San Marino In The Eurovision Song Contest 2024

San Marino was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 with the song " 11:11", performed by the Spanish band Megara. The song was written by Isra Dante Ramos Solomando, Roberto la Lueta Ruiz, and Sara Jiménez Moral. The nation's participating broadcaster, (SMRTV), organised the national final format in collaboration with Media Evolution S.r.l. to select its entry. Over 700 candidate entries from 31 countries were submitted for consideration to the event, which consisted of five semi-final rounds, a second chance round and a final round, all airing in February 2024.

Promotion of the entry consisted of a tour of a selection of nations participating in the contest, including Denmark, England, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands. San Marino was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the contest, which took place on 9 May 2024. Performing during the show at position 10 in the running order, "11:11" did not qualify to compete in the final. It placed 14th out of the 16 participating countries in its semi-final and received 16 points total.

Background

Prior to the 2024 contest, (SMRTV) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing San Marino 13 times since its first entry in . Its debut entry in the , "" performed by Miodio, failed to qualify for the final and placed last in the first semi-final. SMRTV subsequently did not participate in both the and contests, citing financial difficulties. It returned in with "Stand By" by Italian singer Senit, which also failed to take the country to the final. From 2012 to 2014, SMRTV sent Valentina Monetta to the contest on three consecutive occasions. Monetta's first two entries failed to qualify to the final, however in , she managed to bring San Marino to the final for the first time with "Maybe", which eventually placed 24th.

Following four consecutive non-qualifying years, San Marino qualified for the final for the second time at the Eurovision Song Contest 2019, where " Say Na Na Na" by Serhat –representing San Marino for a second time– finished in 19th place. For the , " Freaky!" by Senhit was to represent the nation, though following the contest cancellation as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, SMRTV re-selected Senhit for . Her 2021 song, "", performed alongside American rapper Flo Rida, qualified for the final, eventually placing 22nd. The Sammarinese and entries, "Stripper" by Achille Lauro and " Like an Animal" by Piqued Jacks, both failed to qualify for the final. Since the 2022 contest, SMRTV has used the televised national final-style event to select its entry, and in August 2023 it confirmed that the selection event would continue to be used for the 2024 contest.

Before Eurovision

Una voce per San Marino

''2024'' was the third edition of the national selection format developed by SMRTV and Media Evolution S.r.l. to determine the Sammarinese entry to the Eurovision Song Contest. It consisted of four semi-finals for foreign nationalsfollowed by a second chance roundand one semi-final reserved for Sammarinese nationals. All rounds took place at the Little Tony in Serravalle on 15 and 16 February 2024, and were hosted by Ilenia De Sena and Camilla Spinelli. They were then aired daily between 19 and 23 February, culminating with the final at the in Dogana on 24 February 2024, hosted by and , which saw eight established artists and eight newcomers (one being from San Marino) compete. A jury vote determined the qualifiers from the semi-finals and the winner of the final. Outside San Marino, the final was broadcast on GlitterBeam Radio in the United Kingdom.

Participant selection

The selection of semi-finalists first consisted of an audition phase for emerging artists between 10 November 2023 and 23 January 2024, where 129 entries qualified for the semi-finals; applications were open between 10 October 2023 and 14 January 2024, by which date over 700 submissions had been received from at least 31 countries. There were no restrictions on the nationality of the performer or the language of the song. Established artists were instead directly invited to the final by Media Evolution S.r.l. Live auditions took place at San Marino Outlet Experience in four rounds: the first from 10 to 12 November 2023, the second from 1 to 3 December 2023, the third from 12 to 14 January 2024 and the fourth from 18 to 20 January 2024; an additional online round was held on 22 and 23 January 2024. A professional jury then selected the semi-finalists, and it was composed of music producers Domenico "Mimmo" Paganelli, Domenico "Mimmo" Gallotti and Nabuk. In addition to the regular selection process, SMRTV also launched a collaboration with London-based music tech startup Casperaki, named ''The San Marino Sessions'', to determine an additional finalist. Starting on 19 November 2023 and until the final of 24 February 2024, SMRTV aired a 15-minute daily broadcast presenting the participating artists, hosted by rapper .

Semi-finals

On 30 January 2024, SMRTV announced the names of the 129 acts that had been selected to progress to the semi-final stage, most being from Italy, as well as the semi-final they would take part in. The shows were filmed on 15 and 16 February 2024 and aired between 19 and 23 February 2024. One finalist was selected from each semi-final, and four acts from each semi-final were selected to move on to the second chance round.

Key:
Finalist
Second chance
Absent

Second chance

The second chance round was held on 16 February 2024 and aired on 23 February 2024, with three more artists advancing to the final.

