San Marino at the Eurovision Song Contest

Balance sheet

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Broadcasting company

SMRTV

First participation

2008

Number of participations

10 (as of 2019)

Highest ranking

19 ( 2019 )

Highest Score

77 ( 2019 )

Lowest Score

1 ( 2017 SF )

Points average (since first post)

25.50 (as of 2019)

Average points per voting country in the 12-point system

0.63 (as of 2019)

This article looks at the history of San Marino as a participant in the Eurovision Song Contest .

San Marino took part in the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) for the first time in Belgrade in 2008 . Until then, San Marino was the only European country with EBU membership that had not yet participated in the ESC ( Liechtenstein is not yet an EBU member), besides the Vatican state .

Regularity of participation and successes in competition

Serhat (middle) got San Marino's best result in 2019

San Marino first took part in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2008. The debut was not very successful then. Miodio was last in the semifinals and only reached five points. The country received three points from Greece and two points from Andorra . After that, the country did not participate in 2009 and 2010 due to failure and financial constraints. With the return of the Italian broadcaster RAI, which owns a significant stake in the San Marinese television SMRTV, the small republic in northern Italy also returned to the ESC 2011. But the return was not very successful either. However, Senit only reached place 16 out of 19 in the semi-finals and thus failed quite clearly in qualifying for the final. Valentina Monetta also failed to qualify for the final in 2012 and failed quite clearly with place 14 out of 18. Nevertheless, she took part again in 2013. As one of the favorites among the Eurovision fans, she failed to qualify for the final on the second attempt. With 11th place in the semifinals, this time she only narrowly failed to qualify for the final. Nevertheless, the country sent her again in 2014. Valentina Monetta is one of the four artists in the history of the competition who have represented her country three times in a row. Each of the three titles was composed by Ralph Siegel , who has not been able to post a contribution for Germany since 2003. In the third attempt, Valentina Monetta was then able to achieve San Marino's greatest success in the competition. In 2014, the country made it into the final for the first time, albeit only one point ahead of the eleventh-placed Quero ser tua by Suzy from Portugal . Monetta was only third from bottom in the final and reached 14 points. In 2015 Monetta refused a fourth participation in a row, so that Michele Perniola & Anita Simoncini represented the country in 2015. However, the duo could not build on the previous year's success and only landed on the penultimate place in the semifinals. In 2016 the Turkish singer Serhat should bring the country back to the final. However, he also failed in the final qualification and only ended up in 12th place in the semifinals. Participation in 2017 was initially uncertain. The country was not satisfied with the rule change regarding the new voting procedure. The country's failures were cited as a reason for a possible withdrawal. Despite these announcements, the country also participated in 2017.

In 2017, Valentina Monetta represented San Marino for the fourth time, this time together with singer Jimmie Wilson. However, Monetta could not build on her previous successes. The duo ended up in last place and only received one point, which is San Marino's lowest score to date. In 2018, the country was not very successful in competition. Jessika Muscat feat. Jenifer Brening were only penultimate in the semifinals. In 2019, Serhat represented the country at the Song Contest for the second time since 2016. With the song Say Na Na Na he reached place 8 in the semifinals and was able to bring the country back to the final for the first time in five years. In the final, San Marino achieved the best position in the competition to date with 19th place. In televoting, the country was even in 10th place with 77 points, Serhat also got a new high score for the country.

Overall, none of the ten entries ended up in the left half of the table. With eight missed finals, two penultimate and two last places, San Marino is one of the most unsuccessful countries in the competition.

List of posts

Color legend: - 1st place. - 2nd place. - 3rd place. - Equal points with last place. - Eliminated in the semifinals / in the qualification / in the Eastern European preliminary decision. - no participation / not qualified. - Cancellation of the Eurovision Song Contest.      

year	Interpreter	Title Music (M) and Text (T)	language	translation	final		Semi-final / qualification		National preliminary decision
					space	Points	space	Points
2008	Miodio	Complice M: Francesco Sancisi; T: Nicola Della Valle	Italian	accomplice	Eliminated		19/19	5	internal selection
2009 2010	No participation
2011	Senite	Stand By M / T: Radiosa Romani	English	standby	Eliminated		16/19	34	internal selection
2012	Valentina Monetta	The Social Network Song (Oh Oh -Uh- Oh Oh) M: Ralph Siegel ; T: Timothy Touchton , José Juan Santana Rodriguez	English	The song of the social networks (oh oh -uh- oh oh)	Eliminated		14/18	31	internal selection
2013	Valentina Monetta	Crisalide (Vola) M: Ralph Siegel ; T: Mauro Balestri	Italian, English	Butterfly pupa (fly)	Eliminated		11/17	47	internal selection
2014	Valentina Monetta	Maybe (Forse) M: Ralph Siegel ; T: Mauro Balestri	English	Maybe	24/26	14th	10/16	40	internal selection
2015	Michele Perniola & Anita Simoncini	Chain of Lights M: Ralph Siegel ; T: John O'Flynn	English	Chain of lights	Eliminated		16/17	11	internal selection
2016	Serhat	I Didn't Know M: Olcayto Ahmed Tuğsuz; T: Nektarios Tyrakis	English	I did not know it	Eliminated		12/18	68	internal selection
2017	Valentina Monetta & Jimmie Wilson	Spirit of the Night M: Ralph Siegel ; T: Steven Barnacle, Jutta Staudenmayer	English	Ghost of the night	Eliminated		18/18	1	internal selection
2018	Jessika Muscat feat. Jenifer Brening	Who We Are M / T: Mathias Strasser, Zoë Straub , Christof Straub , Lorenzo Salvatori, Stefan Moessle, Jenifer Brening	English	who we are	Eliminated		17/18	28	1 in 360
2019	Serhat	Say Na Na Na M: Serhat ; T: Serhat , Mary Susan Applegate	English, Turkish	Say well well	19/26	77	8/17	150	internal selection
2020	Senhit	Freaky! M / T: Gianluigi Fazio, Henrik Steen Hansen, Nanna Bottos	English	Freaky!	Cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic by the EBU				Digital Battle Eurovision
2021	Senhit								internal selection

