Italian songwriter and singer Riccardo Cocciante will be heading the jury at the Eurovision Song Contest Malta tomorrow and on Saturday.

Anton Attard, CEO of festival organiser PBS said that the 24 selected songs will tomorrow be shortlisted to 16 for the final night on Saturday which will select Malta's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest in Germany.

For the first time, he said, the six judges for Saturday's show will be declaring their vote, thus making the process more transparent. People will also be able to participate through televoting on Friday and Saturday, with their voting amounting to a third of the final vote.

Televoting has been simplified in that callers will use one number and then make their selection. There will be no voting through SMS.

Voting on both nights will start at the beginning of the show as is done in the Eurovision Song Contest.

A record 141 songs were submitted for this year's festival. The first hurdle reduced them to 74, from which 24 made it to the final phase.

TV personalities Valerie Vella and Keith Demicoli will compere both shows.

The guest participants on Friday will be last year's winner Thea Garrett and Polish Eurovision participant Marcin Mzorwski while, for the final night, the guests will be UK pop stars Blue, who will represent the UK in this year's Eurovision Song Contest.

A Red Carpet show will be held at the Mediterranean Conference Centre before Saturday's show, between 6 and 8 p.m.