The competition consisted of a final, held on 18 February 2017, where "Breathlessly" performed by Claudia Faniello eventually emerged as the winning entry after gaining 26% of the public televote.

Performing during the show in position 4, "Breathlessly" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final on 13 May.

[2] In the 2016 edition, Malta qualified to the final and placed 12th with the song "Walk on Water" performed by Ira Losco.

Among the selected competing artists was former Maltese Eurovision entrant Richard Edwards who represented Malta in the 2014 contest as part of the group Firelight.

[9][10] On 8 April, Claudia Faniello performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Selma Björnsdóttir.

[11] The Eurovision Song Contest 2017 took place at the International Exhibition Centre in Kyiv, Ukraine and consisted of two semi-finals on 9 and 11 May, and the final of 13 May 2017.

[16] The Maltese performance featured Claudia Faniello wearing a glittery silver full-length tight-fitting formal dress, taking inspiration from her music video for "Breathlessly".

Claudia Faniello was joined by four off-stage backing vocalists: Chantal Hartmann, Hannah Köpf, Janina Krömer and Jeannette Marchewka.

Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency.

This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act.

In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently.