giovanni montalbano 1 in 360 wildcard

The second wildcard for San Marino’s 1 in 360 competition came to an end with a final, frantic rush of votes last night. In the end, Giovanni Montalbano from Italy has claimed the spot, and a guaranteed place in the final ten.

Not much is known about Giovanni, but his YouTube account highlights a number of covers.

But Giovanni’s win comes amidst some claims that a significant amount of “voter fraud” may have tainted the competition.

1 in 360 — Giovanni Montalbano

https://youtu.be/VROAIEk6SBs

Giovanni achieved a staggering 388,712 votes by the end of the second wildcard period. For reference, that’s over 11 times the population of San Marino (as of 2016)!

Perhaps more impressive is that this wave of support for Giovanni seemed to come quite suddenly at the end of voting. As of 13:30 CET on Friday (December 8), Giovanni was outside of the top 19 acts. This meant he had less than 3,263 votes.

Obviously, over 385,000 people suddenly felt compelled to support the otherwise unknown Italian singer, in his quest to represent San Marino.

It’s particularly impressive given other figures. As of 12:30 CET on Monday, December 11, Giovanni’s entry on the 1 in 360 YouTube channel has just under 10,000 views.

1 in 360 responds to “fraud” questions about vote

Giovanni isn’t the only candidate whose numbers shot up towards the end of voting, however. A video uploaded to YouTube shows former wildcard leader Gloria Zaccaria’s votes going up by thousands every time the page is refreshed.

It wouldn’t be surprising to see some contestants get a late surge of votes, especially as the wildcard vote was so close. The sheer numbers involved, however, have led some people to question the validity of the vote.

Before the close of the wildcard period, however, 1 in 360 were already responding to claims of “fraud”. In a statement on their Facebook page, 1 in 360 admitted that some acts had gained “tens of thousands of votes in a short period of time”, and that this “may look suspicious”.

The statement further reads:

“There’s very little we, as organizers, can do to prevent fraud in a free social media vote. Some of the same singers who’ve achieved a large number of votes on our website also garnered tens of thousand of views and/or likes on YouTube. This shows the difficulty of policing the process.

While it’s technically possible to identify multiple votes from the same IP address, it becomes very messy to distinguish legitimate artists from those who, for example, purchase bulk votes from a botnet operator (which is easy to do).

Keep in mind that ultimately we’re looking for the “internet candidate”. Given that, it’s only natural that one wild card should be decided by the internet, with all the good and bad things that this entails. If any of you objects to the results, you’ll have plenty of opportunity to do so during the live shows.

In the meantime, we’d ask that you give all candidates a fair chance.”

And having announced Giovanni as the wildcard winner, it seems 1 in 360 are happy with his result. He joins Fan Club wildcard winner, Emma Sandstrom, as one of the ten finalists moving on.

The third wildcard — guaranteed to be a Sammarinese act — will be revealed soon. Then it’s in the hands of the judges to decide the remaining seven finalists.

What do you think about Giovanni’s victory? Do you think his support can carry him to overall victory? Let us know all your thoughts in the comments section below!

Read more San Marino Eurovision news here

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Beary
Beary
6 years ago

This is a really bad look for 1 In 360 and San Marino but the weird thing is there’s nothing against this in the rules. But the rules don’t really say anything at all!

Jesper
Jesper
6 years ago

This seems so unproffesional! I had and do still have high hopes for a great entry from San Marino, but I really don’t like how the organizers do it. :/

Fayn
Fayn
6 years ago

“…we’re looking for the internet candidate. Given that, it’s only natural that one wild card should be decided by the internet, with all the good and bad things that this entails.” Wow. I was granting 1in360 the benefit of the doubt earlier, but this just confirms that they’re a trash sham.
This is the best San Marino can do? They need to withdraw, they have no place in the contest.

blondboybc
blondboybc
6 years ago

Something smells very fishy with these massive voting results, especially the top 3 acts. 1in360’s excuse justifying the results seems rather pathetic! I mean, come on! Fairness? Nothing fair there. But, it’s too late now. Our second wildcard will face the music (literally) in the upcoming live shows! I’m going to be cheering for the Sanmarinese act or Emma (so far!)

Héctor
Héctor
6 years ago

So they are basically saying they don’t mind the submitted acts rig the voting. I told you there was something wrong with this. Giovanni and other fraud acts should be banned. They are pathetic.

