San Marino in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022
Eurovision Song Contest 2022
Country	San Marino
Selection process	Una voce per San Marino
Selection date	19 February 2022
Competing entry
Song	"Stripper"
Artist	Achille Lauro
Songwriters	Daniele Dezi Daniele Mungai Davide Petrella Federico De Marinis Francesco Viscovo Gregorio Calculli Lauro De Marinis Marco Lanciotti Matteo Ciceroni Mattia Cutolo Simon Pietro Manzari
Placement
Semi-final result	Failed to qualify (14th)
Participation chronology
◄2021 • 2022 •2023►

San Marino was represented at theEurovision Song Contest 2022 with the song "Stripper" performed byAchille Lauro. The Sammarinese broadcaster,San Marino RTV (SMRTV), organised a new national final concept entitledUna voce per San Marino ("A voice for San Marino") to decide their representative. The event consisted of 299 emerging and nine established artists competing over a three-month period from December 2021 through February 2022 for the opportunity to represent the nation at the contest. The winning entry "Stripper" was written by Lauro, Daniele Dezi, Daniele Mungai,Davide Petrella, Federico De Marinis, Francesco Viscovo, Gregorio Calculli, Marco Lanciotti, Matteo Ciceroni, Mattia Cutolo and Simon Pietro Manzari.

To promote the entry, Lauro released the song as adigital download,lyric video and amusic video consisting of the performance of the entry atUna voce per San Marino. A promotional tour was initially scheduled, but appearances were subsequently canceled due to the rise inCOVID-19 cases occurring at the time. San Marino was drawn to compete in thesecond semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 which took place on 12 May 2022. Performing during the show seventh in the running order, "Stripper" was not announced among the top 10 entries of its semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that San Marino placed 14th out of the 18 participating countries in the semi-final with 50 points.

Prior to the 2022 contest, San Marino had participated in theEurovision Song Contest 11 times since their first entry in2008.^[1] The nation's debut entry in the2008 contest, "Complice" performed byMiodio, failed to qualify for the final and placed last in thesemi-final it competed in.^[1] San Marino subsequently did not participate in both the2009 and2010 contests, citing financial difficulties.^[2][3] They returned in2011 with Italian singerSenit performing "Stand By", which also failed to take the nation to thefinal.^[1] From 2012 to 2014, San Marino sentValentina Monetta to the contest on three consecutive occasions, which made her the first singer to participate in three consecutive contests sinceUdo Jürgens, who competed in1964,1965 and1966 for Austria.^[4] Monetta's first two entries failed to qualify San Marino to the final, however in2014, she managed to bring the nation to the final for the first time with "Maybe", placing 24th. Following four consecutive non-qualifying years, San Marino qualified for the final for its second time in theEurovision Song Contest 2019, whereSerhat represented the nation for his second time and finished in 19th place in thefinal with "Say Na Na Na".^[1] For the2020 contest, Senhit and her song "Freaky!" were to represent the nation, though following its cancelation, San Marino re-selected Senhit for2021.^[5] Her song, "Adrenalina", which she performed alongside American rapperFlo Rida, qualified for the final, eventually placing 22nd out of the 26 entries.^[1]San Marino RTV (SMRTV) confirmed the nation's participation in the2022 contest on 5 April 2021, at the same time also revealing that they intended to select their entry through a national final entitledUna voce per San Marino.^[6]

On 5 April 2021, as part of the release of a 2021–2022 tourism events calendar introduced by the government of San Marino, SMRTV confirmed the nation's participation in the 2022 contest and the introduction ofUna voce per San Marino ("A voice for San Marino"), a new national final format to select the nation's entry. This marked the second time that the nation had opted to select their entry with a national final format, the first time being in2018 with1in360.^[6]

Una voce per San Marino was held between December 2021 and February 2022. Interested artists could apply to partake in the event through the officialUna voce per San Marino website,^[7] which was open for submissions until 8 January 2022.^[8] There were no restrictions on the nationality of the performer nor the language of the song, though all artists and songs had to comply with therules of the Eurovision Song Contest as set by theEuropean Broadcasting Union (EBU). At the close of the application window, all selected artists were divided into two categories: Emerging and Established. Emerging artists attended an academy in theTeatro Titano in theCity of San Marino from 13 to 17 December 2021 and 3–11 January 2022, acting as preliminary castings. Then, from 13 to 17 February 2022, a series of semi-finals decided the nine Emerging acts that moved on to the final. Established artists, numbering nine in total as well, were directly invited to the final by Media Evolution SRL.^[7] Aside from the first place act becoming the Sammarinese representative at Eurovision, the first, second and third placings of the final were also awarded €7000, €2000 and €1000, respectively.^[9]

