The Eurovision Song Contest as a European tradition was born in Monaco in 1955 at a meeting of the European Broadcasting Union in Monaco with the first ever Eurovision Song Contest taking place in Lugano, Switzerland, at the Teatro Kursaal, on 24 May 1956. Inspired by the Italian Sanremo Festival, the idea was to organise a pan-European competition for light music. The main idea was the noble intention to unite a Europe still ravaged by the Second World War.

Many are questioning whether Malta should continue to take part in this cheap rendering of artistic expression? Not only is the voting vitiated, giving little or no chance for Malta to progress to the finals but our country is identifying itself with a narrative which, in the past, was a true expression of moral decency and artistic talent.

If one were to take a close look at the development of the Eurovision Song Contest from the earliest days of its inception in 1956 to date, it is easily concluded that it has evolved into the present-day showpiece of moral garbage. To illustrate just one instance of decadence of the contest's morals, up to the 1990s, the dress code of the singers and other performers consisted of smart attire and decent dress for both male and female performers.

In those days, even those present in the audience respected a decent dress code. This contrasts strongly with the carnivalesque quasi-nudist spectacle where men wear women's clothes or G-string corsets shaking off their bottoms wildly. Truly, sexual promiscuity and the occult are glorified as part and parcel of the festival. The same can be said of Italy's Sanremo Festival which suffered the same degenerative fate in recent years in many respects. The Eurovision has morphed into a mediocre porno film, where it is more of a question of the grotesque and obscene show that meets the eye than the lyrics or music.

There are those who would continue to come to the defence of the Eurovision calling it artistic and creative. But there are those who are realising the artistic and moral degeneration that the Eurovision brings to the fore. This reflects the values of the decadent moral norms of the wider European social context where more and more human beings are behaving more like savage beasts on stage rather than civilised humans.

Are the values that were once at the roots of a Christian European civilisation digressing into oblivion? Should this bizarre and extreme behavioural contest, which some hail as diversity, creativity and inclusion be promoted? Or better still, has Europe completely lost its moral compass? We can safely say that what once was considered as evil is now portrayed as good and the norm. Evil in the form of sexual liberalism and the exaltation of open occult practices is being presented to us for consumption on a silver plate as entertainment. What were once considered as high moral standards and values are now labelled as fanaticism, old-fashioned and outdated.

The European continent is still considered as supposedly Christian, so one might be tempted to ask why Europe has stooped down so low to accept all the decadent values that are very similar to those practised in the Biblical city of Sodom and Gomorrah, where sexual perversion took the city by storm?

It is no secret that Malta is also spiralling out of control down the same dark moral road where sex parties, hard drugs and broken families are becoming the order of the day. Thankfully, while some 40% of the Maltese still hold on dearly to the traditional family values in Malta, the rest are, by and large, endorsing extreme liberalism. This mentality is potentially destructive in the same manner as the Eurovision, which is viewed by many as a degeneration of the soul, flesh, spirit and mind.

It is high time that stock is taken of the state of our national psyche and morality in an effort not to further abdicate our responsibility to protect the moral values which are at the foundation of our beloved country. If this is not taken seriously, the results will be more ignorance, confusion, brokenness and despair. These values must be instilled and inculcated in the family and at school at an early age.

Admittedly, everyone has the right to freedom of artistic expression in all its forms, including artistic, satirical, cultural and comic. But should we adopt a laissez-faire approach to policy allowing our country to be part of song contests which are more of a circus and a charade that offend extravagantly and publicly the morals of those who still hold high the standards of moral decency?