San Marino RTV will release the names of the semi-finalists for Una Voce per San Marino on Monday 17th January.
The Sammarinese national selection will enter its next phase on Monday, as the names of the 60 semi-finalists who will advance from the participants in the casting rounds which have taken place over the past weeks will be announced.
The announcement of the semi-finalists was expected a little earlier, but the jury has decided to take a little extra time to deliberate and evaluate the finalists. It has been announced that 60 acts will be advancing through to the semi-finals, which will take place in the Titano Theater in San Marino City from the 13th to the 17th of February.
Following this round, 9 acts will be chosen to represent the ’emerging’ artists. These 9 will advance to the Grand Final where they will take part alongside 9 established Italian artists who have been invited by the Media Evolution group. The Grand Final will take place in the Teatro Nuovo di Dogana on the 19th of February.
From the emerging artists, the top 3 placings will receive cash prizes of €7000, €2000, and €1000.
For the casting process, there have been 7 juries involved. This will be reduced to 5 for the Grand Final. The jury will decide upon the top 3 positions.
This is the first time that San Marino has used the Una Voce Per San Marino as their selection process, having previously used the 1in360 format, Digital Battle or internal selections. This year the process was opened up worldwide and saw 299 artists and over 500 songs submitted to the selection.
Source: San Marino RTV (In Italian) | Image Source: Andres Putting
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. The nations worst result came in 2017 when 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.
