Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012

Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2012 was the national final format developed by PBS to select the Maltese entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. The competition consisted of a semi-final and final held on 3 and 4 February 2012, respectively, at the Malta Fairs & Conventions Centre in the nation's capital city of Valletta. Both shows were hosted by Ronald Briffa and Elaine Saliba, with backstage commentary and interviews by Frank Zammit and broadcast on Television Malta (TVM).

The competition consisted of twenty-four songs competing in the semi-final on 3 February 2012 where the top sixteen entries qualified to compete in the final on 4 February 2012. Six judges evaluated the songs during the shows and each judge had an equal stake in the final result. The results of the public televote which had a weighting equal to the votes of two judges. Ties in the final results were broken based on the entry which received the higher score from the judges. The six members of the jury that evaluated the entries during both the semi-final and final consisted of:

Artists and composers were able to submit their entries between 27 August 2011 and 20 October 2011.[3] Songwriters from any nationality were able to submit songs as long as the artist were Maltese or possessed Maltese citizenship. Former national final winners Olivia Lewis, Morena, Chiara, Thea Garrett and Glen Vella were unable to compete due to a rule that prevented the previous five winners from competing in the following competition. 161 entries were received by the broadcaster. On 10 November 2011, PBS announced a shortlist of 62 entries that had progressed through the selection process, with wildcards being possibly awarded.[4][5] The twenty-four songs selected to compete in the semi-final were announced on the TVM programme Xarabank on 25 November 2011.[6]

The semi-final took place on 3 February 2012. Twenty-four songs competed for sixteen qualifying spots in the final. The show was opened with a guest performance by the 2011 Maltese Eurovision entrant Glen Vella, while the interval act featured performances by the local band Airport Impressions.[7]

The final took place on 4 February 2012. The sixteen entries that qualified from the semi-final were performed again and the votes of a six-member jury panel (6/8) and the results of public televoting (2/8) determined the winner. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the show also featured guest performances by Glen Vella performing "Lie" and "Heal the World" with Animae, 2012 French Eurovision entrant Anggun performing "Only Love" and "Echo (You And I)" and Eurovision Song Contest 2011 winners Ell & Nikki performing "Running Scared". After the votes from the jury panel and televote were combined, "This Is the Night" performed by Kurt Calleja was the winner.

• In the Semi-final 2 Malta came 7th with 70 points: the public awarded Malta 11th place with 39 points and the jury awarded 5th place with 97 points.
• In the Final Malta came 21st with 41 points: the public awarded Malta 25th place with 10 points and the jury awarded 16th place with 70 points.