San Marino in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017

San Marino participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the song "Spirit of the Night" written by Ralph Siegel, Jutta Staudenmayer and Steven Barnacle. The song was performed by Sammarinese singer Valentina Monetta and American singer Jimmie Wilson, who were internally selected by the Sammarinese broadcaster San Marino RTV (SMRTV) to represent the nation in the 2017 contest in Kiev, Ukraine. Valentina Monetta and Jimmie Wilson were internally selected on 12 March 2017, while the song, "Spirit of the Night", was presented to the public on the same day.

Eurovision Song Contest 2017
Country	San Marino
National selection
Selection process	Internal selection
Selection date(s)	12 March 2017
Selected entrant	Valentina Monetta & Jimmie Wilson
Selected song	"Spirit of the Night"
Selected songwriter(s)	Ralph Siegel Jutta Staudenmayer Steven Barnacle
Finals performance
Semi-final result	Failed to qualify (18th, 1 point)
San Marino in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2016 • 2017 • 2018►

San Marino was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 11 May 2017. Performing during the show in position 10, "Spirit of the Night" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final.

Background

Main article: San Marino in the Eurovision Song Contest

Prior to the 2017 contest, San Marino had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest seven times since its first entry in 2008.[1] Their debut entry in 2008, "Complice" performed by Miodio, failed to qualify to the final and placed last in the semi-final it competed in. San Marino subsequently withdrew from the contest in 2009 and 2010, returning in 2011 with Italian singer Senit performing "Stand By", which also failed to take the nation to the final. Between 2012 and 2014, San Marino sent Valentina Monetta to the contest on three consecutive occasions, which made her the first singer to participate in three consecutive contests since Udo Jürgens, who competed in 1964, 1965 and 1966 for Austria. Her entries in 2012 ("The Social Network Song") and 2013 ("Crisalide (Vola)") also failed to qualify San Marino to the final. However, in 2014, Monetta managed to bring San Marino to the final for the first time where she placed 24th with the song "Maybe". In 2015, the nation once again failed to qualify to the final with the song "Chain of Lights" performed by Anita Simoncini and Michele Perniola. In 2016, San Marino failed to qualify with "I Didn't Know" sung by Turkish performer Serhat.

The Sammarinese national broadcaster, San Marino RTV (SMRTV), broadcasts the event within San Marino and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. SMRTV confirmed San Marino's participation at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest on 12 March 2017.[2] All of San Marino's entries at the Eurovision Song Contest have, to this point, been selected via internal selection, a procedure which the broadcaster opted for once again to select their 2017 entry.[2]

Before Eurovision

Internal selection

On 12 March 2017, SMRTV held a press conference at SMRTV studios where they announced that they had internally selected Valentina Monetta and Jimmie Wilson with their song "Spirit of the Night".[2][3] This was Valentina Monetta's fourth participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. Between 2012 and 2014, she was sent to represent her country in the contest on three consecutive occasions, which made her the first singer to participate in three consecutive contests since Udo Jürgens, who competed in 1964, 1965 and 1966 for Austria. Her entries in 2012 ("The Social Network Song") and 2013 ("Crisalide (Vola)") also failed to qualify San Marino to the final. However, in 2014, Monetta managed to bring San Marino to the final for the first time where she placed 24th with the song "Maybe".

Promotion

Valentina Monetta and Jimmie Wilson made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Spirit of the Night" as the Sammarinese Eurovision entry. Between 3 and 6 April, they took part in promotional activities in Tel Aviv, Israel where they performed during the Israel Calling event held at the Ha'teatron venue.[4][5] On 8 April, they performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Selma Björnsdóttir.[6] On 15 April, they performed during the Eurovision Spain Pre-Party, which was held at the Sala La Riviera venue in Madrid, Spain.[7]

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot.[8] On 31 January 2017, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. San Marino was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 11 May 2017, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.[9]

Once all the competing songs for the 2017 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Originally, San Marino was set to perform in position 11, following the entry from Ireland and before the entry from Croatia.[10] However, following Russia's withdrawal from the contest on 13 April and subsequent removal from the running order of the second semi-final, San Marino's performing position shifted to 10.[11]

The two semi-finals and the final will be broadcast in San Marino on SMtv San Marino and Radio San Marino with commentary by Lia Fiorio and Gigi Restivo. The Sammarinese spokespersons, who will announce the top 12-point score awarded by the Sammarinese jury during the final, will be also Lia Fiorio and Gigi Restivo.[12]

Points awarded to San Marino

Points awarded to San Marino (Semi-final 2)
Televote
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
				Germany
Jury
San Marino did not receive any jury points in the semi-final.

