The smallest country taking part in Eurovision 2023 is not intimidated. San Marino is back with its national selection Una Voce per San Marino and have now revealed their 106 (!) semi finalists… Right before the show starts tonight.
Broadcaster SMRTV already teasted another extravagant selection process for this year’s Eurovision. After the application period closed in late January, they invited over 1,000 acts to the casting stage. The lucky 106 semi finalists have now been selected. They include not only those who survived the casting round, but also some more established artists, some of whom you will definitely recognise. All of the shows have already been recorded and will be broadcast on delay.
San Marino’s semi finalists (Singers’ native country in brackets)
Semi-Final 1 – February 20
Acousticouple (Italy)
Alabaster (Italy)
Alessandro Coli (Italy)
Alfie Arcuri (Australia)
Andry I (Italy)
Angel Dell (Finland)
ARIA (Italy)
Aristea (Italy)
Atwood (Italy)
Blonde Brothers (Italy)
Brandon Parasole (Spain)
Camilla (Italy)
Camille Cabaltera (Italy)
Christina (Italy)
CHRISTOPHER (Germany)
Ciro De Luca (Romania)
Con Amore (United Kingdom)
Daniel Schuhmacher (Germany)
Daudia (Italy)
Deborah Iurato (Italy)
Deshedus (Italy)
DƏVA (Italy)
Dionysian (Italy)
DramaLove (United Kingdom)
E.E.F. (Italy)
Edoardo Brogi (Italy)
Semi-Final 2 – February 21
EIFFEL 65 (Italy)
Eleonora Alì (Italy)
Ellynora (Italy)
Erna Hrönn (Iceland)
Ferrán Faba (Spain)
FLEXX (Eliza G_Saintpaul_D.D.S._Palmè) (Italy)
FLORIN RADUTA (Belgium)
Francesca Monte & Kevan (Italy)
Francesco Balasso (Italy)
Francesco Da Vinci (Italy)
Francesco Monte (Italy)
FreakyBea (Italy)
Gelida (Italy)
GINNY VEE (Italy)
Gisele Abramoff (Germany)
Ice Eye (Finland)
Ilenya (Italy)
Iole (Italy)
JENNY & ME (Switzerland)
Jenny May (Latvia)
KIARA D.V. feat. PAMELA IVONNE COLE (United Kingdom)
Kurt Cassar (Malta)
La Bebae (Italy)
Laioung feat. Marzio (USA)
Le Deva (Italy)
Leonor (Italy)
LODIA (Italy)
Semi-Final 3 – February 22
Lola (Croatia)
Lorenza Rocchiccioli (Italy)
Lorenzo Licitra (Italy)
Lost City feat. Emerique (Italy)
Luca Minnelli (Italy)
Luciano Carlino (Italy)
Luna Palumbo (Italy)
Manuel Aspidi (Italy)
Massimo Di Cataldo & Andrea Agresti (Italy)
MATE (Italy)
Matilde (Italy)
MAYU (Switzerland)
MeriCler (Italy)
Moreno (Italy)
Morgana (Italy)
Neja & Luca Guadagnini Band (Italy)
NeVRuZ (Italy)
Nicole Hammett (Malta)
Noe (Italy)
Norah (Italy)
Only Sara (Italy)
Ophelio (Italy)
Out Offline (Italy)
Piqued Jacks (Italy)
Semi-Final 4 – February 23
Pjero (Italy)
Raim (Italy)
RAWSTRINGS (Italy)
Ronela (Albania)
Rouges (Italy)
Roy Paci (Italy)
Ruggero Ricci (Italy)
Santo (Italy)
SARA (Italy)
Selina Albright (USA)
Silver (Italy)
Sofia Mae (Italy)
Sophia (Italy)
Stefano d’Orazio (Italy)
Surama Tsu (Italy)
TES – Tutti Esageratamente Stronzi (Italy)
Thomas (Italy)
Tothem (Italy)
Veronica Howle (Italy)
Veronica Romero (Spain)
Vian (Italy)
Victor Arbelo (Spain)
Vina Rose (United Kingdom)
Viviana (Italy)
Viviana Milioti (Germany)
Xada (Italy)
XGIOVE (Italy)
Familiar names in San Marino’s line up
Fans will immediately recognize some familiar names. Last year’s Eurovision representative for Albania, Ronela Hajati, will once again try to make it to Eurovision — but this time for San Marino. Another well-known name – at least to Germans – is Daniel Schuhmacher. He won German Idol and tried to represent his country various times but never made it to the national final in Germany.
