Nine different nationalities present in San Marino’s national final

San Marino has revealed the full list of participants for its national final. Eleven artists will take part, who together possess no less than nine different nationalities. Only one of the participants comes from San Marino.

Broadcaster SMRTV had previously revealed three wildcard participants. Among the eight acts now added to the list are several previous preselection participants, including Franklin Calleja and Jessika Muscat from Malta, and Judah Gavra from Israel.

San Marino ‘s national Eurovision selection participants:

  • Emma Sandström (Finland)
  • Giovanni Montalbano (Italy)
  • Irol (San Marino)
  • Camilla North (Norway)
  • Franklin C​alleja (Malta)
  • Jenifer Besky (Germany)
  • Jessika M​uscat (Malta)
  • Judah Gavra (Israel)
  • Sebastian Schmidt (Germany)
  • ​Sara de Blue (Austria)
  • Tinashe Makura (Zimbabwe)

In recent years, San Marino went for an internal selection to pick their act for Eurovision. Now they came up with a new strategy. For San Marino it is a struggle to take part at the Eurovision Song Contest each year. It makes sense, that the delegation from the microstate is looking a bit envious at the bigger countries with big productions, like Russia.

Capicchioni: “Very difficult for small countries to do Eurovision”

Towards ESCDaily, Alessandro Capicchioni, the Head of Delegation from San Marino explains the financial difficulties for a small nation to take part: “It is very difficult. When you consider that we have only a hundred employees, and how many people are working on Eurovision alone from SVT… The budget of Eurovision is also bigger than our whole tv budget. So you can understand that the numbers don’t fit the word ‘easy’”

The only way that San Marino can take part is if someone like Ralph Siegel or Serhat steps in, the delegation explained in 2016. But now they found another way to be able to take part and still cover most of the expenses. “We always look for sponsors and participate in the most economical way,” says Capicchioni. “Russia has a great production, but we can not afford that. The EBU can not help any more than giving all countries the same chances. Of course, it is a balance of power, the big countries have more to say at the table. But the EBU is able to keep all countries of Europe under one roof. A political struggle, but also something very huge in terms or organisation, also for small countries like San Marino.”