Singer Aidan Cassar has described how he repeatedly called the public broadcaster to try to understand which one of his social media posts had broken its rules, leading to his ban from competing in Eurovision.
"I called the PBS landline and also one of the producers on the show asking which of my posts is wrong, yet up until today, I still do not know which one it is," he told Times of Malta.
Cassar said he contacted PBS "nine times" but received no response.
The 23-year-old was one of the frontrunners in the contest to select Malta's 2023 Eurovision entry, with his song Reġina, but he was kicked out of the event on Monday, for what PBS said were unauthorised posts on social media about his song.
On Thursday, Cassar sent a legal letter to PBS arguing that he had been singled out for punishment by PBS and asking for the decision to be revoked.
His lawyers - Franco Debono, Marion Camilleri and Charles Mercieca - are demanding that PBS immediately freeze its decision to disqualify him and set up a meeting between the contest organisers and singer, to allow him to make his case – or face further legal action.
Yet PBS came back saying the decision to disqualify him "is final" since he was in blatant breach of the regulations.
Speaking in detail for the first time about his experience, Aidan said that on Saturday afternoon he received a WhatsApp message from PBS executive chairman Mark Sammut telling him that if he did not remove the "wrong post" he will be disqualified.
"I told him I was not informed about any wrong post, to which he [Sammut] replied 'it's in your hands' (f'idejk)."
The singer's social media profiles feature a number of posts promoting his entry into this year's festival. The most recent, dated January 20, featured a video of Aidan and his dancers practicing.
After the exchange of messages, Aidan called the PBS landline and one of the producers of the show to understand which post the chairman was referring to.
"Between Saturday to Monday I called them nine times," he said.
On Monday, he received a letter from the Malta Eurovision Song Contest team that he had been disqualified and within minutes the decision was made public.
"I'm hurt this has happened, seeing how much work I have done, and I am also hurt seeing how this has impacted all those people who continue to support me."
This is the second time Aidan participated in the song contest, after placing second with his song Ritmu last year.
The singer-songwriter was also involved, albeit indirectly, in Malta's participation in the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest itself, as he was the person to read out Malta's votes during the grand final.