Malta: Pulling no punches – X Factor Malta judges reportedly getting harsh at auditions
Posted on August 9, 2018 June 21, 2019
byDavid Smith
When it was announced that Malta was to get its own edition of the X Factor, fans wondered if a country as small as Malta could sustain the traditional tough edge of the auditions. Or would all the personal connections on the islands mean lots of politeness?
Latest reports from the Mediterranean nation suggest that the X Factor Malta judging panel is being much harsher than expected during the Judges Auditions stage, which finished filming yesterday.
News site Lovin Malta reports that the judges have been so tough on the auditioning acts that almost no singers got through in the first couple of days. In a country known for punching well above its weight when it comes to talented singers, some auditionees were reportedly even getting a big fat no from all four judges.
Judge Howard Keith Debono shared a Facebook message with his thoughts on the first days of the auditions. He described the process as "more complex than any one of us ever imagined." He also noted that there were "a few challenges ahead of us especially related to poor taste in music, but nothing we can't overcome."
He was, however, staying positive. Howard revealed that he has already seen a few singers he'd like to mentor. He also said that the judges were "doing our best to be ourselves, be honest and guide the contestants to a hopefully better musical path or attitude."
It's been 4 Jam packed days at X Factor Malta & I have to say it's more complex than anyone of us ever imagined. We're…
Posted by Howard Keith Debono on Sunday, August 5, 2018
Speaking to fans in a video, fellow judge Ira Losco had a similar sentiment but expressed in a nicer way. As translated by Lovin Malta, she told her fans, "we've seen some potential, but obviously as judges we're constantly hoping to find people who have something to offer the world of music."
Live from X Factor Malta
Posted by Ira Losco on Monday, August 6, 2018
Filming for the X Factor Malta continues, with Ray Mercieca and Alexandra Alden rounding out the judging panel. The stage segment of the show to be filmed will be the Boot Camp stage, where the auditioning acts will be culled further.
Meanwhile, more previous Malta Eurovision Song Contest acts have been spotted at the X Factor auditions.
As well as Franklin Calleja and Janice Mangion, the judges have also seen auditions from MESC 2018 acts Petra, Miriana Conte and Matthew Anthony.
This is the atmosphere inside our Holding Room ?during the last day of Auditions with few hours to go ? SEE YOU IN OCTOBER! #XFactorMalta
A post shared by X Factor Malta (@xfactormalta) on Aug 7, 2018 at 6:28am PDT
Filming for the X Factor Malta continues and the series will begin screening in October. The overall series winner will also represent Malta at Eurovision 2019.
What do you think? Should the X Factor Malta judges be nicer? Who would you like to see go through to the live shows? Sound off below!
Read more X Factor Malta news
Alexandra Alden
Franklin Calleja
Howard Keith Debono
Ira Losco
Janice Mangion
Judges auditions
Matthew Anthony
Miriana Conte
Ray Mercieca
X Factor Malta
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MTV was surprising intelligent; they get a huge interest in maltese version of X-Factor simply transform it into a national selection. That's all, it was the only right choice for me. I'm really disappointed about few things: – The format was created in 2004, in Italy this year is going to be the twelve edition. I don't know if is good for Malta to use a 14 years old format in 2018, for the first time. – Every new tv program need a few years to get a good level of everything; they have to know how to put this… Read more »
well, life is hard bae.
DanMarino
I just want Brooke to enter and surprise everyone
I JUST WANT BROOKE FOR MALTA
Rishtard
same she probably isn't doing it but she wont publicly say shes not or she is. She also recently followed x factor malta on instagram so now im curious. I really pray she does i want her at eurovision so bad.
esc1234
Thats reasonable, i remember their national final and some contestants were completely boring with no charisma. Hosting a talent show in a country without many singers will be a huge problem, they wont do a second season i am sure
How many editions of X Factor Malta are intended? I think they are going to run out of contestants. Or the programme would be like the NF, same people every year.
Polegend Godgarina
Loving the drama. Certain former MESC participants do need a reality check on their lack of talent, hopefully they got lessons from Simon Cowell on how to deal with delulu flops.
Advice for Malta judges: don't be needlessly nasty. The X Factor revival season we had earlier this year here in Spain failed miserably (among many other reasons) because part of our jury acted like that.
Which is kind of a shame because we had some damn good acts in there.