San Marino in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018


San Marino participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. The Sammarinese broadcaster San Marino RTV 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.

Background

Prior to the 2018 contest, San Marino had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest eight times since its first entry in. 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 and 2013 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, 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.

Before Eurovision

''1in360''

Format

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 singing competition.
Candidates could upload covers and original songs to https://www.1in360.com. Submissions ended on 30 November 2017. On 4 December it was announced that a total of 1050 covers and songs had been submitted for 1in360.
On 23 December San Marino RTV and 1in360 announced a short list of eleven candidates. Eight of these candidates were nominated by the 1in360 jury in consultation with San Marino RTV. Three of the candidates were selected by wildcard.
1in360 had three shows: First Show on 9 February 2018, Second Show on 16 February 2018 and the Final on 3 March 2018. The shows were broadcast by San Marino RTV via terrestrial broadcast and satellite uplink and by 1 in 360 on its YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/1in360. The first two shows were pre-recorded, whereas the final was broadcast live from Bratislava, Slovakia. This marked the first time in Eurovision history that a national final was not actually held in the participating country.
All 11 candidates performed in all three shows. The 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.
In the first show the candidates performed acoustic versions of their songs and the judges provided feedback.
In the second show the candidates again performed acoustic versions of their songs. At the end of the second show the judges chose one song for each candidate.
The live performances from the first two shows were released as an album and as digital downloads on 19 February 2018. The fully produced versions of the songs were made available no later than 23 February 2018, giving fans a chance to listen to them ahead of the live performances.
In the final the candidates performed the fully produced versions of their chosen songs. The winner was chosen by a combination of jury and online voting. The online vote opened on 23 February 2018 and extend through the end of the finals. Both the jury vote and the online vote followed the Eurovision format, whereby the candidates will be awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 points.
To avoid a repeat of the vote fraud allegations surrounding the fan vote and ensure maximum fairness and as representative a result as possible, two measures were first envisioned: The online vote was conducted via PayPal, whereby each PayPal account was limited to one vote at €1 and the jury and online vote were weighted as follows: If not more than 50,000 votes were cast, the public vote would've accounted for 10% of the overall vote tally. If more than 50,000 but not more than 100,000 votes were cast, the public vote would've accounted for 20% of the overall vote tally. If more than 100,000 but not more than 200,000 votes were cast, the public vote would've accounted for 30% of the overall vote tally. If more than 200,000 votes but not more than 250,000 votes were cast, the public vote would've accounted for 40% of the overall vote tally. And if more than 250,000 votes were cast, the public vote would've accounted for 50% of the overall vote tally. Another method has been used: online voters could invest in the songs via the crowdfunding website Global Rockstar, by investing from €20 to €8,000.
It was eventually decided that the PayPal vote was not going to be used, instead the crowdfunding method would be the only online voting method, with a minimal investment to €2 instead of €20. The entry that receives the highest investments would receive 12 points from the online votes and if more than one song gets the same investments, they will receive the same score, then the rest of the pool of points will be reduced accordingly. And the online vote will count for 50% of the overall vote tally.
Since Zoe Straub, who wrote some of the competing songs, was part of the jury, some changes were applied to the jury vote as well: the jury present in the show was only able to provide feedback, and the actual jury vote instead came from a panel of music industry experts. Alessandro Capricchioni, the Head of Delegation for San Marino at the Eurovision Song Contest, was a part of it, but not Zoe or Christof Straub.
The winner went on to represent San Marino at Eurovision Song Contest 2018.
The show was presented by Nick Earles and Kristin Stein.

Judges

1in360 had four judges for the two preliminary rounds and five for the final: Zoë Straub who also funded the national final with her family, Alessandro Capicchioni, Neon Hitch. and Ladislav Kossár. John Kennedy O'Connor, San Marino RTV's regular Eurovision host joined the panel as the fifth judge for the final on 3 March.

Competing artists

11 artists competed in the national selection. The artists were revealed on 23 December 2017.
ArtistOriginSong
Camilla North"Free Yourself"
Camilla North"Yo no soy tu chica"
Emma Sandström"Diamonds"
Emma Sandström"Hold On"
"Best Years of Our Lives"
"Stay"
Giovanni Montalbano"Per quello che me dai"
Giovanni Montalbano"Immenso"
IROL"Stuck Without Me" feat. Jessika
IROL"Sorry" feat. Basti
Jenifer Brening"Sorry"
Jenifer Brening"Until the Morning Light"
Jessika Muscat"Who We Are" feat. Jenifer Brening
Jessika Muscat"Out of the Twilight"
"Stay"
"Moonlight"
Sara de Blue"Until the Morning Light"
Sara de Blue"Out of the Twilight"
Sebastian Schmidt "Moonlight"
Sebastian Schmidt "Stay"
Tinashe Makura"We Are One"
Tinashe Makura"Free Yourself"

Candidate songs

First wildcard

The first wildcard was given by the OGAE and INFE fan clubs and other fan clubs that applied for participating in the selection. The seventy-one artists that were shortlisted for the first wildcard round were announced on 24 November 2017. The artist with the most votes was Emma Sandström with 47 points.

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 the audience had ten days to cast their votes. The artist with the most votes, and who received the second wildcard was announced on 11 December 2017 as Giovanni Montalbano from Italy.

Third wildcard

The details of the third wildcard were announced by the Sammarinese national broadcaster San Marino RTV 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. IROL was announced as the third wildcard by Valentina Monetta on 20 December 2017 on SMRTV. IROL was the San Marinese spokesperson on the Eurovision Song Contest 2016.

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

Shows

DrawArtistSong
1 Emma Sandström"Diamonds"
2 IROL feat. Jessika"Stuck Without Me"
3 Giovanni Montalbano"Per quello che mi dai"
4 Basti"In the Moonlight"
5 Judah Gavra"Stay"
6 Tinashe Makura"We Are One"
7 Jessika feat. IROL"Who We Are"
8 Sara de Blue"Until the Morning Light"
9 Jenifer Brening"Sorry"
10 Franklin Calleja"Best Years of Our Lives"
11 Camilla North"Free Yourself"

DrawArtistSong
1 Emma Sandström"Hold On"
2 IROL feat. Basti"Sorry"
3 Giovanni Montalbano"Immenso"
4 Basti"Stay"
5 Judah Gavra"In the Moonlight"
6 Tinashe Makura"Free Yourself"
7 Jessika"Out of the Twilight"
8 Sara de Blue"Out of the Twilight"
9 Jenifer Brening"Until the Morning Light"
10 Franklin Calleja"Stay"
11 Camilla North"Yo no soy tu chica"

Final (3 March 2018)

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" 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 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.
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.

Semi-final

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:

Points awarded by San Marino