by Tal Dahan Comment Closed




San Marino’s national broadcaster, SMRTV, has revealed the nine big artists who secured their place in the local Eurovision national final. Along with 11 artists who advanced directly from the semi-finals held this week, who are the twenty finalists and what familiar names can be found on the list?

San Marino’s national broadcaster, SMRTV, recently announced nine big artists who have been guaranteed places in the local Eurovision national final – “San Marino Song Contest 2025”. The announcement took place at a press conference held at the Italian national broadcaster RAI’s offices in Rome, at the Palazzo della Radio. From the semi-finals held over the past week, 11 additional artists advanced to the final, bringing the total number of participants in the grand final to 20 artists and songs. The winner of “San Marino Song Contest 2025” will perform their song on May 13th, in the second part of the first semi-final of Eurovision 2025, which will take place in Basel, Switzerland.




The 20 Finalists Competing in “San Marino Song Contest 2025”:

  1. Bianca Atzei – “Testacoda”
  2. Besa – “Tiki Tiki”
  3. Boosta – “BTW”
  4. Vincenzo Capua – “Sei sempre tu”
  5. Pierdavide Carona – “Mi vuoi sposare?”
  6. Marco Carta – “Solo fantasia”
  7. Luisa Corna – “Il giorno giusto”
  8. Curli – “Juliet“
  9. Elasti – “Lorella”
  10. Haymara – “Tomane las manos”
  11. King Foo – “The Edge of the world“
  12. Paco – “Until the end”
  13. Gabry Ponte – “Tutta l’Italia“
  14. Questo e Quello – “Bella Balla”
  15. Silvia Salemi – “Coralli”
  16. Angy Sciacqua – “I”
  17. Taoma – “NPC”
  18. Teslenko – “Storm“
  19. The Rumpled – “You Get Me So High”
  20. Giacomo Voli – “Ave Maria”

Familliar Names Among The Finalists:

Bianca Atzei – Competed in the Italian San Remo Festival (which serves as the Eurovision national selection) in 2015 with “Il solo al mondo“, reaching 14th place, and in 2017 with “Ora esisti solo tu“, finishing ninth.

Besa – Competed in Eurovision 2024 for Albania with the song “Titan” and did not qualify for the final, placing 15th in the second semi-final. She has also participated many times in the past in the Albanian national selection and even participated in the Moldovan national selection in 2009, not advancing to the final with the song “Nothing Gonna Change“.

King Foo – A band that participated in the Slovenian national selection in 2017 with the song “Wild Ride“, reaching seventh place, and in 2018 with “Žive sanje“, not advancing to the final.

Gabry Ponte – The official musical theme of the San Remo Festival 2025, “Tutta l’Italia“, was performed and composed by the singer and became a hit in Italy. This is the song he will compete with in the San Marino national selection. Ponte also appeared as a guest with this song at the San Remo Festival this year.

Silvia Salemi – Competed in San Remo 1997 with the song “A casa di Luca“, reaching fourth place.

Angy Sciacqua – Competed together with Rafa Ela in Luxembourg’s national selection in 2024 with the song “Drop“, reaching fifth place.

Teslenko – The Ukrainian singer who withdrew from competing in the Ukrainian national selection, “Vidbir 2025”, due to an internal Ukrainian political dispute. He will try his luck with the same song.




Controversy Surrounds “San Marino Song Contest 2025”

“San Marino Song Contest 2025” will be broadcast on March 8th amid claims of lack of transparency and problematic management. As reported, several well-known singers have announced their withdrawal from San Marino’s national selections, raising further questions about the management and transparency of the local preliminaries.

In total, 13 contestants withdrew from “San Marino Song Contest 2025” and 10 other contestants entered in their place.