David
David
6 years ago

He estado siguiendo la votacion en todo momento y tanto Gloria Zaccaria como Julian habia veces que en 3 horas no obtenian ningun voto, y de repente obtenian 5000 votos e incluso más. ¿eso como puede ser?. Lo que me lleva a pensar que han hecho trampas, y no se merecen ganar. Sin embargo Miguel Vicente ha obtenido votos progresivamente y sumando de 1 en 1, no como Gloria Zaccaria y Julian que era de 5000 en 5000. creo que esto se deberia investigar y que los descalificaran

Alicia
Alicia
6 years ago
Reply to  David

Tienes toda la razón. Miguel Vicente debería estar dentro , vaya injusticia

1IN360MAFIA
1IN360MAFIA
6 years ago

Wiwibloggs its time for you to be brave! I have been following you for years and I cant believe that the title of this post is only “questions of possible fraud” . Come on it’s so clear! there is not a single doubt here! you have to go all in! Is time to defend Eurovision! Dont let MAFIA STUFF going into this contest! I STRONG TITLE CLAIM NEEDS TO APPEAR HERE!…. Portugal let people see that Eurovision is not a fraud that only can be won by having a lot of neightbours and political connections.. Now its time to SAY… Read more »

Roberto
Roberto
6 years ago
Reply to  1IN360MAFIA

Agree

david
david
6 years ago
Reply to  1IN360MAFIA

no need to shout dear

1in360Fraud
1in360Fraud
6 years ago
Reply to  david

You are the one who pay right David? haha

Miguel
Miguel
6 years ago

It’s Manel Navarro 2017 all over again 😀

Benny
Benny
6 years ago

When are they going to reveal the other selected seven acts?
This voting system has been a huge farce… I mean seriously, who thought this would not have any issues?

So many people have been overlooked…. this national selection already looks in shambles, and we have not heard the songs yet.

1in360fraud
1in360fraud
6 years ago

HERE WE GO! THE FRAUD PROOF
Take a look at the views the “WINNER” had the last day before the FRAUD….https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIC7LhUWs7E

david
david
6 years ago
Reply to  1in360fraud

no need to shout dear

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
6 years ago

It’s an easy fix though, isn’t it? Disqualify the two that used the bots! Simples. Alternatively, call the whole thing void and start a new flash vote. I also agree with “Hada” below – measures could have been put in place to prevent this. The whole “oh there’s not much we can do about fraud because it’s social media” excuse is total rubbish. Also, I disagree that this will be the most talked about selection of the year, especially with the return of France’s selection, Spain’s link with OT, one of the best Slovenia line-ups in recent years… I could… Read more »

Mark
Mark
6 years ago

New Video comes out in the channel… apparently it seems that Miguel Vicente did not cheat. here is what said in the description of the vid: “Since I started to notice that the rest of the top 3 started to buy massive FRAUD VOTES…. I also took a look at what MIGUEL VICENTE was doing. In this video you can see that instead of buying massive votes in a short period of time like the other top 3 – Gloria Zaccaria & Julian (and also the last minute winner Giovanni Montalbano) Miguel Vicente was at all time getting only few… Read more »

Alicia
Alicia
6 years ago
Reply to  Mark

Miguel Should be the winner of this one… the other 3 played an unfair game so that they should be disqualified from this wildcard

Jaccobabe
Jaccobabe
6 years ago
Reply to  Mark

Eh. You think Miguel got 190k votes without cheating? I *really* dont think so…

Amy
Amy
6 years ago
Reply to  Jaccobabe

The question here is how do you think he cheated? Coz the theory here is that he bought votes due to the fact that hacking is not possible because we see clearly that he is increasing votes in a progressive way, not 1000 votes every second as the others. So you think that he has enough money to afford 190K votes which cost thousands of euros?? Do you think he is going to spend thousands euros to be in a pre of little tiny san marino??? Come on …..

Jaccobabe
Jaccobabe
6 years ago
Reply to  Amy

Voting doesnt cost anything. Its free to vote. Maybe he cheated in a different way than the others. Maybe he got 100 friends to vote for him 20 times a day. But I’m almost 100% sure 190000 people didnt vote for him.

laura
laura
6 years ago
Reply to  Jaccobabe

maybe he got 1000 who spend their time voting for him 20 times instead of doing other things… maybe he got 1000 people to prioritize spend their time voting for him… ummm that is called creating fans , isn’t it?

