The official music video of Malta's revised entry for the Eurovision Song Contest has been released, with the word 'kant' replaced by the sound ' aahh’.

Following days of speculation ever since the European Broadcasting Union banned the use of the word 'kant' because it sounds like a vulgar word in English, Miriana Conte’s Kant has been renamed Serving. 

The controversy surrounding the song - which is mostly in English - stemmed from the double meaning of its original name: while kant translates to “singing” in Maltese, it also bears a phonetic resemblance to a vulgar English slang term for part of the female anatomy.

The phrase in which the word was included (“serving kant”) is meanwhile associated with queer and drag culture, referring to someone who is proud and confident.

Car crash inspires official video 

Conte, 24, ended up in hospital where she was treated for shock following a traffic accident hours after winning the Eurovision Song Contest.

But the accident didn’t dampen her spirit. Instead, it was the main inspiration for the official music video. 

Opening with the text ‘based on true events’, the video pans across a crowd of people cheering and holding photos of Conte. Among them are popular figures in the LGBTIQ+ community, including drag queens Trihanna Wildé and Patricia Tibwii. 

But the scene is cut short when a 'nurse' says: “I heard she got wasted at the after party and that’s why she crashed her car”. That's when Conte makes an appearance in person: she is on a medical stretcher with an oxygen mask over her mouth.

Miriana Conte serving...literally. Photo: Malta Eurovision Song Contest video

In the following scenes, Conte among others joins the cheering crowd, sings from the hospital bed or a bedroom. 

In one scene she is dressed up as a table with dishes surrounding her head and soda cans in her hair.

Get it? Because she’s serving.

In another scene, the singer wears a dress made of garbage bags - a possible nod to the negative criticism her song has received.

The fun and quirky video also includes scenes in a makeshift graveyard, as Conte walks past a tombstone reading 'Diva Down' - a phrase she had jokingly used on social media when she was hospitalised.

And of course, the controversial pink exercise balls also feature in the video. 

Miriana Conte's fun and energetic video included the iconic pink exercise balls. Photo: Malta Eurovision Song Contest

Conte will be performing in Basel, Switzerland, during the second semi-final on May 15.

Earlier this month she expressed “shock and disappointment” when the EBU announced its decision, however, she vowed to not let the move knock her off her stride.

“Diva not down,” she said on social media – a phrase she repeated during her Newsnight interview. 

The Public Broadcasting Services has meanwhile said it was considering legal action over the matter, with Culture Minister Owen Bonnici describing the EBU move as a “textbook case of artistic censorship”.