Third semi final:

  • withdrawn: Carlotta, EMHEART
  • added: Cucco, Ermal Demiri

Fourth semi final:

  • withdrawn: Maddalena, Magadan, nina blom, Nexis
  • added: D’Amico, Mansutti, RUMORE, SIDE74

Fifth semi final:

  • withdrawn: Elektrokarma, Gerónimo Rauch, Serafin Zubiri
  • added: Agata, Niscetas, Pep Miller

Sixth semi final:

  • withdrawn: Atle Pettersen, GRISANA, Matilde, Nush Unbrushed
  • added: Sola Avis

Among the prominent contestants who withdrew

  • Serafin Zubiri – Spain’s representative at Eurovision 1992 with the song “Todo Esto Es La Música” (translated as: “All This is Music”) who finished 14th in the grand final. Zubiri was also chosen to represent Spain in Eurovision 2000 with the song “Colgado de un sueño” (translated as: “Hanging from a Dream”) where he finished 18th in the grand final.
  • Grisana – The Ukrainian singer who competed for the tenth place in the Ukrainian pre-Eurovision, “Vidbir 2025”, and was ultimately not chosen by the audience.




Changes in Contest Format

This year, the organizers decided to introduce changes to the contest format, including a new voting system that ensures greater transparency and objectivity. Massimo Bonelli, the artistic director, expressed a desire to improve credibility and transparency in the voting process. According to the new plan, judges will be required to publish their votes publicly, a practice not previously done. Additionally, Bonelli will have the opportunity to award up to 10 bonus points to any artist he feels deserves it, while maintaining equal opportunities for all competitors.




San Marino Song Contest – All the Details

The San Marino Eurovision national selection will be held on March 8 under the new name “San Marino Song Contest”. The first stage of San Marino’s preliminary includes registration for the contest and the “casting” stage, in which 80 contestants will be chosen to proceed to the Semi-Finals spread across seven regular Semi-Finals, an additional Semi-Final for local artists, and a “second chance” Semi-Final. From the Semi-Finals, 11 artists will advance to the final, with the winner chosen by a panel that includes five judges.

We note that there is one contestant who has already won a direct entry ticket to the first Semi-Final of the San Marino Eurovision Preliminary; she is Justine Mayer from France, who won the “Tour Music Fest” held in San Marino on Sunday, December 1, 2024. As part of her victory, the winner was guaranteed a ticket to compete in the first Semi-Final, bypassing the audition stage.

The grand finale of the “San Marino Song Contest” was initially scheduled for February 22, was postponed by a day to February 23, and was delayed again to March 8, so it will compete with other countries broadcasting their preliminaries on the same date, like Sweden and Portugal.

Here’s the complete list of performance dates for the San Marino Eurovision pre-selection “San Marino Song Contest!”:

– First Semi-Final: Dedicated to artists from outside San Marino, from which two contestants advanced to the final.
– Second Semi-Final: Dedicated to artists from outside San Marino, from which two contestants advanced to the final.
– Third Semi-Final: Dedicated to artists from outside San Marino, from which two contestants advanced to the final.
– Fourth Semi-Final: Dedicated to artists from outside San Marino, from which two contestants advanced to the final.
– Fifth Semi-Final: Dedicated to artists from outside San Marino, from which two contestants advanced to the final.
– Sixth Semi-Final: Dedicated to artists from outside San Marino, from which two contestants advanced to the final.
– Seventh Semi-Final: The first part dedicated only to local artists from which one contestant advanced, the second part dedicated to the “second chance” stage, from which two more contestants advanced.
– The grand final will take place on Saturday, March 8, where the winner will receive the coveted ticket to Basel, Switzerland, and represent San Marino at Eurovision 2025.




San Marino in Eurovision 2024:

“11:11” is the name of the song performed by the band Megara, which represented San Marino at the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 held in Malmö, Sweden. The band participated in the second semi-final of Eurovision 2024 but did not advance to the grand final, finishing in 14th place in the semi-final with only 16 points, 10 of which came from Spain.

Source: San Marino RTV.

Eurovision 2025: This will be San Marino’s 15th participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. San Marino joined the competition in 2008 and achieved its best result in Eurovision 2019 when the singer Serhat finished in 19th place with the song “Say Na Na Na” .