Back in April, the Sammarinese Secretariat of State for Tourism revealed that ‘Una voce per San Marino’ will select the San Marinese representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2022. In June, more details of the duration of the selection were released. Now, San Marino RTV have released further details of the format of the selection.
According to a press release on Eurovision.tv, Una Voca Per San Marino will encourage entrants to compete in one of two categories: ‘emerging’ or ‘established’ acts. Established artists will be invited by festival organisers. However, emerging artists will compete via a series of preliminaries between 13 – 19 December 2021 and from 5 – 11 January 2022 at the Titano Theatre.
‘Further selections’ will also take place in February 2022, with no restrictions on citizenship or language. Each stage will be filmed for Aspettando il Festival – Una Voce per San Marino, however, it has not been stated if every stage will be broadcast live.
The Grand Final (scheduled for Saturday 19 February) will see 18 artists (9 established, 9 emerging) compete for the ticket to Eurovision 2022. A jury of experts has been confirmed, however, it is not known if there will be a televote component. Second and third place will also be awarded, similar to Albania’s Festivali i Këngës.
The logo for the festival is below:
To date, San Marino has only held a national selection once before. Back in 2018, 1in360 was used to select both the nation’s representative and entry. It was open to singers from across the globe and culminated in a live final from Bratislava, Slovakia, eventually won by Jessika and Jenifer Brening with “Who We Are”.
San Marino at the Eurovision Song Contest
San Marino made its debut in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2008. Since first participation in the Eurovision the country has made it to the Grand Final twice: in 2014, when Valentina Monetta took to the stage for third time in a row with the song Maybe (Forse), and in 2019, when Serhat performed Say Na Na Na in Tel Aviv.
In 2020 it was announced that Senhit was going to represent San Marino with her song “Freaky”. The entry was selected by the online voting. She is no stranger to the contest since she had already performed “Stand By” for her country in 2011. As the Eurovision 2020 didn’t take place due to the pandemic, the San Marino RTV confirmed Senhit as their 2021 representative, later releasing their entry “Adrenalina” in March.
Senhit (alongside Flo Rida) brought San Marino their second qualification in a row, finishing 22nd with 50 points. This marked San Marino’s third qualification overall, and their second-highest placing.
Are you looking forward to ‘Una voce per San Marino’? Let us know! Be sure to stay updated by following @ESCXTRA on Twitter, @escxtra on Instagram and liking our Facebook page for the latest updates! Also, be sure to follow us on Spotify and YouTube to see our reactions to the news in the run up to the 2022 national final season!
