San Marino: Has SMRTV confirmed participation in Eurovision 2016?

by Sanjay (Sergio) Jiandani 4,484 views

Will San Marino participate at the forthcoming 2016 Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm? Has SMRTV confirmed its participation? Let’s have a look at what’s going on in the tiny microstate...

As there has been no news from San Marino and SMRTV, ESCtoday’s Head of Press Sanjay (Sergio) Jiandani contacted the Sammarinese broadcaster and had a chance to have a tête-à-tête with Mr. Alessandro Capicchioni (Head of Delegation for San Marino at the Eurovision Song Contest) in order to shed more light on the matter.

San Marino debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2008 and qualified for the first time to the grand final in 2014. Check out what awaits San Marino in 2016.

After Valentina’s historical qualification in 2014, San Marino didn’t achieve the same result this year in Vienna. How did this come across? Could you comment?

True, but we’re not pretending to always ‘win’. Valentina’s historical qualification in 2014 has been a satisfaction for our TV and will be so for the coming years, and we won the bet with the youngest duo made up with singers with a limited experience. This gives us pride!

You are now quite experienced in terms of hosting countries, how was the Austrian organisation in Vienna?

After 2 Scandinavian back to back Eurovision hostings which were near to perfection, it’s like the Austrians sat around a table to do everything as good as in the previous years and even improving those couple of things that weren’t working 100% yet.

I mean, in terms of hospitality and organisation of the two weeks before the shows, the quality was at the highest, terrific. While they’ve been a bit weaker on the TV side, I’m talking about the camera direction which wasn’t flawless compared to the rest of the production. They’ve taken their risks, which is courageous. Anyway, many congratulations to ORF for the outstanding general result, organizing the ESC is a very demanding challenge.

San Marino hasn’t confirmed its participation yet, how are things looking for Stockholm 2016? Will we see you in Sweden?

SMRTV has applied but the participation is not confirmed yet. Recently I had a meeting with the SMRTV board and the General Director Mr. Carlo Romeo will decide only after having evaluated every scenario. I have been asked to consider and deepen the proposals that we have been receiving.

We don’t have a national  final therefore we have to assume the full responsibility of our choices, that’s why the SMRTV will choose among those candidates whom will appear to be more solid, prestigious and valuable, with important partners and productions who will enable us  to engage with such an important international challenge. There’s still some time left, SMRTV is going to see what will happen in the forthcoming weeks before deciding.

What would you like to see in the forthcoming Eurovision?

Well, we feel a bit lonely, I’d like more microstates to come back to Eurovision. It would be nice to see Monaco or Andorra again, for example. I know it’s not easy, but neither impossible. I have the feeling that one of the two…maybe…

Hence after our interview with the Sammarinese Head of Delegation, we can gather that San Marino is the 32nd country to confirm its intention to participate at the forthcoming 2016 Eurovision Song Contest. Thus San Marino has confirmed its pre-eliminary participation at next year’s Eurovision edition. An official confirmation regarding the 2016 Eurovision Sammarinese participation is yet to be made by SMRTV.

The period for countries to apply for participation at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest concluded on 15 September. Hereafter applicant countries have a grace period until 10 October to decide if they are to stay or not in the competition without facing a financial penalty.

The 2016 Eurovision Song Contest is scheduled to be held on 10, 12 and 14 May at the Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden.

 Stay tuned to ESCToday for the latest news on San Marino and the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest.