It’s been less than 24 hours since Valentina Monetta presented her official video to “Crisalide” and Wiwi is still shaking. Our readers are already describing it as “the song of the year” on our discussion post, and we totally share their enthusiasm.

SMRTV conducted several interviews last night as part of its presentation show. You can watch the replay in two parts below. But wiwibloggs has pulled out some of our favorite quotes from Valentina, Fabrizio Raggi (the artistic director working with her), composer Ralph Siegel and lyricist Mauro Balestri.  The basic story line of last night was that Valentina has grown a lot as an artist over the past year, that the song is the perfect fit for her and that last year’s song wasn’t meant for Valentina, who was dropped into the contest at the last minute. Here are some of the choice lines from last night.

Valentina Monetta

“Transforming oneself is wonderful, respecting yourself, your nature and your talent. It’s necessary. I needed to recover from all the things that happened last year. I am so happy to work with the same production [team] again.

On why she takes a deep breath before performing: “It’s the breath of life. Breathing is so simple, so natural, but more and more unusual. We artists need it to focus, to remember. To have better self awareness. To feel inside of ourselves and communicate. It’s my starting point before every show.”

On composter Ralph Siegel: “He’s like a second father somehow.”

Is she nervous to be coming back to Eurovision a second time? Isn’t that dangerous? “It’s not really a challenge. It’s a way of growing. And I live with a different energy—more pragmatic, with more self-awareness. In the song I talk about my feelings—not only mine, but about the crisis that every artist may live with about our self awareness. I don’t care what people will say about my change. I just want to be myself. And I want to be as professional as possible. Giving all I can and being artistically true even though it’s a contest. Music is not a challenge for me. I want to be professional and have fun as I always have when I sing.”

Does she feel a responsibility to improve upon her 14th place finish in the semi-finals last year? “I’d love to make a better result than last year. Our aim is to reach the final. But I’m happy anyway because we’ve been able to give the song a powerful image.”

PR guy from San Marino

“Valentina is and talented needed a song especially written for her. We all know that last year Valentina was called at the very last moment but she joined the project immediately and she did everything necessary in a very short time. This year the project has been created especially for her.”

Fabrizio Raggi

A real lady always makes sure that her shoes match her laptop.

“We have known each other for long time. In the last year I learned about Valentina as an artist, and I was ready to elaborate the drama of her life. What I felt was necessary to stage her artistic path. “Crisalide” is such a beautiful song. And immediately after listening to the song I thought it’s perfect for her. Because it tells Valentina’s story too.”

“Valentina often touched me during the shows we did together when she looks into her soul, her story. She becomes a complete artist. Therefore when I listed to “Crisalide” I figured out how she should have been.”

“And this video represents her so well. First she’s a very beautiful woman. Then we have the red, the veils, we used a thick velvet cloth which is also very elegant and the light bowl is inside of her and a certain point we see her in the wind with a red dress, singing freely. And it seems she’s saying, ‘Believe in yourself, respect yourself and love yourself.’ We know how resolute she can be. Though [last year’s song] was far from her style, on stage Valentina was like a tiger.”

Mauro Balestri

“Ralph Siegel told me about a Sammarinese singer with whom he already worked last year. I accepted because I knew that Ralph was sure about Valentina’s talent. So I listened to Valentina’s songs and style I immediately realized that we were dealing with a real singer not only one with a beautiful voice, but also a very big heart.”

“I wrote all the lyrics in just a morning and he loved the idea of a chrysalis.”

Ralph Siegel

“You’re one of the best singers I’ve worked with and I feel very honoured to work with you. The first one we did together was not meant for you and now I strongly believe in this. Especially after seeing your performances in San Marino last summer, and that was the beginning of our song. Sometimes you need to be lucky and my luck is to have a friend like Mauro Balestri.”

“Our hearts wrote it for you and the idea of a chrysalis represents you! And we hope you’ll be flying in the hearts of millions of people.”

Presentation show

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Jamie in Belgium
Jamie in Belgium
10 years ago

SAN MARINOOOOOO! LOVE IT!!

yaacov
yaacov
10 years ago

hello my friends in san mrino
my name is yaacov and i am from israel
i love the song crusalide
i hope valentina wins the contest
this song it is amazing and valentina has a magical voice
many years i didnt hear such a song and such a voice
from now on i am a big fan of valentina
also i want to say italian the most beautiful language on this earth
i will vote for san marino and i hope millions will do the same

best wishes from israel
yaacov

Vlad
Vlad
11 years ago

As much as I didn’t like the last year’s entry, I think “Crusalide” is one of the best songs this year. One of my top five songs. Hope it stays in Italian.