Eurovision's Malta entry 'Serving' lyric controversy explained
17 May 2025, 21:51
Miriana Conte's bop 'Serving' was censored ahead of the Eurovision Song Contest final because of its cheeky lyrics that sounded too much like a very offensive word.
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When Malta's Eurovision entry, Miriana Conte, takes to the stage in Basel, Switzerland on Saturday night (May 17), her song 'Serving' will have undergone a small last minute change due to its original lyrics.
In case you haven't been keeping up with Eurovision, Malta's song almost wasn't allowed to be included in the iconic music competition.
'Serving' was originally accepted by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) ahead of the Grand Final, but the organisation later reversed the decision after the song's original title and chorus lyrics were deemed to have breached broadcasting rules.
'Serving's lyrics are entirely in English, except for one word which is in Maltese. However, that one word sounds exactly like a very offensive word in English and Miriana was was left with no choice but to remove it in order to compete.
Why did Malta have to change their Eurovision song?
Miriana Conte's entry 'Serving' was originally called 'Kant'.
The EBU’s rules for Eurovision 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".
The song title's phonetic similarity to the expletive were deemed far too inappropriate to broadcast on prime time TV to an audience of over 160 million people. Therefore, Miriana was forced to change it in order to preserve the song's eligibility.
Responding to the news back in March, Miriana said on TikTok: "I was disappointed. I cannot lie and say I wasn’t because obviously, ‘kant’ to us here means singing."
"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."
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What does Kant mean in Maltese?
'Kant' is the Maltese word for 'singing', or 'to sing' or 'chant'. Pretty simple, pretty straight forward, makes a lot of sense!
However, while there's no literal NSFW meaning behind the phrase in Miriana's home country, there does happen to be a very NSFW phonetic meaning in English.
The original chorus lyrics, 'serving kant', are a cheeky play on a popular phrase that originated within queer culture (specifically ball culture) that means someone is being 'fierce', often in a feminine way.
What were Miriana Conte's original 'Serving' lyrics?
Ahead of the Grand Final, Miriana performed the track to a live audience with the updated title and lyrics.
The song is now simply called 'Serving' and the lyrics to the chorus are now: I do it all the time, yeah / I do it all the time / Serving (ah).
Of course, that has not stopped the live Eurovision audience from singing the original lyrics in the arena. According to fans who were watching the semi-finals on TV, the crowd's chants of the original lyric cannot be heard on the broadcast.
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