The BBC could be facing a nightmare of complains over Malta’s Eurovision entry.
The island is being represented by Miriana Conte in the semi-finals but her song Kant, which means singing in Maltese, might need to be censored on the Beeb.
In the chorus, she cheekily sings about ‘serving kant’, and while there’s nothing rude about the actual meaning, the pronunciation in the song sounds exactly like an extremely rude English swear word that begins with a C.
We’re sure you can fill in the blanks!
Not surprisingly, it’s said to be causing chaos for the BBC, who are reportedly expecting some backlash if it’s performed uncensored during the finals in May.
‘It’s not a great situation – it’s causing a few headaches,’ an insider told The Sun. ‘On the face of it there’s nothing wrong with the song but the way it’s sung could cause offence and there’s bound to be complaints.’
The source added: ‘If it wins it becomes an even bigger issue – especially if it charts. Eurovision winners traditionally do a press tour and perform their tracks all over but it’s a bit much for breakfast telly.’
Over on Radio 2, morning presenter Scott Mills, who fronts BBC Radio’s Eurovision commentary as well as the semi-finals on the BBC, joked that they ‘definitely can’t play a clip of it ever’.
He told listeners this week: ‘We can’t talk about Malta’s one, at all.’
Miriana has commented on the drama and while she ‘understands’ the BBC’s potential decision, she won’t be saying much more than that.
‘I saw the article on social media about the BBC thing, but I don’t have much to say,’ she told LovinMalta. ‘I do however understand their position as a radio station and as a country.’
Malta’s performance in the second semi-final will air on BBC One and iPlayer on May 15, and it sounds like she’ll be performing the lyrics as planned.
‘The EBU accepted that the song remains the same, so it shouldn’t be a problem,’ she added. ‘The song will obviously be revamped, but it won’t change, it’ll stay the same.’
Not surprisingly, social media is loving the whole situation.
‘We have [Finnish entry] “ich komme” and “kant”. this is certainly the 69th eurovision song contest,’ joked one fan on X, as another teased: ‘I cannot wait to show Kant to my mother she’s going to hate that I watch this stupid contest.’
And a third person wrote: ‘The Malta Eurovision entry possibly not being allowed on BBC is so funny like it’s a play on words, kant LITERALLY means singing in Maltese.’
The BBC has declined to comment.
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