Emma Sandström has been awarded the first wildcard for 1 in 360, San Marino’s national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. She will now compete for the chance to represent San Marino in Lisbon.
Emma is from Finland and she was one of the participants in this year’s edition of Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu, the Finnish selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. Although she was the pre-contest favourite, she finished in third place with “Circle of Light”, missing out on the chance to represent Finland in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.
700 acts were shortlisted for the fan club vote. Some familiar names were included in the shortlist, such as Dado Topić (Croatia, Eurovision 2007 with Dragonfly), Karl William Lund (UK national final 2016) and Mahan Moin (Melodifestivalen 2014). The act with the most votes won a place in the 1 in 360 live shows.
Ten artists will compete in the 1 in 360 live shows, of which three will be wildcards. The second wildcard will be given by internet voting. All votes on the 1in360 site have been reset to zero and the act that receives the highest amount of votes will win the wildcard. The acts that were shortlisted for the fan vote are eligible for this wilcard. The final wildcard will be given to an act from San Marino. The seven remaining places will be decided upon by SMRTV and 1 in 360 from all the submissions.
The ten selected candidates will compete over seven live recorded shows, which will be broadcast on the internet and via satellite TV across Europe in January 2018. The final of the San Marino selection will take place in late February. One of the jurors for the selection process will be Zoë Straub who represented Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016.
Source: SMRTV
San Marino in the Eurovision Song Contest
San Marino debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2008 alongside Azerbaijan. On their debut they were represented by Miodio and the song “Complice”, and finished last in their semi final with just 5 points. San Marino withdrew from the contest before returning again in 2011. Since then the country has participated annually and in 2014 qualified for their first final. In 2017, Valentina Monetta represented San Marino for the fourth time alongside Jimmie Wilson with “Spirit of the Night.” The pair finished last in their semi-final with just 1 point