thea Garrett eventually emerged as the winning entry after scoring the most points from a five-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 25 May 2010. Performing during the show in position 11, "My Dream" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final on 29 May. It was later revealed that Malta placed twelfth out of the 17 participating countries in the semi-final with 45 points.
Background
Prior to the 2010 contest, Malta had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twenty-two 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 2009 edition, Malta qualified to the final and placed 22nd with the song "What If We" performed by Chiara.
For the 2010 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 9 September 2009. Malta selected their entry consistently through a national final procedure, a method that was continued for their 2010 participation.
Before Eurovision
The GO Malta Eurosong 2010
The GO Malta Eurosong 2010 was the national final format developed by PBS to select the Maltese entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. The competition consisted of a semi-final held between 8 December 2009 and 13 January 2010, and a final held on 20 February 2010. All shows were broadcast on Television Malta (TVM), while the final was also broadcast on the official Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.tv.
Format
The competition consisted of thirty-six songs competing in the semi-final which consisted of six shows with six songs each between 8 December 2009 and 13 January 2010, broadcast during the TVM talent show L-Isfida. The first show was initially scheduled to take place on 9 November 2009, but was delayed due to legal disputes between PBS and former chairwoman of the Maltese Eurovision selection Grace Borg regarding the prohibition of submissions from foreign songwriters. The top twenty entries qualified to compete in the final on 20 February 2010. Five judges evaluated the songs during the shows and each judge had an equal stake in the final result. In the semi-final, an additional two set of votes were the results of the votes submitted by the public via telephone and SMS, each having a weighting equal to the votes of a single judge. In the final, the results of the public televote had a weighting equal to the total votes of the judges.
Competing entries
Artists and composers were able to submit their entries between 1 and 30 October 2009. Both artists and songwriters were required to be Maltese or possess Maltese citizenship. Songwriters were able to submit as many songs as they wished, however, artists were only able to submit a maximum of one song. 123 entries were received by the broadcaster. The thirty-six songs selected to compete in the semi-final were announced on 4 December 2009. Among the selected competing artists was former Maltese Eurovision entrant Mike Spiteri who represented Malta in 1995 and Miriam Christine who represented Malta in 1996. The jury panel that selected the thirty-six semi-finalists consisted of Michelle Abela (Malta), Christian Axiak (Malta), Mariella Spiteri (Malta), Joe Tanti (Malta), Munro Forbes (Cyprus), Johanna van Lent-Singles (Netherlands) and Jeff Simpson (United Kingdom).