The most popular act in general probably is DJ project Eiffel 65 from Italy, as they produced the world wide-hit “I’m blue (Da Ba Dee)” back in 1999. Its melody is celebrating a revival at the moment since David Guetta and Bebe Rexha published their song “I’m good (Blue)” which comprises the melody of Eiffel 65’s song. The band is said to compete in UVPSM with the song “Movie Star”.
Participants who already tried their luck in their native countries include Ciro de Luca from Romania, Alfie Arcuri from Australia, Nicole Hammett from Malta, Erna Hrönn from Iceland and Jenny May from Latvia. Other than that, Kurt Cassar, Francesco Monte, Gisele Abramoff and MATE already took part in last year’s Eurovision selection for San Marino. Alessandro Coli from Italy is also back after he came second last year together with Turkish DJ Burak Yeter.
Selection method of Una Voce per San Marino 2023
Tonight at 22:00 CET Una Voce per San Marino (UVPSM) officially starts with the first semi final. Every day until Thursday, one semi final will be broadcast and only four acts get selected per semi final to compete in the final on Saturday. Another six acts per semi final will make it to the Second Chance round on Friday. There, the 24 artists will get another chance to make it further, but only four will actually move on to the final on Saturday.
That means in the end, 20 (international) finalists will be selected. They will be joined by two acts from San Marino, Kida and Simone, who are already set for the final, making it a total of 22 acts (and songs) in the final. The two San Marinese singers will also perform in the Second Chance show on Friday.
The final of UVPSM takes place in San Marino’s Teatro Nuovo in Dogana and the winner will be decided by a five person-jury, with chairman Al Bano. The winning act will represent San Marino in Liverpool at Eurovision 2023. Ilenia De Sena will host all of the semi finals, which will all start at 22:00 CET. You can watch them via SMRTV’s livestream by clicking here.
Who do you want to see representing San Marino in 2023? Which act in the line up surprises you the most? Let us know in the comments below.
Wait, where’s NewJeans? I thought UVPSM is open for singers from any country, even South Korea where NewJeans is from. I wonder why they didn’t apply.
look, I love NewJeans too, but I think Eurovision isn’t on their radar. If it was in South Korea then maybe but ofc it isn’t so even with the small chance they wanted to go they would have assumed they couldn’t.
I don’t think anyone who has gotten that big so recently would have that as their first priority.
Or you are joking. Its very easy to misjudge someone but there are soooo many crazy people on this app so I assume you are for real
This isn’t hate directed toward the people in the competition but to the organizers who decided to place the burden on people to screen through 65songs (by far the most any NF has) because they don’t have the guts or the initiative to do that themselves. This is the perfect example or shooting in the dark. This is a terrible way to choose what you want because you dont seem to care enough to make the job yourselves.
I know SM is a small country and will have to look beyond their own borders but I’d hate for them to get a reputation as a dumping ground for acts that weren’t good enough in other national selections.
Wouldn’t call it “dumping ground”, there are many great acts in other national selections and it would be cool if they had another chance to go to Eurovision. Some countries don’t send their best options to the contest.
I agree, many countries don’t vote for the best they have and some ppl don’t even apply for their countries or are from countries ineligible for ESC too
I’m sorry but i’m not watching that. I’ll consume whatever you’ll send.
We can finally start using the term “sanremo rejects”
Absolutely, but it sounds as if that’s inherently bad
Man, San Marino always comes up with some unexpected news, I didn’t think they’d hold UVPSM this year bc there was no news about it anywhere (or at least I didn’t get any) but they’re doing so with the final being held on Saturday and the lineup looks interesting
Also, I’m glad to find out that they’re sticking to it
I’d take that hard rock band toward the end (was it Deshedus or Dionysian, though?) even though they were very dated, and that emo band (pretty sure it was DramaLove)
Did we find out what four songs got through? I missed the end.
They named four acts, and then they named another four acts. <shrug>
Four acts straight to the final, then four more to the “second chance” round on Friday.
News just in. Alfie, Deborah, Deshedus, and EEF straight to the final. Camilla, Camille, Daudia, and Eduoarda to the second chance. The rest out, including Daniel Schumacher and Angel Dell.
DramaLove wasn’t among them, nor was Daniel. The back-to-back skeezy girls from the middle of the show were. For some reason this is all I remember
A waste of energy and funds for them, so.
I got distracted by checking out Dramalove’s back catalogue on Spotify. There’s definitely a Muse love-in going on but it’s actually pretty decent, I don’t think the set up at Una Voce per San Marino did the artists any favours.
They all know they just have to get through this and then show their best self in Liverpool.
