Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013

Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2013 was the national final format developed by PBS to select the Maltese entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2013. The competition consisted of a semi-final and final held on 1 and 2 February 2013, respectively, at the Malta Fairs & Conventions Centre in the nation's capital city of Valletta. Both shows were hosted by Elaine Saliba and Gordon Bonello, with backstage commentary and interviews by Rodney Gauci and broadcast on Television Malta (TVM).[3]

The competition consisted of twenty-four songs competing in the semi-final on 1 February 2013 where the top sixteen entries qualified to compete in the final on 2 February 2013. Seven judges evaluated the songs during the shows and each judge had an equal stake in the final result. The eighth set of votes were the results of the public televote, which had a weighting equal to the votes of a single judge. Ties in the final results were broken based on the entry which received the higher score from the judges.

Artists and composers were able to submit their entries between 14 September and 31 October 2012. Songwriters from any nationality were able to submit songs as long as the artist were Maltese or possessed Maltese citizenship.[4] 2012 national final winner Kurt Calleja was unable to compete due to a rule that prevented the previous winner from competing in the following competition. 181 entries were received by the broadcaster. On 14 November 2012, PBS announced a shortlist of 69 entries that had progressed through the selection process. Among the artists shortlisted were former Maltese Eurovision entrants William Mangion who represented Malta in 1993, Miriam Christine who represented Malta in 1996 and Fabrizio Faniello who represented Malta in 2001 and 2006. The twenty-four songs selected to compete in the semi-final were announced on the TVM programme Xarabank on 30 November 2012. On 21 December 2012, "Dress Rehearsal" performed by Saska Hunt was withdrawn and replaced by "Overrated" performed by Marilena.[5]

The semi-final took place on 1 February 2013. Twenty-four songs competed for sixteen qualifying spots in the final.[6][7] The running order for the semi-final was announced on 23 January 2013.[8] The seven members of the jury that evaluated the entries during the semi-final consisted of:

The final took place on 8 February 2014. The sixteen entries that qualified from the semi-final were performed again and the votes of a seven-member jury panel (7/8) and the results of public televoting (1/8) determined the winner. After the votes from the jury panel and televote were combined, "Tomorrow" performed by Gianluca Bezzina was the winner.[2] The seven members of the jury that evaluated the entries during the final consisted of:

On 2 March, Bezzina travelled to Armenia to promote the Maltese entry during the Armenian national final.[9]