Miriana Conte won the Malta Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday evening and will be representing Malta at the European festival in Basel, Switzerland in May.
She performed the song Kant, obtaining a total of 182 points.
Kristy Spiteri placed second with Heaven Sent which placed a close second with 174 points and third was Kantera with Lalaratatakeke Lalaratakabum which won137 points.
Miriana had been an early favourite to win, and her catchy pop song was doing well among local and international Eurovision fans the moment it was released. It may have been helped by the different, even offensive, interpretations that can be given to its name.
For some it could be taken to mean part of the female anatomy, for others, the song has been mistaken to be about the German philosopher Immanuel Kant.
Miriana dazzled on stage in an animal print body suit beside her back-up dancers as she belted the lyrics 'do re me fa so'. Her song ended with her singing and bouncing on a pink exercise ball.
She was no newcomer to the Malta Eurovision Song Contest stage, having first competed when she was just 15 years old. This year was her fifth time. Last year she performed in the final with her song Venom.
The final night saw 16 artists taking the stage after making it through the semi-finals with the hopes of being crowned the 2025 Malta Eurovision Song Contest winner.
Eurovision fans packed the MFCC in Ta’Qali and enjoyed a selection of songs varying in genres, from pop, folk and even some with elements of Maltese traditional folklore għana.
Radio host Valentina Rossi, actor Davide Tucci and broadcaster Pauline Agius were the hosts.
Some of the singers took on the advice of Eurovision academics and sang songs entirely in Maltese.
The Adria Twins pulled heartstrings with their emotional Maltese song Qalb ma’ Qalb, and għana inspired song Għazliet performed by Dario Bezzina ft Żeppi l-Muni.
Other artists also threw in a few semantic Maltese words.
Kurt Calleja’s AZIZ/A had lyrics such as “illejla you are more than a ħabiba (...) illejla I will make you my aziza."
Another favourite was ‘Festa (No Time for Siesta)' which was a song celebrating a loved local tradition, and was sung by the Eurovision trio JVF, made up of Jessika, Victorio Gauci and Fabrizio Faniello.
All three artists have previously taken part in the Maltese Eurovision Song Contest, with Faniello having represented Malta at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2001 with the classic, Another Summer Night. He also represented Malta again in 2006, while Jessika represented San Marino at the Eurovision Song Contest back in 2018.
Last year’s Malta Eurovision Song Contest winner, Sarah Bonnici performed her high-energy song Loop. Ramires Sciberras, who won last year’s Malta Junior Eurovision Song Contest with ‘Stilla Ċkejkna’ also performed at the finale.
Mużika Mużika 2024 winner Maxine also graced the stage during the finale.
Eurovision fans were dazzled by Belarusian-Norwegian musician Alexander Rybak, the winner of Eurovision 2009, who performed his iconic Fairytale.
The show was organised by PBS.
Celebrating 100 years of film in Malta during Eurovision
Before every participant hit the stage, a pre-song postcard was shown introducing the artists.
Postcards are a prominent part of Eurovision, and are usually used to advertise the host country or the country of the participating artists.
On Saturday, the pre-song postcards were a series of short clips of films shot in Malta, as part of a campaign celebrating 100 years of films in Malta.
Clips of Munich, Gladiator II and Troy were some of the postcards shown during the night.