Final qualifiers:
Alfie Arcuri – Collide
Deborah Iurato – Out of Space
Deshedus – Non Basterá
E.E.F. – Something For You
Second chance qualifiers are:
Camilla – It’s Not You It’s Me
Camille Cabaltera – Mental
Daudia – What If
Edoardo Brogi – Due Punti Sull’equatore
I can’t understand how they came to that result, but okay. Sorry, Christopher.
Oh yeah, he was among the least bad ones too. Deshedus and EEF, on the other hand…
I don’t actually remember Deborah’s song. If I’d known she came third at Sanremo 2016, just one place behind Francesca Michielin, I’d have paid more attention. I even watched Sanremo that year, I still don’t remember her.
Besides the qualities, the second half seems more favoured, which totally makes sense, since at the 13th song, I have already forgotten the first several. Gosh…
No matter what, San Marino would be my firm last place if they pick a song from this semi. If I have to pick, my top 5 (or 5 least bad ones) would probably be Alfie Arcuri, Deborah Iurato, Alessandro Coli, DramaLove, and Edoardo Brogi. A special nod to Angel Dell and Aristea, because they had a songs *so dubious* that they’d draw attention. 😉
Oh, that’s it, huh?
Another epic sax song this year? Oh no, the sax is not epic at all.
It’s actually really boring.
Well, the stream has stopped for me. I’m tempted to just quit now, but I’ve come this far!
I’m not saying I love it, bu DramaLove might be my favourite so far. It would be nice for them to represent SM back in their own country. I don’t think they have a chance, though.
I’m sure the bass player just changed his strap midway through the performance and they continued as if nothing actually happened. Only in Eurovision!
Like when the piano keeps playing even after the performer has walked away after the first verse. Strange goings-on in the mythical land of Eurovision…
The instrumental sections of this one make me wish they had a singer who could sing.
But yeah the mix is very bad
I’m not 100% into this hard rock song but the chorus at least has a decent hook.
Another very sudden ending. Maybe most of these had no clue about the three minute rule until yesterday.
The vocal volume is far too loud in these performances. Makes it very hard to judge the song because 90% of what I can actually hear is just a voice.
Not impressed by Daniel’s song, TBH…
Daniel’s song could plausibly be in another country’s final. Damning it with faint praise, I know, but it’s the best I can do.
Now this couple sounds okay, but the song is awful.
Not sure about the chemistry, but they are likeable.
This Romanian guy is hard to listen to, but if Ollie could build a following…
Uff… Ciro, if you wanna rip off We Will Rock You, at least sing in tune… 0/10
Ciro, this is coming from Colin, the nicest person on earth. This is bad.
Thank you so much, Jonas. Means a lot coming from you, since I’d honestly say the same about you.
Aw, that’s surprising, but thank you!
Rarely have we seen a 0/10 from you Colin 🙂
That’s a rarity indeed.
It’s very rare indeed, Thanos. I haven’t given that much to an official selected entry for over a decade. This year, only S. Bognibov and Greta Tude got a zero from me, with 2 or 3 of these from San Marino tentatively being in that area (but the list is very flimsy so far. 🙂 )
Christopher has commented here on Wiwi, so he is my favourite. Genuinely, a very good voice.
Camille Cabalterra managed to come back with an even worse song. Props to that! 😉
I’d like to know who the songwriters are. “Mental” is not a good name for a song. Not that I heard the word in the actual song. Camille is a good performer, though.
Blonde Brothers’ instrumental was passable at times. Maybe my “favorite” of those I’ve seen (starting with Angel)
It kinda wore thin pretty quickly for me.
The next group are just all *so* weak. Angel and Aristea are almost in a hilarious category. 😉 That’s why we follow San Marino NF! Bring it on! 😉
I liked the out-of-breath woman singing about deep breaths.
Her performance, strictly vocally speaking, is definitely the weakest one so far.
Oh, was it the lovely Vladana? Or Kate Bush perhaps? This is all too bizarre, would not surprise if ABBA showed up.
creepy comment
Angel Dell another one to infuriate the femmephobes. An interesting voice. It’s hard to be an angel when you’re fooled by the devil, apparently. Gets increasingly odd as it goes on. People will call it musical theatre, but that’s an insult to musical theatre.
I may have laughed out loud when Angel sang “THE DEVIL!” and then felt really bad about it
First five were expected weak entries, including Alfie (but he’s the best one so far). The Boom guy is the weakest.
Aw, boom guy is a good performer, the least amateur so far.
He is fine, but the song…
Superboom is a fun song, the best so far. Afterglow is not good, and with very boring lyrics. Another broken relationship song. Plods along until a sudden ending.
