Sammarinese broadcaster SMRTV have today revealed more details about 1in360, the first ever national final for San Marino to select their entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018.
The eventual selected artist for San Marino will be selected over three different shows. The first two episodes will be pre-recorded and broadcast on the 9th and 16th of February 2018. All 11 contestants will be present in both episodes, performing a potential entry in each show. These performances will be done in acoustic form.
At the end of the second episode it will be down to the judges to decide which of every artists’ 2 songs are the best and will progress to the final.
The final will then take place 2 weeks later on Saturday 3rd of March. Unlike the first two programmes, the final will be live and will be held in Bratislava in Slovakia. At this stage each of the last 11 entries will be fully produced, finished versions of the songs will be made public no later than 23rd February 2018.
In addition to dates, SMRTV have given more detail about the voting system. It has been confirmed that the eventual winner will be decided by a combination of both online voting and a jury.
Both the jury and online voters will follow the same voting structure used at Eurovision, awarding 12 Points to their favourite artist, 10 for their second, and then 8 points for third, descending to 1 Point for their 10th favourite.
Precautions have been put into place to avoid further alleged fraud voting like in the earlier fan vote. The online vote will be done via PayPal whereby only one vote is allowed per PayPal account at the cost of 1 Euro.
Furthermore, the amount of power the online vote has in the overall decision is based purely on how many voters they receive and will be done as followed.
50,000 or less: 10% of the overall vote
50,000-100,000: 20% of the overall vote
100,000-200,000: 30% of the overall vote
200,000-250,000: 40% of the overall vote
250,000 or above: 50% of the overall vote
In addition to voting for their favourite entries, 1in360 have paired up with Global Rockstar’s crowdfunding platform to allow fans the chance to also invest in the songs. Investing in the songs allows fans to share any royalties generated from any stream or download of the tracks. This platform will have no impact on the actual vote and has been assured is an entirely optional extra for voters.
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.
