Up next is Eurovision’s smallest participant, in terms of both population and country size – it’s the microstate San Marino. Many Eurofans don’t seem to appreciate what San Marino bring to the contest, but I certainly do, and despite generally poor results, they’ve stuck with the contest bringing their own mix of craziness and retro with them. What have they got for us this year?!
Well, space and time don’t permit me to talk through the craziness of the national selection route they went down, but they have ended up being represented by not just one, but two, people from other Eurovision countries, in addition to giving us a rare (and rather retro/dated) uptempo song. Jessika is Maltese and Jenifer is German. Jenifer was in fact one of the other national selection finalists, and only stepped in to fill the shoes of the original “featuring” artist at the last minute (before the final).
I do have soft spot for San Marino as you may have guessed so while this is patently not the most modern song in the contest, there’s a kitschy retro feel about this I enjoy, even Jenifer’s rapping is reminiscent of the early Spice Girls! You also can’t help but feel pleased that Jessika finally gets the chance to go to Eurovision – she entered the Maltese national final every year from 2009 to 2016 without success – you can tell she is thrilled to be part of the contest at last.
Qualification chances are admittedly rather slim. San Marino has no voting allies, not even Italy. Even in that weaker second semi-final, they will still struggle I think. In their favour though is that both Malta and Germany will be voting in this semi – so that should guarantee at least some votes coming their way.
Official music video:
(Though the above is a live performance, I think it’s the studio track playing over the video)
Live at London Eurovision Party:
San Marino at the Eurovision Song Contest:
First entered: 2008
Appearances (excluding this year): 8
Best result: 24th in 2014
Last year’s result: 18th (and last) in semi-final (Did not qualify)