Miriana Conte on Eurovision performance: ‘Most beautiful day of my life’

Update 11.50am

Miriana Conte described participating in the Eurovision Song Contest final as the “most beautiful day of my life”, in her first reaction after placing 17th in the competition on Saturday night. 

The 24-year-old from Qormi was one of the contest’s most controversial entries, having had to retitle her song Kant to Serving, after the European Broadcasting Union’s decision not to allow her to use the word Kant in the song. 

While Kant translates to singing in Maltese, the sound is similar to an English swearword referring to a woman’s genitalia. Her song had already gone viral among Eurovision fans on social media, who loved the wordplay, while others found the sexual connotation vulgar and unfit to represent Malta. 

Despite the controversy, Conte ended Malta's losing streak by qualifying for the grand final in the second semi-final in Switzerland on Thursday night.

While bookmakers ranked Miriana as the tenth favourite to win the contest, Serving placed 17th with a total of 91 points, receiving 83 points from the national juries and eight points from the public. 

Austria won the contest with a total of 436 points with Johannes Pietsch, alias JJ, who won the audience's hearts with his falsetto voice and angelic smile, singing Wasted Love.

It was the first time Malta had reached the final since 2021.

In her first comments after the contest, Conte told TVM how happy and grateful she was to perform. 

“I am so grateful and proud to be Maltese,” she said. 

In a separate short video posted on Instagram, the singer bid a farewell to Eurovision. With a megaphone in hand before boarding her tour bus, she said:

“Goodnight, Eurovision. I showed you how to serve ‘Kant’, now I'm going to sleep, please, thank you,” she said, as her team cheered her on.

Official results released on Sunday morning show how Malta placed ninth of 10 countries to qualify for the Eurovision Song Contest from the second semi-final. Malta received 5 points from Australia, and one point from Azerbaijan, Serbia, and the United Kingdom. It also received eight points from televoters. 

In regards to jury points, Malta received 10 from Austria, eight points from Australia, Germany and Israel, seven points from Finland and United Kingdom, and six points from Ireland. 

Five points were received from Armenia, Italy, Latvia, Montenegro, and Spain, and two points from Czechia. 

One point came from San Marino and Sweden. 

How did Malta vote?

Points given by televotes- 12 to Estonia, 10 to Austria, and eight to Italy. 

When it comes to points given by the jury, 12 were given to Armenia, 10 to Greece, and eight to France. 

While Austria won the grand finale, Israel finished in second place with 357 points was one of the discussion points of the competition. 

As expected, social media was full of opinions on Conte’s performance and the overall contest.

The UK’s The Times, described Conte’s performance as:

“Quite obviously the best act of the night. A woman bouncing on an exercise ball and declaring herself to be “serving”. Such is the beauty of Eurovision that this is a sentence that makes sense.”

Former MEP, Cyrus Engerer, said Israel's televoting wasn't a surprise when "so many Europeans" had been giving standing ovations to the far-right during elections.

Jason Micallef, chairman of the Valletta Cultural Agency observed that the Maltese were always under the impression that the country would do very well, when that was far from the truth. 

Countries did well because their entries were 'simple, good, and melodic'

“Objective or artistic critique in the local media doesn’t exist,” Micallef said, while adding how politicians also get involved and ‘feed’ the public that this time, the country was sending a talented singer who would make the public proud.

He said all the decisions relating to the artist and song were managed by Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) who have full responsibility of the country’s Eurovision song and performer. 

“The fact that a song or story goes viral in no way means that juries or televoters across Europe will vote for it. Here in Malta, many thought that’s exactly what would happen- including PBS, who were responsible from start to finish,” he added. 

He said the top five countries that did well at the competition did so because their songs were “simple, good, and melodic”.