''The San Marino Sessions''

''The San Marino Sessions'' was an experimental selection launched by SMRTV in collaboration with Casperaki to determine one of the finalists of ''2024''. From 27 November 2023 until January 2024, interested artists could submit anything from short recordings to complete compositions, with the dedicated platform, powered by artificial intelligence, helping to enhance them. By 9 January 2024, a committee selected the ten best suggestions to take part in a songwriting camp hosted by producers TommyD and Stefan Moessle in London between 18 and 21 January 2024, where they came down to four full compositions; the jury of , helped by feedback from the public, then selected one of these to qualify for the final, announced along the other pre-qualifiers on 19 February 2024.

Final

The final of took place on 24 February 2024 and consisted of the eight competing established artists from the semi-finals and second chance round plus the ''San Marino Sessions'' qualifier, who had been announced on 19 February 2024 at a press conference in Milan. The winner of the final was Megara with the song " 11:11", written by Isra Dante Ramos, Solomando, Roberto la Lueta Ruiz and
Sara Jiménez Moral. The professional jury consisted of Celso Valli (chair), Anna Bianchi, Clarissa Martinelli, and Steve Lyon. Mogol and Al Bano, who chaired the jury in the two previous editions, made an appearance as guests. Piqued Jacks () opened the show performing their winning entry " Like an Animal", they also performed their new release "Aria" during the interval; , Riccardo Cocciante and also performed as interval acts.

The final also saw several acts receive special awards for their participation. These included the San Marino Outlet Experience prize for the best look to Jalisse, the OGAE Italy prize and the Critics' prize to Loredana Bertè, the Febal Casa prize (awarded by Radio San Marino) for the most radio-friendly song to La Rua, and the Ludovico Di Meo prize (awarded by San Marino RTV) for the best emerging act to Megara.

Promotion and preparation

As part of the promotion of their participation in the contest, Megara attended the PrePartyES in Madrid on 30 March 2024, the Barcelona Eurovision Party on 6 April 2024 and the London Eurovision Party on 7 April 2024. This was followed by the Eurovision in Concert event in Amsterdam on 13 April 2024, the Nordic Eurovision Party in Stockholm on 14 April 2024 and the Copenhagen Eurovision Party (Malmöhagen) on 4 May 2024. In late April 2024, "11:11" was revamped in collaboration with producer Jose Pablo Polo ahead of the contest, with the new version to premiere directly at Eurovision.

At Eurovision

The Eurovision Song Contest 2024 took place at the Malmö Arena in Malmö, Sweden, and consisted of two semi-finals held on the respective dates of 7 and 9 May and the final on 11 May 2024. All participating countries, except the host nation and the " Big Five", consisting of , , , , and the , were required to qualify from one of two semi-finals to compete for the final; the top 10 countries from their respective semi-finals progressed to the final. On 30 January 2024, an allocation draw was held to determine which of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show, each country would perform in. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into different pots based on historical voting patterns from previous contests, in an attempt to reduce the likelihood of neighbourly voting and to increase suspense. San Marino was scheduled for the second half of the second semi-final. The shows' producers then decided the running order for the semi-finals; San Marino was set to perform in position 10.

In San Marino, all the shows of the contest were broadcast on San Marino RTV, as well as on the broadcaster's streaming platform RTV Play, with commentary by Lia Fiorio and Gigi Restivo. As part of the Eurovision programming, from 23 April until the contest, SMRTV broadcast ''Ticket to Eurovision'', a show discussing the participating countries.

Performances

Megara took part in technical rehearsals on 30 April and 3 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 8 and 9 May. Their performance of "11:11" at the contest was staged by Javier Pageo, who had previously staged the performance for . It featured black and pink outfits, LED lighting and pyrotechnics. The theme was set around a fantasy world with dragons and trees.

San Marino performed in position 10, following the entry from and before the entry from . The country was not announced among the top 10 entries in the semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final.

Voting

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding sets of points from 1–8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting in the final vote, while the semi-final vote was based entirely on the vote of the public. As San Marino shares its telephone system with Italy, the country's jury votes were used during the semi-final, while at the final an aggregate televote created using the televotes of neighbouring countries was used. The Sammarinese jury consisted of Augusto Ciavatta, Viola Conti, Michele Giardi, Nicola Giaquinto, and Camilla Ortolani. These members were music industry professionals who are Sammarinese citizens, and each jury and individual jury member were required to meet a set of EBU criteria regarding professional background and diversity in gender and age. Additionally, no member of the national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they could not vote impartially and independently.

In the second semi-final, San Marino placed 14th with 16 points. Over the course of the contest, San Marino awarded its 12 points to the in the second semi-final, and to Switzerland (jury) and (aggregate televote) in the final. Kida served as the Sammarinese spokesperson, announcing the votes awarded by the Sammarinese jury during the final.

Points awarded to San Marino

Points awarded by San Marino

Detailed voting results

Notes

References

External links

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{{Eurovision Song Contest 2024

2024
Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024
Eurovision