Malta’s original Eurovision 2025 song won’t be seeing you next Tuesday.
Indeed, when Maltese artist Miriana Conte performs in the European music contest’s second semifinal May 15, her act will not be performing its selected song “Serving” under its original title.
Though the singer’s song “Kant”—which is the Maltese word for “singing”—was originally accepted by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) ahead of this year’s Eurovision, the organization subsequently reversed its decision in March due to the song title’s resemblance to a vulgar slang term for a part of female anatomy in English.
“We’ve just been notified that European Broadcasting Union – EBU has decided against using the Maltese word ‘Kant’ in our entry in the Eurovision Song Contest,” Conte wrote in a March Facebook post. “While I’m shocked and disappointed, especially since we have less than a week to submit the song, I promise you this: the show will go on — Diva NOT down.”
In the song’s original lyrics, which are all in English aside from the Maltese word for “singing,” the chorus contained the phrase, “Serving kant,” a reference to a popular term in queer culture about being fierce.
However, due to the EBU’s Duty of Care rules for the Eurovision Song Contest—which state that acts should not contain “Inappropriate content, gestures, messages, elements or behaviours for an international prime time television entertainment programme targeted at universal audiences of all ages”—Conte was forced to make some changes in order to preserve the track’s eligibility.
In addition to updating the song’s title to “Serving,” the chorus now says, “Serving (ah).”
After experiencing the “roller coaster” of a last-minute change to her entry, the Maltese singer reflected on how she felt dealing with the stressful update.
“I was disappointed. I cannot lie and say I wasn’t because obviously, ‘kant’ to us here means singing,” Conte said in a March interview on TikTok. “I thought that maybe the song would lose the magic but, to be honest, I have such a big following, such big supporters, that even now with the new version people tell me they can still hear it in their heads.”
She added, “Of course I was disappointed, but as a person I am very much composed. So I was pretty much over it by the time we were trying to find solutions. I like a challenge.”
