Malta's Eurovision star Miriana Conte left 'puking for days' after song release

Daily Mirror

15-05-2025

The Eurovision Song Contest 2025 continues this evening with its second semi-final which includes Miriana Conte representing Malta with Serving, originally known as Kant
Miriana Conte has revealed she was left vomiting over the reaction to her Eurovision Song Contest 2025 entry. The performer, who is representing Malta, has also discussed what it's like to take part in the global contest.
The singer-songwriter, 24, will take to the stage of the arena St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland, tonight in the second semi-final of this year's contest. She will perform her song Serving, originally known as Kant, and is among the acts hoping to make it through to the grand final on Saturday.
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Kant, as it was then known, was selected as Malta's entry in the country's national final back in February, which was won by Miriana. The song, which shared its title with a Maltese word for 'singing,' attracted much attention earlier this year, including over the lyric "serving kant" in the chorus.
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It was considered a reference to "serving c***," which can be used to represent someone expressing themselves in a powerful or bold way, and Miriana's pronounciation drew comparisons to "c***" too. Amid controversy over the song, she shared in March that she had been told to change the lyrics by organisers and ended up removing the word 'kant'.
Miriana reflected on the controversy and lyric change in an interview with the Mirror. Whilst speaking to us, she also gave an insight into the writing process and how she found the reaction once her song was released.
Asked about the initial reception to the song, which is understood to have gone viral on TikTok, Miriana told us: "Honestly, I spent the first two days after it was released puking because I was not expecting such good like reactions from people. My phone was blowing up, it was telling me that the device is too hot, literally. Notifications, messages."
Miriana gave examples of receiving praise over the "word play" and people relating to the track. She then shared that following her performance of the song in Malta's national final three months ago, she had "so many beautiful messages".
She commented: "[They were from] people who haven't like, for example, exited the house because they've been body-shamed or they're not comfortable in their skin, and they told me 'when I saw you on stage, I fully went out after two years locked in my house'. So that was beautiful, because that was my intention from day one. For people to like relate fully and feel comfortable within themselves."
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Recalling the writing process, Miriana - who is credited as a co-writer on the song - admitted that she wasn't particularly keen on joining a writing camp for potential entrants. She said: "I am a very anxious person when it comes to like sort of breaking the ice, because I'm always scared I'm too much, I'm too loud, I'm too bubbly. However, this experience did change me a lot, so that was Miriana before!"
And speaking about her plan for the song, she revealed: "I was like 'I want to be me completely'. So I don't want to go into the dark, sexy vibe I usually go for. Because there's so much more to me. I'm such a bubbly ball of energy.
"I'm all over the place. I'm the clown of the group. I'm the loudest person in the room and I wanted to write exactly about that. How growing up I always felt like I needed to wind myself down to match other people's energies. [My co-writers] got the assignment fully and back then Kant was born."
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She shared that she loves both the original version and its current form, Serving, "so much". Speaking about the controversy, she said: "Thank God it [happened], because one it got much more popularity and got much more people watching it, people were on the tips of their toes to find out what the word change was, when there wasn't [one]." She added: "It was all very exciting. [...] So if I had like relive the process and choose what to happen, I would still choose for this to happen."
Miriana has promoted the song in the build-up to the contest itself, including at the London Eurovision Party last month. Speaking about meeting the UK 's act Remember Monday, she told us recently: "I love them so much.
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"I was in a girl group twice during my career so when I sang with them, because we sang Serving together during the pre-party, my heart was like bursting with happiness that my girl group energy was coming back. They're such nice girls. [...] We're very close this year, in general - like the contestants, we're very like tight. So yeah, I honestly loved meeting them and I can't wait to see them again now!"
Giving an insight into life as a Eurovision act, she teased: "You live the superstar experience, literally. Sort of you have to be on time, you have to go to press, you have to time when you eat, when you sleep. You have to be very strict. Very strict on time. You have to be strategic with a lot of things so you grow a lot as an artist. I believe Eurovision helps artists grow like to another extent."
Looking ahead, Miriana - who said that, although she wants to make it through to the final, she will be "happy" as long as she has a "good performance" - told us: "I think what I've achieved with Serving is so much bigger than Eurovision because it's touched so many people's hearts and I think I've finally gotten my flowers. All I want now is to continue building on it and obviously achieve more things when it comes to my music and career."
The Eurovision Song Contest 2025 in Basel, Switzerland, continues tonight with the second semi-final from 8pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in the UK. This year's grand final will air at the same time on Saturday night.