Giovanni Montalbano has been awarded the second wildcard for 1 in 360, the San Marinese selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. He will now compete for a chance to represent San Marino in Lisbon.
Giovanni is from Italy and has uploaded several covers on to his Youtube channel. After Emma Sandström was awarded the fan club wildcard, all entries on the 1 in 360 site were reset to zero and fans had until December 8. The entry with the most votes would be awarded the wildcard. Giovanni won the internet wildcard with 388,712 votes, beating fellow Italian Gloria Zaccaria, who finished second with 382,237 votes.
The vote has proven controversial as many acts, including Giovanni, accumulated thousands of votes in a matter of days. This has lead some fans to accuse these artists of cheating. In an online statement, the organisers of 1 in 360 admitted that there is “very little [they] can do to prevent fraud in a free social media vote”.
Ten artists will compete in the 1 in 360 live shows, of which three will be wildcards. 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.
