San Marino in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018

San Marino participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. The Sammarinese broadcaster San Marino RTV (SMRTV) collaborated with the British company 1in360 to organize the national final with the same name in order to select the Sammarinese entry for the 2018 contest in Lisbon, Portugal.[1][2][3][4]

Eurovision Song Contest 2018
Country San Marino
National selection
Selection process1in360
Selection date(s)First Show
9 February 2018
Second Show
16 February 2018
Final
3 March 2018
Selected entrantJessika feat. Jenifer Brening
Selected song"Who We Are"
Selected songwriter(s)Mathias Strasser
Zoë Straub
Christof Straub
Lorenzo Salvatori
Finals performance
Semi-final resultFailed to qualify (17th, 28 points)
San Marino in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2017 • 2018 • 2019►

Background
Main article: San Marino in the Eurovision Song Contest

Prior to the 2018 contest, San Marino had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest eight times since its first entry in 2008.[5] Their debut entry in 2008, "Complice" performed by Miodio, failed to qualify to the final and placed last in the semi-final it competed in. San Marino subsequently withdrew from the contest in 2009 and 2010, returning in 2011 with Italian singer Senit performing "Stand By", which also failed to take the nation to the final. Between 2012 and 2014, San Marino sent Valentina Monetta to the contest on three consecutive occasions, which made her the first singer to participate in three consecutive contests since Udo Jürgens, who competed in 1964, 1965 and 1966 for Austria. Her entries in 2012 ("The Social Network Song") and 2013 ("Crisalide (Vola)") also failed to qualify San Marino to the final. However, in 2014, Monetta managed to bring San Marino to the final for the first time where she placed 24th with the song "Maybe". In 2015, the nation once again failed to qualify to the final with the song "Chain of Lights" performed by Anita Simoncini and Michele Perniola. In 2016, San Marino failed to qualify with "I Didn't Know" sung by Turkish performer Serhat. In 2017 San Marino sent Valentina Monetta again, but this time she performed together with an American singer Jimmie Wilson. Their song "Spirit of the Night" failed to qualify and placed last in their semifinal scoring just 1 point.

The Sammarinese national broadcaster, San Marino RTV (SMRTV), broadcasts the event within San Marino and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. SMRTV confirmed San Marino's participation at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest on 17 October 2017.[6]

Before Eurovision

1in360

On 15 October 2017 San Marino RTV and 1in360 announced the launch of an online talent show aimed at singers across the world to find the "internet candidate" for Eurovision Song Contest 2018 and crown him or her as San Marino's official candidate for the contest. The competition was presented by Nick Earles and Kristin Stein.

Format

1in360 consisted of three shows: two non-competitive showcase shows on 9 and 16 February 2018 and a final on 3 March 2018. The first showcase show involved each of the 11 candidates performing one of their two candidate Eurovision songs in acoustic versions. On the second showcase show, each candidate performed their remaining candidate Eurovision song in acoustic versions and one song per artist qualified for the final, where the winner was selected. The first two shows were pre-recorded, whereas the final was broadcast live from Bratislava, Slovakia by SMRTV via terrestrial broadcast and satellite uplink and online via the 1in360's YouTube channel. This marked the first time in Eurovision history that a national final was not actually held in the participating country.

The results of the first two shows were determined by a jury panel of music industry experts, while the results in the final were determined by the 50/50 combination of votes from the jury and a public online vote which took place between 23 February 2018 and 3 March 2018.[7] The ranking of both the jury and online vote were converted to points from 1-8, 10 and 12. An expert panel also provided commentary and feedback to the artists during each show. The expert panel consisted of:[8][9][10][11]

The 1in360 judges
Zoë Straub
Alessandro Capicchioni
Neon Hitch

Changes to the online vote

To avoid a repeat of the vote fraud allegations surrounding the online vote and ensure maximum fairness and as representative a result as possible, two measures were first envisioned: The voting was conducted via PayPal, where each PayPal account was limited to one vote at €1. If not more than 50,000 votes were cast, the public vote would've accounted for 10% of the overall result. If between 50,000 and 100,000 votes were cast, the public vote would've accounted for 20% of the overall result. If between 100,000 and 200,000 votes were cast, the public vote would've accounted for 30% of the overall result. If between 200,000 and 250,000 votes were cast, the public vote would've accounted for 40% of the overall result. And if more than 250,000 votes were cast, the public vote would've accounted for 50% of the overall result. The second method was to conduct the online vote via crowdfunding, where users could invest between €20 and €8,000 to the songs via the website Global Rockstar.[12] It was eventually decided that the crowdfunding method will be implemented as the online voting method, with a minimal investment to €2 instead of €20. If more than one song gets the same investments, they will receive the same score and the rest of the pool of points will be reduced accordingly (the highest investments will receive 12 points, and if two songs get the same highest investments, both of them will receive 12 points, with the next highest-placed entry receiving 8 points instead of 10).[7]

