Alessandro
Capicchioni, the Sammarinese Head of Delegation concludes the round of interviews with San Marino team. What kind of ideas San Marino has for hosting the contest should they win? Who he would like to represent them? Why they don't have a big Italian artists representing them? And who was the one who tried? What do Georgian drivers do with promo material? Read it all here:
Alessandro, back in
Eurovision again. With the same team but a completely different
response by the fans. How does it feel?
Well, it feels very
good indeed.
How scared are you
that you will do very well this year?
It's too early for
real worries. I mean, if we win our semifinal and during the final we
have 100 points more than the second and only three countries left to
vote, well, then I would start to worry. But seriously, we're such a
small country and everything is twice harder for us than for a
regualar one. This success among fans may, and I say may, help us to
get to the final.
Are you in the
contest to win or would you prefer ”only” 2nd place
like Iceland in 2009 in the middle of the economical crisis?
I love second
places! We're not in a crisis, it's Italy, and they try to screw us!
:)
If San Marino
should win, what would happen? That must have crossed your mind, at
some point. Would the contest go to Italy instead?
Well, all
possibilities are open. We would have a serious problem in terms of
infrastructures and number of hotel rooms. And the TV hasn't got
enough people to take care of the event, true. But we could think of
an open air structure, or hire some of the thousands hotel in Rimini,
which is only 15 km far from here. But what about a yacht where all
delegations could stay, anchored 200mt from the beach, shuttle boats
every 15 mins for all the press and fans that would stay on the shore
instead?
In the presentation
show you seemed hesitant about Crisalide staying in Italian. Why was
that? Don't you think Italian will work better than English?
Foreigners love the Italian langauge and fans have been asking for an
Italian song for years.....
True, all my doubts
slipped away during these weeks.
How important it is
to you to have a Sammarinese artist?
Our country is
based on a strong feeling of being 'Sammarinese'. That permitted us
to stay indipendent from Italy throughout the centuries and this
feeling is somehow left in San Marino. We will try to have
Sammarinese artists everytime we can.
Would you like to
have a fully Sammarinese team next year? Or could there be one? Even
Miodio was partly Italian, wasn't it?
The band Miodio was
formed by two Sammarinese and three Italian boys, while the
management was from Rome. Right now I think it's impossible to have a
fully Sammarinese participation because we do not have strong
production companies nor managements in the country. This year we
have a record: stage made up of Sammarinese artists, video shooted in
our TV studios, art direction by a young Sammarinese artist...who
could ask more?
In the past the
ministates like Monaco and Luxembourg usually ”hired” singers
abroad, mostly France, to represent them in the Eurovision. Why hasn't
San Marino taken this easy way out taking some big Italian name with
fame in Europe, names like Paola & Chiara, Alexia, Giorgia come
to mind.....
We had an even
bigger Italian name among the proposals we received but the fact is
that Italian music industry is quite old fashioned for the ESC and
they don't seem to be in tune with the needs of such a big European
contest. Things are slowly changing, nevertheless.
If you could get
anyone you wanted to sing for San Marino, who would it be? A dream
artist?
U2 :)
You are already an
Eurovision veteran, so to speak. How demanding is the work as HoD? Do
you have time to enjoy your time in the contest or is it run run run
all the time?
Most of the time
you have no time, yes it's run run run all the time. You have rare
moments in which you enjoy what you're doing, meeting some 'old'
friends, gaining new European collaborations, recalling same good
experiences of the previous years. I will relax a bit in Malmo,
probably.
What is your
happiest moment in Eurovision as HoD?
The 2011 promo tour
in half Europe, 11 countries, and the discovery of the Caucasus
countries where I never was before, their cities, their habits, their
outstanding hospitality.
And the funniest?
Well, back in 2011
again, Tblisi-Yerevan by car, hired driver who could only Georgian
and...Russian, which are languages we are not typically keen of here
in southern Europe. We let a bag with all the promo material in the
car and when we're back we find that he threw everything away,
thinking it was rubbish. Big discussion, first English-Russian then
switched into Italian-Russian, considering that the result was the
same: total incomprehension. Then silence during the 5 hours of
return trip to Tblisi. Once back to the hotel the driver explodes in
a 15 mins long apology in Georgian with the reception host. That was
funny.
Is there something
you would have done differently in the past participations if you
could turn back the time?
I would have pushed
more the TV for the JESC in 2011.
Back to present. Is
everything ready for Malmö 2013?
No, of course, it's
never ready but we'll be in Malmo with a very good staging, I think.
Why should my
readers vote for San Marino on May 16?
Well, if you like
the song and the singer, just vote it!
Thank you
Alessandro for the interview.
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