Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  San Marino has published the final versions of the songs competing to represent the tiny nation in the Eurovision song contest 2018 in Lisbon. Recorded in studio and produced instead of the live acoustic ones we have heard so far. Meanwhile the voting procedure seems to change every other day so I'm not even going to keep up anymore. The rules might be changed before I have time to post this anyways, so let's see what's the deal next week. If it even matters in the end. And Irol dropped out of Who we are it being too pop and not fitting into his hip hop genre. Yawn.  Jenifer Brening - Until the morning light Giovanni Montalbano - Per quello che mi dai Franklin Calleja - Stay Sebastian Schmidt - Stay Judah Gavra - Stay Camilla North - Yo no soy tu chica Tinashe Makura - Free yourself Sara de Blue - Out of the twilight Jessika Muscat feat. Jenifer Brening - Who we are Irol feat. Sebastian Schmidt - Sorry Emma Sandström - Diamonds

  San Marino aired tonight the second show recorded in Bratislava, where the artists sung the chosen songs. Some of them were already featured in the first show sung by another artist, and even tonight both Basti and Franklin sung the same song, and not only them btw. And Emma manages to include "rakas" in her song again .-) Now the judges have a task of picking one song for each artist for the final and make studio produced versions of the songs after these live acoustic ones. There's some good material in there and pretty talented singers.  Emma Sandström - Hold On IROL feat. Basti - Sorry Giovanni Montálbano - Immenso blu Basti - Stay Judah Gavra - Moonlight Tinashe Makura - Free Yourself Jessika - Out of the Twilight Sara de Blue - Out of the Twilight Jenifer Brening - Until the Morning Light Franklin Calleja - Stay Camilla North - Yo no soy tu chica Listen to the first show songs

  The Sammarinese affair has been rather complicated to follow, but we have reached the stage of the two pre-recorded shows where the chosen artists sing live and acoustic (the final produced versions will bee heard in the final only) the songs they have created together with other writers in songwriting camp. 1in360 writes in their FB:  "In the interest of transparency and because some of you asked, a few words on how the songs were written: We didn't give the candidtes pre-manufactured songs. Instead we conducted a songwriting camp in Vienna, for which we prepared a few chords and melodies. Our songwriters, producers and the candidates themselves then collaborated to turn them into finished songs. As a result, we've got a lot of songs with multiple songwriters (several have five songwriters). Zoe Straub, one of the judges, actively participated in the camp and has credits on all but two of the songs. The same is true of other members of the 1 in 360 creative tea...

  After three wildcards SMRTV has chosen the other seven eight finalists for the national final selection, and the list includes several national final wannabes in some countries, Malta and Israel at least. Now these more or less raw or experienced talents will have songs written and elected for them and the real business starts. Good luck with that! Irol (San Marino) Sammarinese wild card Emma Sandström (Finland) Fans wild carf Giovanni Montalbano (Italy) Web wild card Camilla North (Norway) Franklin Calleja (Malta) Jenifer Besky (Germany) Jessika Muscat (Malta) Judah Gavra (Israel) Sebastian Schmidt (Germany) Sara de Blue (Austria) Tinashe Makura (Zimbabwe)

  Valentina Monetta has announced in her self ironic way "No, no don't worry it's not me, it's my dear friend... Irol!" He joins Finnish Emma (Fan's choice) and Italian Giovanni Montalbano (Internet's choice) in the final ten. The seven other entries will be chosen by SMRTV and 1in360 among all the submitted wannabes.

The 1in360 selection for the next Eurovision song contest entry for San Marino has reached already 1000 submission from all over the globe. Sammarinese artists have not been very keen on participating to the disappointment of Head of Delegation Alessandro Capicchioni ( read more here ), but as soon as it was announced the third wilcard will be given to a Sammarinese artist they have started submitting entries from Junior Eurovision and Eurovision veteran Anita Simoncini , Eurovision spokesperson Irol , Valentina Monetta collaborataed Mirko Moroncelli and Alessandra Busignani , to add to those three that did it before: Fabrizio Valentini , Alibi and Gianluigi Colucci .  Meanwhile the second wild card voting is on in various OGAE clubs all over Europe. They have a shortlist of 70 lucky ones, including Michele Imberti . 

Yesterday San Mrino RTV's Director General Carlo Romeo, besides giving us details on their artists and participation in the Eurovision song contest 2017, ccommented the fact EBU has not answered or commented in anyway their proposal to solve the televoting problem ( more here  and here ) in the tiny country. No news, and I'm sorry to say so. Not even the good taste or good manners by EBU of an email, yet it was a perfectly sensible proposal that would put an end to a stupid and vicious discrimination against San Marino. To double the annual fee of the Small States however there has been a lot of attention but even colleagues of the Italian subsidiary following this sector hasn't said a thing, I do not say to consult us but only even to tell us the decision beforehand. It's really sad that small states are considered at this level by Ebu. We'll see after Eurovision what to do next. Today EBU has finally responded with a letter to Romeo, rejecting , in...

San Marino has announced its spokesperson for Stockholm. It's Lorenzo Salvatori aka Irol MC, the winner of I talenti dei Castelli 2015, the show that could in theory become the tiny nation's selection show for the Eurovision (maybe). He's no stranger to Eurovision though. In 2014 he was a jury member for Eurovision and in 2015 for the Junior Eurovision. Who knows, maybe he will be on stage someday, ..... We must remember San Marino is treated very unfairly in the new voting system. Not being able to have the televoting they will actually only provide 50% of their votes, while the rest is randomly thrown in by EBU with their own criteria no one seems to know exactly what it is. This detail has also angered SMRTV and time will tell if Stockholm will be their last appearance in the contest. Read more here and here . 

San Marino had its very own talent show this fall and in Tonbola di Natale the winner was out: rapper Irol MC representing San Marino Città, with his Vuoto . The contest was organized by Banca di San Marino, but in the jury we had also Eurovision Head of delegation Alessandro Capicchioni.... which naturally makes you wonder if this could be used also for Eurovision selection, as I already wrote in early November , way before the other sites took a hint of it btw.  Among the nine castles or castelli was also Montegiardino, represented by Anita Simoncini with Simone Giacomini but the well deserved winner is Lorenzo Salvatori aka Irol MC. How would you feel with some Sammarinese rap in Eurovision?