Voting for the Emerging artists shows was performed by a seven-member jury.^[10] The first four members of the jury for this category, announced on 16 November 2021, were Emilio Munda,Roberta Faccani,Roberto Costa [it] and Steve Lyon.^[11] The remaining three jury members for the category were announced on 31 December 2021, and were Maurizio Raimo, Nabuk and Mimmo Paganelli.^[10]

A submission period was opened by SMRTV on 22 September 2021 for emerging artists and composers to submit their entries. By 16 November 2021, the broadcaster announced it had received over 200 applications, particularly from Germany, Russia and Sweden, but also from other European countries, the United States and Australia.^[12][13] Near the close of the submission period, SMRTV reported that they had received 585 applications overall, out of which 299 were selected to take part in the emerging acts round.^[14][15] The emerging acts auditions took place between 13 and 17 December 2021 and 3–11 January 2022. From December and over the course of two months, the 299 participants took part in the auditions (though only 282 were listed).^[15][16] From the emerging acts round, 60 international entrants and six Sammarinese had qualified for the semi-finals and they were revealed on 17 January 2022.^[9][17] Highlights from the auditions were then broadcast on San Marino RTV over three consecutive Fridays from 14 January to 28 January 2022.^[18]

The six Sammarinese acts selected from the auditions were Alibi, Elisa Mazza, Garon × Duan, Giada Pintori, Ginevra Bencivenga and Giulia Vitri. The 60 international emerging acts and their country of origin were as follows:^[17]

The 60 international emerging acts competed across three semi-finals from 13 February to 15 February 2022 and three acts qualified to the final from each respective semi-final. The next day, a fourth semi-final consisting of the six Sammarinese artists took place, with an additional three acts qualifying to the final. A second-chance round on 17 February 2022 allowed a further four of the previously eliminated emerging artists to qualify. A final for the emerging artists was held on 18 February 2022, where 9 of the 16 qualified acts proceeded to the final. All of these events took place at theTeatro Titano in theCity of San Marino.^[19]

Of the emerging acts participants, Muriel was announced to have been disqualified from the competition on 10 February 2022 for unspecified reasons.^[20] Additionally, Allerija, Corinna Parodi and Diego Federico had been announced as participants in the semi-final, but were absent from the show without explanation.^[21]

Key:  Finalist  Second Chance  Absent

The final for the competing entrants from San Marino took place on 16 February 2022. Six artists took part, with three advancing to the final.^[19]

The second chance round took place on 17 February 2022 and featured the fifteen acts that finished in 4th to 8th place in the first three semi-finals. Five of the fifteen acts qualified for the Emerging acts final.

The Emerging acts final took place on 18 February 2022 and featured the 17 qualifying acts from the previous four shows. Nine of the 17 acts qualified for a place in the final.^[19]

On 8 February 2022, SMRTV announced the identity of the ten established artists that qualified automatically for the final in their category.^[27] One day before the final, it was announced that established participantBlind had withdrawn for health reasons.^[28]

The final took place on 19 February 2022 at theTeatro Nuovo inDogana, and was hosted bySenhit andJonathan Kashanian.^[27] A total of 18 artists participated, nine from the Emerging section and nine from the Established section.^[29] A five-member jury decided the top three, with the winner going on to represent the country at Eurovision 2022. Each jury member assigned points to the entries ranging from one to ten based on their personal preferences, with the winner being the entry with the highest point total.^[30] The jury consisted of:Mogol (songwriter; jury president),Simon Lee (conductor, composer and arranger), Clarissa Martinelli (radio presenter),Susanne Georgi (2009 Andorran representative) and Dino Stewart (managing director atBMG Italy).^[31] Faccani, who had been a member of the emerging artists jury earlier in the process, opted to not continue in that role for the final.^[32] Italian singerAl Bano (who represented his country at Eurovision in1976 and1985), Senhit (representative of San Marino in2011 and2021) andValentina Monetta (representative of San Marino in2012,2013,2014 and2017) performed as guests during the final.^[33] The winner of the event wasAchille Lauro with the song "Stripper", marking the fourth time that an Italian artist had been selected to represent San Marino.^[34] "Stripper" was written by Lauro, Daniele Dezi, Daniele Mungai, Davide Petrella, Federico De Marinis. Francesco Viscovo, Gregorio Calculli, Marco Lanciotti, Matteo Ciceroni, Mattia Cutolo and Simon Pietro Manzari.^[35]

