San Marino: Megara to Eurovision 2024 with "11:11"

With Una Voce per San Marino (UVPSM) officially drawn to a close, the country is now ready to head to Eurovision 2024 with hopes of qualifying for Grand Final for the first time since 2021.

After five shows to determine who would qualify for the UVPSM Final and join the list of established acts, tonight the sixth show took place and gave the victory to Piqued Jacks' successor.

We saw 17 hopeful acts take the stage tonight, but only one would come out on top. After everyone performed, a jury cast their votes and it was decided: Megara was crowned the Una Voce per San Marino 2024 winner with the song "11:11."

"11:11" was written by Roberto la Lueta and Sara Jimenez Moral.

Tonight's Final of UVPSM took place at the Teatro Nuovo in Dogana. The show was hosted by Fabrizio Biggio and Melissa Greta Marchetto, who helped make this show one to remember.

Voting for tonight was determined 100% by the jury. The jurors who held the power to choose the winner were:

• Celso Valli (jury president, composer, arranger and record producer)
• Anna Bischi (musician)
• Clarissa Martinelli (journalist)
• John Vignola (journalist)
• Steve Lyon (record producer)

Megara will be taking the Eurovision 2024 stage with "11:11" during the second Semi-final on Thursday, 9 May. No UVPSM act has qualified for the Eurovision Grand Final, so Megara is looking to be the first to do so this year.

Megara

Megara is a Spanish alternative metal group from Madrid that formed in 2015. The group consists of four members: Kenzy (vocalist), Rober (guitar), Vitti (bass), and Ra Tache (drums).

In the year of their formation, they released their first EP titled "Muése quien pueda." The following year they went on to release "Siete," their first album. Their second album, "Aquí estamos todos locos," was released in 2018.

2019 is when the group started to gain more traction as they performed at the Resurrection Fest in Spain that year. Three years later in 2022 they released their third album "Truco or trato."

In the Eurovision world, 2023 is when they become known. Many may recognize their name from Spain's 2023 edition of Benidorm Fest. Megara took to the Benidorm 2023 stage with their song "Arcadia," where they finished in 4th place.

Since Benidorm Fest 2023, the band has gone on to open for Japanese band Babymetal for their shows in Spain on their return tour.

Una Voce per San Marino 2024

For the third year in a row, Sammarinese broadcaster (SMRTV) has elected to use Una Voce per San Marino (UVPSM) to select their Eurovision representative. UVPSM has a different structure than most national selection contests we see for Eurovision as it is quite a long and complicated process to make it to the final night.

This year's edition saw submissions open until 10 January 2024, with over 700 entries submitted by people from 31 countries. The long and tedious process for selecting who goes on to the Final started in November 2023, with four rounds of preliminary auditions for artists selected by a jury of experts from Media Evolution, ending in January 2024.

Next came the Semi-finals. They took place between 15 and 16 February, but aired 19 to 23 February and saw 129 artists competing. One act from each Semi qualified directly for the Final, with four others (totaling 16) to the Repechage round, with three more heading to the Final.

One artist was also selected via Casperaki, a British startup. Artists were able to use the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help them create a song. After a short process took place to select the possible songs, a jury voted for which song would move on to the UVPSM Final as part of the "big acts" group.

Along with the eight who survived the long process as known as "emerging acts," they were joined by the nine "big acts," which were announced at a press conference by SMRTV to create the final 17 battling it out to represent San Marino at Eurovision 2024.

San Marino in the Eurovision Song Contest

San Marino is one of the newest, and smallest, Eurovision countries.

They have participated 13 times since their first Eurovision Song Contest in 2008, but not with great success. In 10 out of 13 appearances, they haven't managed to qualify for the Grand Final. San Marino has qualified for the Grand Final three times: in 2014, 2019 and 2021. Their worst results were in 2008, 2017 and 2023 when they came in last in their Semi-final.