Malta and the Eurovision Song Contest always had something of a love and love to hate relationship with much of the general public.  The yearly event remains one of the most looked-forward to commercial musical events of the year, and likewise so does the contest from which Malta’s entry is selected.

That contest happened last weekend, and while – perhaps surprisingly when compared to usual – the public was complimentary and quite happy with the fact that Gozitan singer Sarah Bonnici emerged victorious, the same could not be said about the production quality of the song contest.

This is after the Public Broadcasting Services – which runs everything associated with the Eurovision Song Contest in Malta – made a number of changes to the format of the competition, with the main one being that the live audience for the contest would be ditched.

Instead, the contest’s 12 finalists performed in a “live-on-tape” recording and had a €5,000 budget each to produce a music video in a format settled upon last year after a reported push by foreign consultants and concerns with the contest’s budget and with where it could be hosted.

The finalists were therefore left to perform in a studio, with no audience interaction and no emotion to feed off of during their performances.  Likewise, the presenters were left cracking jokes to an awkward, empty silence.  The performers themselves were interviewed with the PBS studio’s stairwell behind them.

One commenter on social media remarked that it was like San Remo (the wildly popular Italian song festival) ordered from Shein, an Asian fast fashion retailer.

The PN meanwhile said that “the final show was one of a low level and left many very disappointed; and this when such a contest is paid from our taxes.”

“The PBS, which is publicly financed, let down the people, the singers themselves, but also the PBS workers and presenters who did everything to cover for the mediocrity of what was decided by PBS’ leadership,” the party said.

Those aggrieved are right: The whole show smacked of amateurism. One would expect what is one of the biggest musical occasions in the year to be organised with a lot more professionalism than this, and for the artists and presenters to be shown a lot more respect as well.

It is particularly galling as well when one compares the sorry show that PBS put on – with budgetary concerns apparently one of the reasons for it – to the glitz and glamour that entities like the Malta Film Commission put on in order to entertain and honour what isn’t even the local artistic community.

At the same time, one wonders what the budget difference was between this year’s contest and the live variants of this contest.  How does what was spent this year compare to previous years?

What is certain though is that for another time, it’s the local artistic community which has come off second best as public entities continue to cut corners and tick their boxes.