National qualification

With the exception of 2018, San Marino selected each of its contributions internally. In 2018, with the preliminary decision 1 in 360 , a national preliminary decision took place for the first time and so far for the last time. In 2020 the song with which the internally selected candidate Senhit should have participated in Rotterdam was selected in an online process.

languages

In 2008 and 2013 the singing was in Italian, the contributions for 2011, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018 were entirely in English. In 2019, the text also contained some Turkish words in addition to English words. Since San Marino has only been participating since 2008, there has never been a rule that required the country to sing in Italian.

In 2013 there was also an English version, in 2014 and 2016 an Italian version, which were made available for download.

Scoring

The following countries received the most points from or awarded the most points to San Marino (as of 2019):

Most of the points awarded in the final space country Points 1  Italy 88 2  Greece 50 3  Azerbaijan 42 4th  Sweden 40 5  Israel 37

Most in the final received points space country Points 1  Albania 13  Azerbaijan 13 3  Greece 12 4th  Russia 10  Hungary 10

Most of the points awarded space country Points 1  Greece 111 2  Italy 088 3  Norway 077 4th  Netherlands 076 5  Sweden 072

Most total obtained points space country Points 1  Azerbaijan 44 2  Albania 39  Malta 39 4th  Hungary 36 5  Greece 27

Award of the highest rating

Since 2008, San Marino has awarded the maximum number of points to nine different countries, including two to Greece, twice to Israel, twice to Italy and twice to Ukraine. In the semifinals, San Marino awarded the maximum number of points to eight different countries, including four times to Greece.

Highest rating (final) year country Place (final) 2008  Greece 3 2009 2010 No participation 2011  Italy 2 2012  Albania 5 2013  Greece 6th 2014  Azerbaijan 22nd 2015  Latvia 6th 2016  Ukraine (J&T) 1 2017  Portugal (J) 1  Bulgaria (T) 2 2018  Israel (J&T) 1 2019  Italy (J) 2  Russia (T) 3 2020 Competition canceled

Highest rating (semi-finals) year country Place (semifinals) 2008  Greece 1 2009 2010 No participation 2011  Malta 11 2012  Ireland 6th 2013  Greece 2 2014  Netherlands 1 2015  Sweden 1 2016  Netherlands (J) 5  Russia (T) 1 2017  Netherlands (J) 4th  Bulgaria (T) 1 2018  Sweden (J) 2  Denmark (T) 5 2019  Greece (J & T) 5 2020 Competition canceled

various

• In 2012, the San Marinese post was originally titled Facebook , Uh, Oh, Oh . Since the EBU classified the title and text of the song as commercial advertising, both had to be changed.
• In the semi-finals of 2014, San Marino reached the final for the first time with only one point ahead of the eliminated Portugal .
• Since the first participation, San Marino has improved every year compared to the ranking of the previous year. After the last place in the semifinals in 2008 followed places 16, 14 and 11 as well as the first place in the finals on place 10 in 2014 and the following 24th place in the final. In 2015 this increase was stopped.
• Michele Perniola and Anita Simoncini, the participants for the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 , were the youngest duo so far on the ESC stage with a total of 33 years.
• In 2016 , Serhat from Turkey was the first male solo performer for San Marino at the ESC . He was also the only candidate who ran for San Marino who had no connection to the country itself. He returned in 2019 .
• Valentina Monetta has already participated in the competition four times ( 2012 , 2013 , 2014 , 2017 ) and is therefore one of the most frequently returning participants at the ESC.

Impressions

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  Miodio 2008

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  Valentina Monetta 2013

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  Valentina Monetta 2014

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  Michele Perniola & Anita Simoncini 2015

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  Serhat 2016

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  Valentina Monetta & Jimmie Wilson 2017

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  Jessika feat. Jenifer Brening 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.eurofire.me/2017/10/san-marino-die-groe-online-suche-beginnt.html
2. ↑ Jarmo Siim: EBU: San Marino song lyrics in breach of rules. eurovision.tv, March 18, 2012, accessed on May 13, 2014 . 
3. ↑ Dr. Irving Wolther: San Marino sends the youngest ESC duo. Eurovision Song Contest. Retrieved November 20, 2015.