Just outside the top 20, it’s the smallest country in the contest – plucky San Marino continue to fly the flag for microstates on one of the world’s most viewed television shows. Their qualifying record is not the best admittedly (just three qualifications in 13 appearances) and their best result came from a Turkish game show host and singer with 19th place in 2019. Yet they persevere and the contest is better for it – they’ve changed tack in their selection process in recent years, and this has seen some widely-known artists represent them. In 2022, Achille Lauro was their artist, who has a string of chart-topping albums and singles in Italy. For 2024, its Spanish rock band Megara – can their distinctive look and brand of alternative metal get San Marino back to the final?
Megara first formed in 2015 and have released three albums between 2016 and 2022, and appeared at two big festivals in Spain and the UK in 2019. They came to eurofans’ attention last year as a competing artist in Spain’s national selection, Benidorm Fest. They finished fourth in the final with their song “Arcadia”. This year, having not been selected for Benidorm Fest, they entered the Sammarinese national final – and ended up a surprise winner, voted for by an in-person professional jury at the grand final show.
Megara like to describe their musical style as “fucksia rock” – a blend of electronic, dance and rock – they didn’t want to be pigeonholed into a specific genre. Now, as readers of past preview countdowns will know, rock isn’t my favourite genre, so you might be surprised at how high I have placed this. I go by what I enjoy listening to though, and who I enjoy performing and on both of these, I enjoy “11:11” – it’s both good to listen to via Spotify, and Megara’s live performances are very engaging and lively.
San Marino are almost always underdogs to qualify for the final, and that is no exception this year. They are sitting in the lower part (though not the very bottom) of the scoreboard app, and when looking at the semi-final 2 only, they are not favoured to qualify. Nor too do the betting odds for qualification look good for them. Maybe this is partly connected to the national live performance – the sound and picture quality are not great, plus rock isn’t overly favoured inside the fandom, and San Marino are inevitable underdogs.
That all said though, I think of all the songs in semi-final 2 that are predicted not to qualify, this might have the best chance of causing a shock qualification. Megara are fully up for this, and going to make the most of their chance – and their live performances, brand strength and experience could all deliver a stand out stage show at the contest. They do have Spain and also Italy voting in their semi-final, and while there is some genre-sharing with Norway, they’re really the only full-on rock song in the semi-final. It’s a slim chance, but not an impossibility…
San Marino in the Eurovision Song Contest
First entered: 2008
Appearances (excluding this year): 13
Best result: 19th in 2019
Last year’s result: 16th and last in semi-final (did not qualify)
