San Marino in the Eurovision Song Contest 2025

San Marino was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 with the song "Tutta l'Italia", written and performed by Gabry Ponte, Andrea Bonomo and Edwyn Roberts, though vocals by Bonomo and Roberts were uncredited. The Sammarinese participating broadcaster, San Marino RTV (SMRTV), organised the national final format, San Marino Song Contest, to select its entry for the contest. Over 1,200 candidate entries from 48 countries were submitted for consideration to the event, which consisted of seven semi-final rounds and a second chance round—all airing in February 2025—culminating in a final round held on 8 March 2025.

San Marino was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the contest, which took place on 13 May 2025. Performed during the show at position 11 in the running order, "Tutta l'Italia" placed tenth with 46 points. This qualified the nation to the final held four days later, where the entry was performed 25th in the running order and placed last out of the 26 finalists.

Prior to the 2025 contest, San Marino RTV (SMRTV) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing San Marino 14 times since its first entry in 2008.^[1] Its debut entry, "Complice" performed by Miodio, failed to qualify for the final and placed last in the first semi-final.^[1] SMRTV subsequently did not participate in both the 2009 and 2010 contests, citing financial difficulties.^[2][3] It returned in 2011 with "Stand By" by Italian singer Senit, which also failed to take the country to the final.^[1] From 2012 to 2014, SMRTV sent Valentina Monetta to the contest on three consecutive occasions.^[4] Monetta's first two entries failed to qualify to the final, however in 2014, she managed to bring San Marino to the final for the first time with "Maybe", which ultimately placed 24th.^[1] Following four consecutive non-qualifying years, San Marino qualified in 2019 with "Say Na Na Na" by Serhat and finished in 19th place.^[1] Senit, under her new stage name Senhit, was to return to represent the nation with "Freaky!" at the 2020 contest, however, following the contest's cancelation, SMRTV re-appointed Senhit for 2021.^[5] Her 2021 song, "Adrenalina", performed alongside American rapper Flo Rida, qualified for the final, where it placing 22nd.^[1] The Sammarinese 2022, 2023, and 2024 entries, "Stripper" by Achille Lauro, "Like an Animal" by Piqued Jacks, and "11:11" by Megara, all failed to qualify for the final.^[1]

As part of its duties as a participating broadcaster, SMRTV organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. Since 2022, a competition titled Una voce per San Marino ("A voice for San Marino") had been held to select the entry.^[6] In July 2024, SMRTV expressed their intent to participate in the 2025 contest and confirmed the fourth edition of Una voce per San Marino for its entry selection process.^[7]

In late September, SMRTV posted the rules and regulations for the fourth edition of Una voce per San Marino to select the Sammarinese entry, and set the date of the final round as 22 February 2025 at the Nuovo de Dogana. Semi-finals would be held between 17 and 21 February to select eleven finalists.^[8]

By December 2024, after a new investment plan for SMRTV was announced, the national final was rebranded as San Marino Song Contest 2025. As part of the rebrand, the selection event would receive a new logo, and an updated format and rules. Executive production was announced to be handled by Icona and Media Evolution, with Massino Bonelli as artistic director, and Cristiano D'Alisera as director.^[9]

San Marino Song Contest 2025 consisted of six semi-finals for foreign nationals—followed by a second chance round—and one semi-final reserved for Sammarinese nationals.^[10] The 20-participant final round of the event took place on 8 March 2025 and was hosted by Flora Canto and Francesco Facchinetti.^[11] Despite the official name change, the semi-finals were still broadcast under the old name Una voce per San Marino.^[10][12]

A submission window for interested artists and composers was opened in late September 2024, with a deadline of 31 December.^[8] Over 1,200 applicants from a total of 48 countries were received by the deadline, a 30% increase on submissions compared to the 2024 edition. SMRTV also confirmed that over 150 applications were received from artists in Spain, seen as an impact to both the Spanish band Megara winning the previous year's event, and the Spanish duo Nebulossa representing Spain in the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest after previously competing in the 2023 edition of Una voce per San Marino.^[13][14]

