The Malta Song Board yesterday announced that the date for the final night of the Malta Song for Europe Contest has been set for 26 January, with the semi final taking place two days before, on Thursday 24 January.

Like last year, the venue will be the Malta Fairs and Conventions Centre at Ta’ Qali.

The festival will be the production of the Maltasong Board and Peter Busuttil will be executive producer. Local artists will provide the entertainment on the semi-final and final nights and the hosts for this year’s national Song for Europe Contest are John Demanuele accompanied by Ruth Casingena and Chiara. Both nights will be televised live on TVM.

Malta Song Board has also said that the prices of the tickets for the semi-final are at Lm10 (e23) and Lm12 (e28) while for the final night, tickets will be sold at the same price with the addition of a limited number of VIP tickets at Lm15 (e35). There will be 1,000 seats available. Further information regarding the sale of tickets will be given in the coming days.

Meanwhile it was also announced that the next eliminatory stage will be held on 9 January at the Salesian Theatre in Sliema, when the 16 songs performed on the semi-final night will be chosen from among the 36 that have been selected so far. Eventually only eight songs will form the line-up on the final night.

Both this elimination phase and the semi-final will be judged by a foreign jury while voting during the final night will be a mix of jury and public voting. The jury will have 20 per cent of the vote while the public, through televoting, will make up the remaining 80 per cent.

There will be a 30-minute voting window on the night and the public will be able to vote up to 2 times from fixed lines, mobile telephones and via text messaging.