None of these songs have proper endings, do they?
At least they end, that’s something.
Andry I’s look is far more interesting than the song. It would be worth it just to infuriate the femphobic narrow minds out there, though.
Okay, I might have got the name wrong. The person singing Ambrosia.
Nice try Alfie Arcuri, but I’m not feeling it.
Where are the Sammarinesi? I mean, I understand they have a small population, but don’t they have SOME talent to offer?
We’ve got breaking news: the Australian artist and song will be revealed tomorrow!
GUYS AUSTRALIAN SONG IS COMING IN A FEW HOURS
21/02/2023 19:00 CET
Delta Goodrem? I hope so.
I think you are right as per me and my crystal balls. Would prefer Dame Edna Everage though if only to see her hang out on the turquoise carpet with the Croatian dudes and Gustaph from Belgium.
Alphabetical seems a fair way to me. Better than producers deciding.
Well I think the only thing worth reading was that it’s not Rita Ora and David G it’s Bebe rexha and David g lol who did I’m good (blue)
Hopefully not Ronela. I can’t stand her diva attitude.
Same. I can’t stand narcissists.
Rather Ronela than Teodor Andrei with his Andrew Tate meets Elov & Benny feat Rasmus Gozzi + strippers BS
I feel sorry for her. C’mon she was robbed last year. Makes me wonder who is advising her (and if there’s a vacancy).
Go Alfie Arcuri!
I remember Roy Paci from his Sanremo appearance back in 2018 with Diodato and the song Adesso. Really nice song and seeing him in the lineup made me remember it. I wish him good luck!
I see that Erna Hronn and Jenny May are also on the list. I am a big fan of Erna’s song from Songvakeppnin 2016. Less so of Jenny’s in Supernova 2018. But I’m excited for both. Also, Nicole Hammett is my winner of MESC 2022. If she entered UVPSM with something roughly as interesting as that, I expect a lot.
San Marino loves to be a meme and this year she became bigger and bolder.
Also- It seems to be official, Marco is going to Liverpool with Due Vite. The official youtube channel posted the Sanremo performance about an hour ago.
Really hope he goes with Due Vite. Should we take the Sanremo performance upload as a confirmation finally?
I don’t know if they would upload the Sanremo performance if there was still a chance he would choose a different song. Did they upload Emma’s MESC performance before she changed the song?
I just searched for Emma’s first song and I can’t seem to find it in the official ESC channel. Though I have no idea if they deleted it after Emma changed the song. I don’t remember.
I feel like they might’ve uploaded it and deleted it seeing as they posted on instagram when she won the selection that she would be going with “Out of Sight” and then made another post later saying it was “IAMWM”. Can’t confirm it 100% though.
I’m pretty sure they still have “Diell” up by Elhaida Dani even after she changed her song so who knows
Oh Lord! That’s a torture for the artists. Good luck to San Marino! Bring Valentina Monetta back to the stage!
Let’s be honest. If you DON’T stan San Marino’s overly excessive, completely unneeded national finals, then are you really a Eurofan? I can’t wait for 2030 when Una Voce per San Marino has as many participants as there are people in San Marino <3
It makes Malta look like they are scraping the barrell
Knowing how every iconic DJ failed every time on Eurovision, I don’t want Eiffel 65. Guys, you are forgetting they are not gonna sing “Blue”. Every song they released after that was a flop.
I still remember “Move Your Body”. It wasn’t as big as “Blue” but it made it to the airwaves.
They could change Blue around slightly, a bit like the “new” Baccara song in 1978.
Generally, there are several legit reasons for that:
– Their country not participating that year.
– Their broadcaster already picking someone else.
– Moving to a different country.
– Collaborating with a foreign songwriter.
– Being invited by a foreign broadcaster based on your previous work.
– Not having a good relationship with your own broadcaster (I assume this is Ronela’s case).
In any case, going to open auditions like this is a risk for established artists. It would be an entirely different thing if a successful foreign singer participated in Sanremo or Melfest.
Is it extra weird for a Eurovision winner to do it? Vicky Leandros, Anne Marie David had good enough reasons. Not so sure about Katrina.
wait!! CHRISTOPHER as the one with Free fall song? if he’s participating then I know whom I’m rooting for.
It’s a different Christopher.
LMAO just when we were annoyed by maltas 40 songs in their selection, san marino drops in with over a 100
these small countries are absolutely bonkers
That’s probably what Andorra, Gibraltar, Luxembourg and Monaco are gearing up towards.
Hmm.. and still NQ.. yeah, sure!
omg there are like 15 countries in each semi.
I am logging every comment of yours rn because I am annoyed.