by Guy Solo Comment Closed




Watch live: Tonight at 20:30 CET, the grand final of the San Marino Song Contest 2025 will take place, where the representative and song for San Marino at Eurovision 2025 will be selected. Here’s the link to watch the broadcast.

Tonight at 20:30 CET, the national broadcaster of San Marino, RTV, will hold the final of the “San Marino Song Contest 2025”, where the representative and song for San Marino at Eurovision 2025, to be held in Basel, Switzerland, will be chosen.

In the final tonight, 20 songs from six European countries will compete, 11 of which were selected during the semi-final stages, which took place between February 22 and 28. The remaining nine contestants are categorized as “big artists”, who were revealed at a press conference. The winner will be determined solely by a 100% judge vote (detailed explanation of the voting system is later in the article).

The grand final will be hosted by Flora Canto and Francesco Facchinetti and will be broadcast live on the national broadcaster’s RTV channel. During the evening, there will be guest performances by San Marino’s Eurovision 2021 representative, Senhit, and the queer band La rappresentante di lista, who competed in 2021 and 2022 at the Sanremo Festival, which serves as Italy’s Eurovision selection.

The final will begin at 20:30 CET and is expected to last until 00:00 CET

To watch the San Marino Eurovision selection final – Click here!




Who should we pay attention to tonight?

According to betting agencies, the favorite to win is Gabry Ponte, with odds of 1.10. This means that for every 1 unit of currency bet, a person will receive 1.10 units if he wins. This suggests that he is the front-runner in the competition with a very high chance of winning. Based on the number of YouTube views, there is also a significant gap in favor of the artist, with almost 10 million views and over 4.5 million listens on Spotify.

Far behind, in second place, is Pierdavide Carone with odds of 7.50. His YouTube views stand at around 45,000, with a similar number of Spotify listens. Besa, the Albanian singer, and Teslenko, the Ukrainian singer, both have odds of 50.00, indicating that their chances of winning are very low.

Gabry Ponte – Who Are You?

Gabriele “Gabry” Ponte (born April 20, 1973) is an Italian musician, DJ, and producer, best known as a member of the Italian dance group Eiffel 65. He gained fame in 1998 when he produced the international hit “Blue (Da Ba Dee)”, which topped global charts. His work, both as part of Eiffel 65 and as a solo producer, has made a significant impact on the electronic and dance music genre. In 2005, Ponte announced his departure from Eiffel 65 to pursue a solo career and, in 2006, founded the “Dance and Love” label, which became one of the most important independent dance labels in Italy.

Ponte represented Austria at Eurovision 2022 as a producer and co-writer for the song “Halo”, performed by LUM!X and Pia Maria. In his live performances, Ponte has performed approximately 90 shows across 11 countries, before over 700,000 spectators. He composed and produced the official theme song for the Sanremo Festival 2025, “Tutta l’Italia”, which became a massive hit in Italy. He also performed this song as a guest at the Sanremo Festival this year in an unforgettable performance. Watch the performance here:

 




Familliar Names Among The Finalists:

The list of contestants and songs in the “San Marino Song Contest 2025”:

  1. Bianca Atzei – “Testacoda”
  2. Besa – “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“

Click on the song title to listen!
Exceptionally, not all songs were released for listening before the final.




How Does the Voting System Work?

The judging system for the San Marino Eurovision Selection is divided into three main stages:

Stage 1 – Preliminary Evaluation of Songs (March 4): In this stage, the judges listen to the songs before the live event and evaluate them. Each judge gives two scores for each song: 10 points for artistic quality, and 10 points for Eurovision relevance. Each song can receive a maximum of 20 points at this stage.

Stage 2 – Live Performance (March 8): In this stage, the judges watch the contestants perform the songs on stage. Each judge gives up to 10 points for the live performance of the song, considering how well the song is performed, the artist’s stage presence, their charisma, and whether the performance looks like it could succeed at Eurovision.

Stage 3 – Final Score Calculation: After the judges assign scores in the previous stages, the scores from each stage (20 points from the preliminary evaluation and 10 points from the live performance) are added up. Each judge gives a total of 30 points for each artist – 20 from the preliminary evaluation and 10 from the live performance. Additionally, the artistic director of the competition can award a 10-point bonus to one song based on their personal evaluation of the overall quality of the song and performance. The final rankings are then determined by the combined scores and bonuses.

The Judges of the San Marino Eurovision Selection

The jury panel consists of five members, three of whom are chosen by San Marino RTV, one by the Secretary of State, and one by Media Evolution, the company producing the event. The judges are:

  • Luca De Gennaro (Head of the Jury) – Italian music critic, DJ, and radio host.
  • Roberto Sergio – General Director of San Marino RTV.
  • Federica Gentile – TV and radio host and author.
  • Mario Andrea Ettorre – Marketing Director at SIAE (the Italian copyright management organization).
  • Ema Stokholma – Author and TV and radio host.




What Is the Relationship Between San Marino and Italy?

San Marino is a tiny landlocked country located entirely within Italy, and thus has close economic and cultural ties with the surrounding country. The national broadcaster of San Marino, San Marino RTV, broadcasts content in multiple languages, including Italian, and provides television and radio services to the citizens of San Marino. Since San Marino is a small country, its broadcaster collaborates with the Italian national broadcaster, RAI. The collaboration between the two broadcasters includes shared content, joint participation in TV events, and professional guidance in various aspects of program production. This connection enables San Marino to produce and distribute high-quality content and participate in international events like Eurovision.




San Marino Song Contest – All the Details

The San Marino Eurovision national selection will be held on March 8th 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.

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.

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

The semi-finals are hosted by Flora Canto and Francesco Facchinetti and are broadcast live on the public channel RTV. A total of 20 artists will compete for the honor of representing San Marino at Eurovision 2025. Among them, nine prequalified “Big Artists” who were revealed yesterday, while the remaining 11 contestants will be selected through the semi-finals, which run from February 22nd to February 28th.

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 one contestant will advance to the final, took place on Saturday, February 22nd.
– Second Semi-Final: Dedicated to artists from outside San Marino, from which one contestant will advance to the final, took place on Sunday, February 23rd.
– Third Semi-Final: Dedicated to artists from outside San Marino, from which one contestant will advance to the final, took place on Tuesday, February 25th.
– Fourth Semi-Final: Dedicated to artists from outside San Marino, from which one contestant will advance to the final, took place on Tuesday, February 25th.
– Fifth Semi-Final: Dedicated to artists from outside San Marino, from which one contestant will advance to the final, will take place tonight, February 26th.
– Sixth Semi-Final: Dedicated to artists from outside San Marino, from which one contestant will advance to the final, will take place on Thursday, February 27th.
– Seventh Semi-Final: The first part dedicated only to local artists from which one contestant will advance, the second part dedicated to the “second chance” stage, from which four more contestants will advance, took place on Friday, February 28th.
– The Grand Final will take place on tonight, March 8th, 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: sanmarinortv, sanmarinortv, sisal

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” .