Competing entries

Artists were able to submit applications by uploading covers and original songs to the 1in360 website until 30 November 2017.[13] A total of 1,050 applications were received, and eleven candidates were shortlisted: eight nominated by the 1in360 jury in consultation with San Marino RTV and three selected as wildcards.[14] The candidates were announced on 23 December 2017.[15][16][17] After the list was released, all candidates attended a songwriting camp in Vienna, Austria, at which each of them developed two songs with the help of a team of experienced songwriters and producers. Candidates were allowed to contribute ideas to both their own songs and the songs of other candidates and were encouraged to form teams. The live performances of the competing songs from the first two shows were released as an album and as digital downloads on 19 February 2018 and the fully produced versions of the songs were made available no later than 23 February 2018.

Artist Country Song (English translation) Songwriter(s)
Camilla North  Norway "Free Yourself" Christof Straub, Zoe Straub, Mathias Strasser, Tinashe Makura
"Yo no soy tu chica" (I'm not your girl) Christof Straub, Zoe Straub, Mathias Strasser, Stefan Moessle, Jenifer Brening, Camilla Norderud
Emma Sandström  Finland "Diamonds" Emma Sandström, Stefan Moessle, Martin Kromar
"Hold On"
Franklin Calleja  Malta "Best Years of Our Lives"
"Stay" Christof Straub, Zoe Straub, Mathias Strasser
Giovanni Montalbano  Italy "Per quello che me dai" (For what you give me) Christof Straub, Zoe Straub, Mathias Strasser, Giovanni Montalbano
"Immenso" (Immense)
IROL  San Marino "Stuck Without Me" (feat. Jessika)
"Sorry" (feat. Basti) Christof Straub, Zoe Straub, Mathias Strasser, Stefan Moessle, Lorenzo Salvatori, Harold Taylor
Jenifer Brening  Germany "Sorry" Christof Straub, Zoe Straub, Mathias Strasser, Stefan Moessle, Lorenzo Salvatori, Harold Taylor
"Until the Morning Light" Christof Straub, Zoe Straub, Mathias Strasser, Stefan Moessle, Jenifer Brening
Jessika Muscat  Malta "Who We Are" (feat. Jenifer Brening) Christof Straub, Zoe Straub, Mathias Strasser, Stefan Moessle, Jenifer Brening
"Out of the Twilight" Christof Straub, Zoe Straub, Mathias Strasser, Sara Köll
Judah Gavra  Israel "Stay" Christof Straub, Zoe Straub, Mathias Strasser
"In the Moonlight"
Sara de Blue  Austria "Until the Morning Light" Christof Straub, Zoe Straub, Mathias Strasser, Stefan Moessle, Jenifer Brening
"Out of the Twilight" Christof Straub, Zoe Straub, Mathias Strasser, Sara Köll
Sebastian Schmidt (Basti)  Germany "In the Moonlight"
"Stay" Christof Straub, Zoe Straub, Mathias Strasser
Tinashe Makura  Zimbabwe "We Are One"
"Free Yourself" Christof Straub, Zoe Straub, Mathias Strasser, Tinashe Makura

First wildcard

The first wildcard was awarded by members of international fan clubs (including OGAE and INFE) that applied for participating in the selection. 71 applicants shortlisted for the final round were announced on 24 November 2017 and the winner, Emma Sandström, was announced on 4 December 2017. [18][19][20]

Second wildcard

The details of the second wildcard were announced by jury member and Austrian representative in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016, ZOË on 13 November 2017. On 1 December 2017, all votes on the website of the competition were reset and online users had ten days to cast their votes. The candidate with the most votes, Giovanni Montalbano, was announced on 11 December 2017.[22][23]

