"Serving", originally titled "" (; ) and also "Serving ", is a song by Maltese singer

Miriana Conte Miriana Conte (born 17 December 2000) is a Maltese singer. She represented Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest 2025. Career On 21 December 2016, Conte was announced as one of sixteen entries selected to compete in the Malta Eurovision Song Co ...

. It was written by Conte alongside Benjamin "BNJI" Schmid, Sarah Evelyn Fullerton (Sarah Lake), and Matthew Mercieca ( Muxu), with production handled by Schmid. It was released on 8 January 2025, and represented in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2025 The Eurovision Song Contest 2025 was the 69th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Basel, Switzerland, following the country's victory at the with the song "The Code (Nemo song), The Code" by Nemo (singer), Nemo. Organised ...

Background and composition

"Serving" was written and composed by Miriana Conte, Matthew "Muxu" Mercieca, Sarah Evelyn Fullerton and Benjamin "Bnji" Schmid, the latter of whom also handled production. It contains heavy use of the Arabian riff in its prechorus. The original title of the song, , which in Maltese means "singing", is repeated in the chorus through a pun that recalls the expression '' serving cunt'', used to describe a bold and self-confident person in queer and drag cultures.

Scott Mills Scott Robert Mills (born 28 March 1973) is an English radio DJ, television presenter and occasional actor. He is best known for presenting the '' Scott Mills'' show on BBC Radio 1 from 2004 to 2022 and since then, on BBC Radio 2, where he has be ...

, host for

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the List of most-listened-to radio programs, most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 14 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the sta ...

, said that

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

"definitely can't play" the song. In an interview with TVM, Conte initially said that the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...

(EBU) had accepted the song as it was and that its lyrics would not be changed, but that the song would be revamped. On 4 March 2025, Maltese broadcaster

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

stated that the EBU forbade the term from being used on stage and demanded changes to the song's lyrics, after the British broadcaster

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

reportedly levied a complaint in accordance with

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, internet, telecommunications and mail, postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-rang ...

regulations. On 13 March, the song's title was changed to "Serving" for the contest. The new version of the song omits the word and replaces it with the sound "aahh".

Eurovision Song Contest

''Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2025''

''Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2025'' was the national final format developed by PBS to select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2025. The competition consisted of two semi-finals and a final held between 4 and 8 February 2025 at the Malta Fairs and Conventions Centre in

Ta' Qali Ta' Qali is a wide open space in the limits of Attard and Mosta in central and northern Malta respectively, which contains National Stadium, Ta' Qali, the national football stadium, the Malta Fairs & Conventions Centre, Ta' Qali National Park, a ...

. The format of the competition consisted of twenty-four competing songs. Two semi-finals with twelve songs each took place on 4 and 6 February 2025 where the top eight entries qualified from each semi-final to compete in the final on 8 February 2025. Nine judges and the public via televoting evaluated the songs during the shows, both of which had an equal stake (50%) in the final result. Ties in the final results were broken based on the entry which received the higher score from the public. Conte was announced as a participant on 12 December 2024. Her song was drawn to perform fourth in the second semi-final, and qualified on 6 February. In the final, Conte performed in first and won the competition with 182 points. She placed second in the jury vote and first in the televote.

At Eurovision

The

took place at St. Jakobshalle in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

, Switzerland, and consisted of two semi-finals to be held on the respective dates of 13 and 15 May and the final on 17 May 2025. During the allocation draw held on 28 January 2025, Malta was drawn to compete in the second semi-final, performing in the second half of the show. Malta qualified for the final. Malta came 17th in the final contest, with 91 points - 83 from the juries and 8 from the public.

Track listing

Digital download and streaming – "" # "" – 2:59 Digital download and streaming – "Serving" # "Serving" – 2:59 # "Serving " – 2:59 # "Serving" – 2:59 Digital download and streaming – "Serving " # "Serving " – 2:59

Charts

Release history

Notes

References

{{Authority control 2025 singles 2025 songs English-language Maltese songs Eurovision songs of 2025 Eurovision songs of Malta Number-one singles in Malta Obscenity controversies in music Songs banned by the BBC