Haaaah
Haaaah
6 years ago

8:00PM: 1 vote
9:00PM: 4 votes
10:00PM: 13 votes
11:00PM: 22 votes
11:59M: 1029403094903 votes

LOL! 😀

Maros
Maros
6 years ago

Ikr, knowing the guilt of cheating hes just gonna sing there…
I hope he gets eliminated first show and i hope the audience (and they have the right) boos at him because he doesnt deserve to be there AT ALL! Hes a CHEATER!

Mark
Mark
6 years ago

I think San Marino has done something absolutely genius. They’ve managed to make their national selection the most talked about this season thus far. The great amount of interest and can only mean they’ll be able to produce something far better than in previous years.

1IN360MAFIA
1IN360MAFIA
6 years ago
Reply to  Mark

Geniuss??? As an Eurovision Fan how can you call it GENIOUSS??? This is a shame! a voting fraud in your face! without hiding nothing and the organization doesn’t care ?? playing with the illusion and money of a lot of people. THE MAFIA IS IN PEOPLE! What Azerbaijan did in 2011 is nothing compared to this. As fans you guys need to back up…this is not only for San Marino, this concerns to EUROVISION…. what would happen if in a football match a country looses 5-0 and suddenly he grab the ball with the hand and scores 6 illegal goals… Read more »

david
david
6 years ago
Reply to  1IN360MAFIA

no need to shout dear 😉

NodikoGEO
NodikoGEO
6 years ago

There were much better options. Anyways, I knew this selection method won’t do anything good. Hopefully they will come up with something nice at the end.

Auld Noerd
Auld Noerd
6 years ago

Would be interesting to know how 1in360 intends to handle televoting / online voting further along in the selection process. This wildcard result was basically an accident waiting to happen as anyone with some technical knowledge should have realized. Hopefully a more reliable system (say a voting app or an 0.25 euro charge/vote with at most x votes per creditcard allowed) can be devised for the voting in rest of the competition.

Hada
Hada
6 years ago

“There’s very little we, as organizers, can do to prevent fraud in a free social media vote”

They could’ve required a login, e-mail verification, Captcha systems. They did none of that. You would assume if someone’s having a worldwide internet contest it’s because they have the means to put at least some security systems in place.

1in360Fraud
1in360Fraud
6 years ago

Min 11:00 …. it stops at 304221 for more than a minute, then starts the FRAUD voting again with 1000 EXACTLY VOTES each time that the page is refreshed.
Till 13:00 …. where the same thing happened…. 308221 and a lot of time with not even a SINGLE vote

david
david
6 years ago
Reply to  1in360Fraud

no need to shout dear 😉

Marvyn
Marvyn
6 years ago

This is disgusting guys !!!!

I support Franklin and Ending sequence to be picked out by the final jury.

Marvyn

ImpressiveInstants
ImpressiveInstants
6 years ago

I wonder where San Marino gets 338k votes from. WHO VOTES? WHO VOTES? LOL

Maros
Maros
6 years ago

Bots vote 😉

Nickc
Nickc
6 years ago

I had such high hopes for this process. I thought it would give micro states a fair chance to succeed. Obviously not. I think they should revamp the procedure, it should be maybe 50 percent jury and 50 percent internet likes.

Wawawe
Wawawe
6 years ago

That statement from a 1in360 is laughable. Giving him a faiir chance? He didn’t play it fair either, why should we?

Jo
Jo
6 years ago

So now he will face the jury and the audience in a selection… I’d be embarrassed.

KESC
KESC
6 years ago

He’s such a cheater. But, guess what, cheating won’t help him on. I’m really pissed of that people, like him, get success, just because they cheat.

I really really hope, he will show his real face in the live shows, and will lose against Emma. I would even pick Anita, but not him.

So may you feel happy these days, but everyone will see your real face, our “winner”! 😉

Jo
Jo
6 years ago
Reply to  KESC

This will probably hurt more than help his career, because the result is “clearly” rigged.

Polegend Godgarina
6 years ago

So, from what we can see in the video Gloria Zaccaria got exactly 1,000 votes every ten seconds. The “winner” probably used the same method. Trash upon trash, I hope the judges will address this like it happened in Latvia last year with the Spotify fraud.