San Marino has a difficult decision to make regarding choosing just one artist to represent their beautiful country at the Eurovision Song Contest in Italy next year. This year, San Marino will make this difficult decision based on their national selection called ‘Una Voce per San Marino’.
And it safe to say, the public is very happy and enthusiastic about this national selection! Only three days after the launch date, already 45 (!) artists have registered to compete in ‘Una Voce per San Marino’.
Where do these applicants come from?
Even though the registrations are for representing San Marino at next years Eurovision Song Contest in Italy, about 40% of the registrations were filed from other countries than San Marino. It may come as no surprise that for the most part, registrations were filed from the Eurovision-country of Sweden.
And this actually makes a lot of sense. You see, the Eurovision Song Contest has always been very popular in Sweden. In fact, it is so popular that there own national final ‘Melodifestivalen’ receives around 2.500 submissions each year. Can you imagine the amount of competition you have to beat there? That is why Swedish artists and producers try to bring their song to a national final abroad, where they have a bigger chance of winning.
How will ‘Una Voce per San Marino continue now?
San Marino’s national final consists of a open application process where artists can enroll in the competition. After the application process, San Marino’s broadcasting union will held two rounds of live auditions. These auditions will take place in December and January.
These auditions will give jurors a shortlist of around 40 artists who will compete for a place in one of the four semi-finals. After these semi-finals there will be a second chance round and of course a grand finale which will all take place in Teatro Titano.
During these various rounds in the competition, artists will be asked to perform a cover of a very well known song and of course, their unreleased song. The nine artists with the best scores wil qualify for the overall grand final which will be broadcasted on SMRTV.
Invited to compete
But not only artists who have enrolled via the open application process will be able to compete in ‘Una Voce per San Marino’, there will also be nine artists who have been invited by the contest organizers to take place in the competition. They do not have to participate in a audition round, but they will be able to compete directly in the grand final.
So let’s do the math together; 9 artists who will be chosen via a complex audition process and 9 artists who will be invited to compete in the grand final, that makes 18 artists who will compete in the grand final of ‘Una Voce per San Marino’.
Who would you like to see in San Marino’s national Final? Let us know in the comments below!
Want to read more about San Marino at the Eurovision Song Contest? Read all about it here!
