For the second time in a row, Malta will not participate in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. This was announced officially on esckaz.com. On July 16 2011, Malta decided to withdraw from the ninth edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, being the first withdraw for Malta making the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2011 to be the first one without a song sung in English since Malta's songs were the only songs in the language after the United Kingdom withdrew in 2006. 

Malta has entered the Junior Eurovision Song Contest eight times since debuting at the first contest in 2003. Entrants for the Contest are selected in the Junior Song For Europe contest, organised by the Maltese broadcaster PBS. Malta's best placing in the contest was in 2008, when Daniel Testa came 4th with Junior Swing. The country's worst placing was in 2005, when Thea & Friends came 16th and last in the contest with Make It Right. We were last represented in 2010 by Nicole Azzopardi and the song Knock Knock .. Boom Boom! The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2012 will be the tenth edition of the contest, and will take place at the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam, Netherlands on 1 December 2012. Dutch broadcaster AVRO will be the host broadcaster for the event. For the second time the Netherlands will play host to the contest. This is the first time in the history of the contest that a country will have hosted twice, with the last time being in 2007, when the contest was held in the city of Rotterdam.The show will be hosted by Ewout Genemans and Kim-Lian van der Meij. 

Seven countries have so far confirmed their participation in the contest; Armenia, Belarus, Belgium, Giorgia, Netherlands, Russia, Sweden and Ukraine. Italy and San Marino might participate for the very first time, whilst Spain and Serbia may return. On the other hand, we might have one withdrawal; Moldova. Withdrawing from this festival, surely gave the ‘big’ Eurovision a boost, since funds weren’t divided from the PBS noting that the results have also improved with the artist for the 'big' Eurovision receiving more exposure and promotion. On the otherhand, young talents are limited to their ‘overseas’ experiences, since it was surely a good stepping stone for international experience, and most of the Maltese past participants have signed overseas contracts and had loads of international exposure. Perhaps, in the near future, we will return … perhaps.

Source: esckaz