To promote "Stripper" as the entry for San Marino, the song was released on all digital platforms on 4 March 2022, coinciding with the release of alyric video.^[37] A promotional music video of the performance during the finalUna voce per San Marino had previously been released on theYouTube channel of the Eurovision Song Contest on 23 February.^[34] The song was due to be performed at the 26 March Eurovision Party in Barcelona, but was unable to after members of the band contractedCOVID-19. Lauro indicated that due to the inability to useplaybacks, he would be unable to perform without the band.^[38] The next day, SMRTV announced that they had opted to not have the singer perform at the Eurovision in Concert event on 9 April in Amsterdam either or at any other live pre-Eurovision events, citing the rise in COVID-19 cases occurring at the time.^[38][39]

A free "Meet & Greet" for fans was scheduled for 23 April at Teatro Concordia inBorgo Maggiore, San Marino,^[40] however, the event was postponed shortly after its announcement, with staff citing the entrant's rehearsal schedule and security as being factors.^[41] A previously announced press conference on 22 April, the day before, did take place at thePalazzo Pubblico, where Lauro spoke about the link Eurovision creates between countries.^[42][43]

TheEurovision Song Contest 2022 took place at thePalaOlimpico inTurin, Italy, and consisted of two semi-finals held on the respective dates of 10 and 12 May and the final on 14 May 2022.^[44] According to theEurovision rules, all participating countries, except the host nation and the "Big Five", consisting ofFrance,Germany,Italy,Spain and theUnited Kingdom, are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals to compete for the final; the top 10 countries from their respective semi-finals progress to the final.^[45] Prior to the semi-final allocation draw, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests as determined by the contest's televoting partner Digame, with the aim of reducing the chance of neighbourly voting between countries while also increasing suspense during the voting process.^[46] On 25 January 2022, an allocation draw was held atPalazzo Madama in Turin, which placed each nation into one of the two semi-finals and determined which half of the show they would perform in.^[46] Therein, it was announced that San Marino was scheduled to perform in the first half of the second semi-final of the contest, to be held on 12 May.^[47] Once all the competing entries for the 2022 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the producers of the contest to prevent similar songs from being placed next to each other.^[48] San Marino was set to perform seventh, following the entry from theMalta and before the entry fromAustralia.^[49] In San Marino, the two semi-finals and the final were broadcast onSan Marino RTV and Radio San Marino with commentary by Lia Fiorio and Gigi Restivo.^[50]

Achille took part in rehearsals on 2 and 5 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 11 and 12 May 2022.^[51] This included the jury show where the five-member juries of eighteen of the participating countries, responsible for 50 percent of each country's respective vote, watched and voted on the competing entries of the second semi-final.^[52][53] The performance of "Stripper" saw Lauro dressed in a sheerbodysuit wearing a furboa andcowboy hat. Two members of his band were in cages, while the guitarist interacted with Lauro throughout the performance, including kissing the singer.^[54][55] At one point, Lauro rides a velvet pinkmechanical bull in the performance, which also featured fireworks.^[56] Many media outlets noted the positive response to the same sex kiss as a historic moment in Eurovision.^[54][55][57] At the end of the voting phase for the second semi-final, San Marino was not announced as a qualifier for the final.^[58] It was later revealed that the nation placed 14th out of the 18 competing nations in the second semi-final with a total of 50 points.^[59]

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1–8, 10 and 12: one from their expert jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent. The jury judged each entry based on vocal capacity, the stage performance, the song's composition and originality and the overall impression by the act. No member of a national jury was permitted to be connected in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently.^[60] Labiuse served as the Sammarinese spokesperson, announcing the votes awarded by the Sammarinese jury during the final.^[61] Below is a breakdown of points awarded to San Marino and awarded by San Marino in both the second semi-final and the final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows.

Points awarded to San Marino (Semi-final 2)^[59]

Score	Televote	Jury
12 points		Belgium
10 points
8 points	Malta
7 points
6 points
5 points	Australia	Finland
4 points	Finland  Poland
3 points	Spain  United Kingdom
2 points	Romania	Poland  Romania
1 point

Points awarded by San Marino (Semi-final 2)[59] Score Televote Jury 12 points  Serbia  Sweden 10 points  Sweden  Australia 8 points  Romania  Poland 7 points  Australia  Estonia 6 points  Czech Republic  Czech Republic 5 points  Poland  Belgium 4 points  Cyprus  Azerbaijan 3 points  Finland  Finland 2 points  Israel  Serbia 1 point  Belgium  Malta

