Public Broadcasting Services has declined a request to release details on the cost of the Malta Eurovision Song Contest and other events linked to the festival, insisting that the information is commercially sensitive.
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted by Times of Malta asking for a breakdown of the costs of the Malta Eurovision, including how much foreign and local producers, singers and composers were paid to take part in Eurovision music camps last June, has been rejected.
The FOI also requested an estimated cost of the TV programme, XOW, which broadcast four weekly shows of the semi-final performances between October 27 and November 17.
PBS said the decision to reject the FOI request is because the costs are related to “commercial activities” held by a commercial partnership of the public authority.
The Eurovision Camp cost issue was first raised by Nationalist MP Julie Zahra in a parliamentary question last month to Culture Minister Owen Bonnici. The minister said the information was deemed as “commercially sensitive”.
During the Malta Music Exchange Camp last year, PBS invited Maltese and foreign musicians, songwriters and composers to participate. The idea behind the camp was to provide singers the opportunity to work with professional international songwriters and composers to create original songs, with the intention of these songs then participating in the Malta Eurovision Song Contest.
There were 21 places for the Malta Music Exchange Camp, out of which 10 participants made it through to the semi-final.
Few changes to this year's contest
One of the songs was Sirena, by girl group Erba’, who ranked fourth in the Malta Eurovision Song Contest final. The band was formed during the Malta Music Exchange Camp and collaborated with top songwriters and producers, including Norwegian producer Audun Agnar Guldbrandsen, Tom Hugo (of KEiiNO fame) and Alexander Byborg Olsson.
Last month, Gozitan singer Sarah Bonnici took home the 2024 crown as the winner of the Malta Eurovision Song Contest and will be representing the island in Sweden in May. More than 132,000 viewers tuned in to watch her victory.
This year’s Malta Eurovision contest included a few changes, the most notable being that there was no live show. Instead, the contest’s 12 finalists performed in a ‘live-on-tape’ recording streamed to audiences.
The finalists gave three performances on stage, which were recorded, and they then chose their favourite one to be shown to the public.
The decision was not taken well, as many critics slammed the festival as “amateurish” and disorganised.