Points awarded by San Marino

Semi-final 2 Score Televote Jury 12 points  Bulgaria  Netherlands 10 points  Hungary  Norway 8 points  Romania  Bulgaria 7 points  Israel  Austria 6 points  Croatia  Lithuania 5 points   Switzerland  Denmark 4 points  Macedonia  Croatia 3 points  Netherlands  Hungary 2 points  Ireland  Serbia 1 point  Austria  Malta

Final Score Televote Jury 12 points  Bulgaria  Portugal 10 points  Italy  Norway 8 points  Moldova  Belgium 7 points  Portugal  Netherlands 6 points  Romania  United Kingdom 5 points  Belgium  Azerbaijan 4 points  Hungary  Armenia 3 points  Croatia  Italy 2 points  Sweden  Bulgaria 1 point  Azerbaijan  Poland

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Sammarinese jury: [13]

• Fabrizio Raggi – Chairperson – artist
• Roberto Fabbri – guitarist
• Monica Sarti – soprano singer
• Doriano Pazzini – singer, guitarist
• Susanna Sacchi – singer

Split voting results from San Marino (Semi-final 2)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		F. Raggi	R. Fabbri	M. Sarti	D. Pazzini	S. Sacchi	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Serbia	5	7	16	12	6	9	2	13
02	Austria	2	13	3	8	4	4	7	10	1
03	Macedonia	6	12	15	17	5	12		7	4
04	Malta	12	8	11	3	14	10	1	16
05	Romania	16	17	9	10	13	15		3	8
06	Netherlands	1	10	1	1	3	1	12	8	3
07	Hungary	10	6	7	7	15	8	3	2	10
08	Denmark	11	2	5	2	12	6	5	15
09	Ireland	17	11	6	15	10	13		9	2
10	San Marino
11	Croatia	9	4	12	6	8	7	4	5	6
12	Norway	4	1	2	11	1	2	10	12
13	Switzerland	15	14	8	14	9	14		6	5
14	Belarus	14	9	10	9	11	11		14
15	Bulgaria	3	5	4	4	7	3	8	1	12
16	Lithuania	8	3	13	5	2	5	6	17
17	Estonia	13	16	14	16	17	17		11
18	Israel	7	15	17	13	16	16		4	7

Split voting results from San Marino (final)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		F. Raggi	M. Sarti	D. Pazzini	S. Sacchi	E. Conti	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Israel	19	23	23	20	26	24		15
02	Poland	8	14	13	11	9	10	1	18
03	Belarus	26	21	6	26	10	21		17
04	Austria	10	8	11	13	13	11		20
05	Armenia	20	9	4	5	5	7	4	19
06	Netherlands	6	5	3	10	6	4	7	14
07	Moldova	23	13	19	2	16	14		3	8
08	Hungary	13	11	17	23	22	20		7	4
09	Italy	1	10	21	4	8	8	3	2	10
10	Denmark	21	15	12	19	18	18		16
11	Portugal	2	1	1	6	1	1	12	4	7
12	Azerbaijan	16	4	8	9	4	6	5	10	1
13	Croatia	17	22	14	24	25	22		8	3
14	Australia	9	16	22	15	17	16		24
15	Greece	12	20	5	18	14	13		23
16	Spain	22	25	26	17	24	25		25
17	Norway	5	3	16	1	2	2	10	21
18	United Kingdom	4	2	2	7	19	5	6	12
19	Cyprus	24	19	25	25	23	26		22
20	Romania	25	17	15	22	7	19		5	6
21	Germany	14	24	24	12	11	17		26
22	Ukraine	11	18	20	3	12	12		11
23	Belgium	3	7	9	8	3	3	8	6	5
24	Sweden	18	26	18	21	21	23		9	2
25	Bulgaria	7	6	7	14	15	9	2	1	12
26	France	15	12	10	16	20	15		13

References

1. "San Marino Country Profile". EBU. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
2. Granger, Anthony (12 March 2017). "San Marino song and artist reveal at 18:00 CET". eurovoix.com. Eurovoix. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
3. Granger, Anthony (12 March 2017). "San Marino Valentina Monetta & Jimmie Wilson to Eurovision 2017". eurovoix.com. Eurovoix. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
4. Kavaler, Ron (22 March 2017). "ISRAEL CALLING! EUROVISION PROMO EVENT SET FOR APRIL 3 TO 6". wiwibloggs.com. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
5. Laufer, Gil (5 April 2017). "Tonight: Israel Calling 2017 to be held with 28 participating countries". esctoday.com. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
6. Jordan, Paul (29 March 2017). "Eurovision in Concert sets a new record with 33 acts". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
7. Fuster, Luis (1 April 2017). "MADRID CALLING! 19 ACTS WILL TAKE PART IN EUROVISION SPAIN PRE-PARTY". wiwibloggs.com. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
8. Jordan, Paul (25 January 2017). "Semi-Final Allocation draw to take place in Kyiv". eurovision.tv. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
9. Jordan, Paul (31 January 2017). "Results of the Semi-Final Allocation Draw". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
10. Jordan, Paul (31 March 2017). "Semi-Final running order for Eurovision 2017 revealed". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
11. "EBU: "Russia no longer able to take part in Eurovision 2017"". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. 22 April 2016. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
12. Granger, Anthony (22 March 2017). "San Marino: Lia Fiorio & Gigi Restivo Announced as Commentators & Spokespersons". Eurovoix. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
13. Jordan, Paul (29 April 2017). "Who will be the expert jurors for Eurovision 2017?". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 3 May 2017.