Points awarded by San Marino (Final)[62] Score Televote Jury 12 points  Ukraine  Spain 10 points  Spain  Greece 8 points  Serbia  United Kingdom 7 points  Greece  Azerbaijan 6 points  United Kingdom  Australia 5 points  Italy  Sweden 4 points  Moldova  Poland 3 points  Sweden  Italy 2 points  Norway  Ukraine 1 point  Romania   Switzerland

In a statement released during the broadcast of the final, the EBU revealed that six countries, including San Marino, were found to have irregular jury voting patterns during the second semi-final. Consequently, these countries were given substitute aggregated jury scores for both the second semi-final and the final (shown above), calculated from the corresponding jury scores of countries with historically similar voting patterns as determined by the pots for the semi-final allocation draw held in January.^[63][64] As such, San Marino's jury votes were determined based on those from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Malta and Portugal.^[65] Their televoting scores were unaffected. The Flemish broadcasterVRT later reported that the juries involved had made agreements to vote for each other's entries to secure qualification to the final.^[66]

On 19 May, the EBU released a further statement clarifying the irregularities in voting patterns. This confirmed that the six countries involved had consistently scored each other's entries disproportionately highly in the second semi-final: the Sammarinese jury, as well as the juries from Azerbaijan, Georgia and Romania, had each ranked the other five countries' entries as their top five, proving beyond statistical coincidence that they had colluded to achieve a higher placing. This prompted the suspension of San Marino's intended jury scores (shown below) in favour of the EBU's calculated aggregate scores, presented above.^[67]

San Marino's suspended jury results (Semi-final 2)^[67]

Score	Country
12 points	Romania
10 points	Georgia
8 points	Poland
7 points	Montenegro
6 points	Azerbaijan
5 points	Serbia
4 points	Australia
3 points	Sweden
2 points	Israel
1 point	Estonia

Detailed voting results of San Marino's suspended vote (Semi-final 2)^[67]

Draw	Country	Juror 1	Juror 2	Juror 3	Juror 4	Juror 5	Rank	Points
01	Finland	14	12	10	16	17	15
02	Israel	15	5	11	5	10	9	2
03	Serbia	7	3	14	9	3	6	5
04	Azerbaijan	5	9	9	1	5	5	6
05	Georgia	8	2	1	4	1	2	10
06	Malta	16	17	16	10	11	16
07	San Marino
08	Australia	2	8	12	7	8	7	4
09	Cyprus	17	10	8	12	9	13
10	Ireland	9	13	13	13	13	14
11	North Macedonia	13	14	17	14	16	17
12	Estonia	6	11	6	15	12	10	1
13	Romania	1	1	3	3	6	1	12
14	Poland	10	4	2	2	4	3	8
15	Montenegro	3	6	7	6	2	4	7
16	Belgium	11	15	4	17	14	11
17	Sweden	12	7	5	8	7	8	3
18	Czech Republic	4	16	15	11	15	12

Detailed voting results from San Marino (Semi-final 2)[59] Draw Country Jury Televote Rank Points Rank Points 01  Finland 8 3 8 3 02  Israel 11 9 2 03  Serbia 9 2 1 12 04  Azerbaijan 7 4 15 05  Georgia 14 14 06  Malta 10 1 11 07  San Marino 08  Australia 2 10 4 7 09  Cyprus 17 7 4 10  Ireland 15 13 11  North Macedonia 13 16 12  Estonia 4 7 12 13  Romania 12 3 8 14  Poland 3 8 6 5 15  Montenegro 16 17 16  Belgium 6 5 10 1 17  Sweden 1 12 2 10 18  Czech Republic 5 6 5 6

Detailed voting results from San Marino (Final)[62] Draw Country Jury Televote Rank Points Rank Points 01  Czech Republic 14 22 02  Romania 21 10 1 03  Portugal 15 18 04  Finland 23 14 05   Switzerland 10 1 24 06  France 24 19 07  Norway 19 9 2 08  Armenia 16 13 09  Italy 8 3 6 5 10  Spain 1 12 2 10 11  Netherlands 11 15 12  Ukraine 9 2 1 12 13  Germany 25 21 14  Lithuania 18 12 15  Azerbaijan 4 7 23 16  Belgium 13 20 17  Greece 2 10 4 7 18  Iceland 22 25 19  Moldova 17 7 4 20  Sweden 6 5 8 3 21  Australia 5 6 17 22  United Kingdom 3 8 5 6 23  Poland 7 4 11 24  Serbia 12 3 8 25  Estonia 20 16

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