Third wildcard

The details of the third wildcard were announced by the Sammarinese national broadcaster San Marino RTV (SMRTV) and 1in360 on 26 November 2017. The artist who will get the third wildcard will be selected from the competing Sammarinese artists by the national broadcaster and 1in360. On 20 December 2017, Valentina Monetta and SMRTV announced IROL as the third wildcard. IROL was the San Marinese spokesperson on the Eurovision Song Contest 2016.[24][25]

Artist Result
Alessandra Busignani Eliminated
Alibi Eliminated
Anita Simoncini Eliminated
Fabrizio Valentini Eliminated
Fiorella Giudi Eliminated
Gianluigi Colucci Eliminated
IROL Selected
Jimmi JDKA Eliminated

Shows
  Finalist

Final
Final – 3 March 2018
Draw Country Artist Song Jury Crowdfunding
Vote		 Total Place
1  Norway Camilla North "Yo no soy tu chica" 5 12 17 5
2  Israel Judah Gavra "Stay" 0 1 1 11
3  Zimbabwe Tinashe Makura "Free Yourself" 3 3 6 7
4  Italy Giovanni Montalbano "Per quello che mi dai" 6 12 18 4
5  San Marino
 Germany		 IROL feat. Basti "Sorry" 2 0 2 10
6  Malta
 Germany		 Jessika feat. Jenifer Brening "Who We Are" 10 12 22 1
7  Germany Basti "Stay" 1 4 5 9
8  Finland Emma Sandström "Diamonds" 4 2 6 7
9  Austria Sara de Blue "Out of the Twilight" 8 12 20 2
10  Germany Jenifer Brening "Until the Morning Light" 7 12 19 3
11  Malta Franklin Calleja "Stay" 12 5 17 5

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 29 January 2018, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. San Marino was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 10 May 2018, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.[26]

Once all the competing songs for the 2018 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. San Marino was set to perform in position 4, following the entry from Serbia and preceding the entry from Denmark.[27]

Voting

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1–8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. 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. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final. John Kennedy O'Connor announced the scores of the San Marino jury during the live final, as he also did in 2013.

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Sanmarinese jury: [28]

  • Augusto Ciavatta – Chairperson – music teacher, organiser of international music events and competitions
  • Ilaria Ercolani – former ESC artist, singer, dancer
  • Veronica Conti – cello player
  • Nicolas Burioni (Lo Strego) – singer, songwriter
  • Claudio Podeschi – trombonist
Split voting results from San Marino (Semi-final 2)
Draw Country Jury Televote
A. Ciavatta I. Ercolani V. Conti Lo Strego C. Podeschi Average Rank Points Rank Points
01 Norway1138294747
02 Romania161221081216
03 Serbia6149715615
04 San Marino
05 Denmark81314171213112
06 Russia171112131014101
07 Moldova16112321056
08 Netherlands411314117492
09 Australia121011371174
10 Georgia9161715161514
11 Poland142154139212
12 Malta573523811
13 Hungary15151016171738
14 Latvia1084646513
15 Sweden2451511265
16 Montenegro13171611151617
17 Slovenia397968383
18 Ukraine756814101210
Split voting results from San Marino (final)
Draw Country Jury Televote
A. Ciavatta I. Ercolani V. Conti Lo Strego C. Podeschi Average Rank Points Rank Points
01 Ukraine21182520182565
02 Spain1623811151925
03 Slovenia71022385624
04 Lithuania19252217132319
05 Austria249714221814
06 Estonia513132256511
07 Norway14161912192115
08 Portugal251123751526
09 United Kingdom9173191413101
10 Serbia1320101818313
11 Germany3543921074
12 Albania15192121262422
13 France224205201218
14 Czech Republic1781541011210
15 Denmark1114172631456
16 Australia18716949217
17 Finland20221822112220
18 Bulgaria102158241612
19 Moldova11591664792
20 Sweden8114673821
21 Hungary26262625162616
22 Israel62112112112
23 Netherlands1232424231723
24 Ireland4126132110183
25 Cyprus23241210122047
26 Italy261115177438

Points awarded to San Marino
Points awarded to San Marino (Semi-final 2)
Televote
12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points
5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point
Jury
12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points
5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

Points awarded by San Marino

References
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  3. 1 in 360: How it works
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