Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020

The Maltese artist for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 was selected through the second season of X Factor Malta, the Maltese version of the British television reality music competition The X Factor created by Simon Cowell.^[3] The second season premiered on 6 October 2019 and concluded with a final on 8 February 2020.^[4] In addition to selecting the Maltese Eurovision entrant, the winner also secured a record contract with Sony Music Italy. All shows in the competition were hosted by actor Ben Camille and broadcast on Television Malta (TVM) as well on the broadcaster's website tvm.com.mt.

Acts of 15 years of age and over were able to submit their applications starting from 20 January 2019 by WhatsApp messaging a video audition.^[5] The chosen auditionees as determined by the show's producers to progress through the selection process were invited to the last set of auditions that took place in front of the judges between 24 and 27 June 2019 at the Esplora Interactive Science Centre in Kalkara.^[6] The four judges were:

• Ira Losco – Singer-songwriter, represented Malta in 2002 and in 2016
• Howard Keith Debono – Music producer
• Ray Mercieca – Singer-songwriter and musician, lead singer of the band The Rifffs
• Alexandra Alden – Singer-songwriter

120 contestants were selected by the judges to progress to the bootcamp round, which they were split into the four category groups - Boys, Girls, Overs and Groups, and were given one song to sing a cappella.^[7] 30 acts were eliminated and the remaining 90 acts each selected a song from the Wall of Songs, which they had to perform with three others who had selected the same song. In the final challenge, the remaining acts, including newly formed groups, performed a song of their own choice and the judges selected a total of 37 acts to go through to the Six Chair Challenge filmed at the Malta Fairs & Conventions Centre in Attard on 20 and 21 September 2019.^[8] 24 acts advanced to the Judges' Houses, broadcast on 22 and 29 December 2019, during which the four judges eliminated 3 acts from each category with a total of 12 acts advancing to the live shows.

Key:

  – Winner

  – Runner-up

  – Third Place

Category (mentor)	Acts
Boys (Mercieca)	Kyle Cutajar	Dav. Jr	Karl Schembri
Girls (Losco)	Jasmine Abela	Destiny Chukunyere	Justine Shorfid
Overs (Alden)	Ed Abdilla	Celine Agius	Paul Anthony
Groups (Debono)	Bloodline	F.A.I.T.H	Yazmin and James

On 9 March 2020, PBS announced that Destiny would perform the song "All of My Love" at the Eurovision Song Contest 2020. "All of My Love" was written by members of the songwriting team Symphonix International: Bernarda Brunović, Borislav Milanov, Sebastian Arman, Dag Lundberg, Joacim Persson and former Eurovision entrant Cesár Sampson who represented Austria in 2018. The release of the song and official music video was made available online on the broadcaster's website tvm.com.mt and the official Eurovision Song Contest's YouTube channel.^[9][10]

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 28 January 2020, an allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Malta was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 12 May 2020, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.^[11] However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the contest was cancelled.^[12]

Prior to the Eurovision Song Celebration YouTube broadcast in place of the semi-finals, it was revealed that Malta was set to perform in position 10, following the entry from Belgium and before the entry from Croatia.^[13]