The selection of semi-finalists first consisted of an audition phase, with live auditions held at San Marino Outlet Experience in Falciano in six rounds: the first on 26 and 27 September 2024, the second on 17 and 18 October 2024, the third from 14 to 16 November 2024, the fourth from 12 to 14 December 2023, the fifth from 9 to 11 January 2024 and the sixth from 23 to 25 January 2024.^[15][16] Artists not residing in San Marino, Italy or neighbouring countries were able to attend the auditions online instead of attending in person.^[17][18] In addition to the regular selection process, SMRTV also launched a collaboration with Tour Music Fest, a Sammarinese music competition for emerging artists, which provided the winner of Tour Music Fest direct entry into the first semi-final of the San Marino Song Contest.^[19][20]

The artists who progressed to the semi-finals were publicly announced by SMRTV over three days: the acts for the first and second semi-finals were revealed on 29 January 2025,^[21][22] followed by the artists competing in the third and fourth semi-finals on 30 January 2025,^[23][24] and the acts coming in the fifth and sixth semi-finals and the Sammarinese semi-final on 31 January 2025.^[25][26] The shows were filmed between 13 and 15 February 2025 and aired between 17 and 21 February 2025.^[10][14] One finalist was selected from each semi-final, and three acts from each semi-final were selected to move on to the second chance round.^[27]

Ahead of the semi-finals a total of thirteen artists subsequently withdrew their planned entries in the contest,^[28] including Serafín Zubiri who cited a scheduling conflict between his scheduled semi-final and a previously scheduled concert,^[29][30] and Grisana who cited a changed focus towards new music and upcoming projects.^[31] An additional ten artists were subsequently added to the line-up for the semi-finals to replace those withdrawn acts.^[28]

Key:   Finalist   Second chance   Withdrawn/Absent

The second chance round was aired on 28 February 2025, with four more artists advancing to the final.^[10][32]

The final took place on 8 March 2025 at the Teatro Nuovo in Dogana and was hosted by Flora Canto and Francesco Facchinetti.^[11] It featured nine prequalified entries and eleven entries that qualified from the semi-finals and the second chance round. All twenty finalists were announced by SMRTV on 25 February 2025, before the semi-finals had finished airing.^[33] The event was opened by Al Bano, who served as jury president for the 2022 and 2023 editions of Una Voce per San Marino, and was also a guest in the prior year's final. He performed two songs and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from San Marino Secretary of State Federico Pedini Amati.^[34] Guest performances by non-participants included La Rappresentante di Lista, Senhit and Cristiano Malgioglio.^[11][34]

The winner of the final was "Tutta l'Italia", written by Andrea Bonomo, Edwyn Roberts, and Gabry Ponte, and performed by Ponte with uncredited vocals by Bonomo and Roberts.^[35] It was selected by a jury consisting of Federica Gentile (television and radio host), Ema Stokholma (television and radio host, Luca De Gennaro (DJ), Marco Andrea Ettorre (marketing manager at the Italian Society of Authors and Editors) and Roberto Sergio (SMRTV director).^[36] The jury's vote was assembled over three phases. The first took place on 4 March, before the final, and was based on "overall artistic quality" and "affinity with Eurovision"; each juror could assign a point value between 1 and 10 points to each song for each category. The second phase took place during the final, and single votes of 1 to 10 by each juror were added to the prior round's totals based on overall "quality of vocal performance", "stage presence and interpretation", "television effectiveness and charisma" and "Eurovision potential". The third phase saw the addition of a possible 10-point bonus to one entry for "overall artistic evaluation" as determined by contest Artistic Director Bonelli.^[37][38]

The final also saw several acts receive special awards from the jury for their participation. These included SMRTV's Ludovido Di Meo Award to Angy Sciaqua with "I", the Critics Award to Pierdavide Carone with "Mi vuoi sposare?" and the Una Voce Per San Marino Award to The Rumpled with "You Get Me So High".^[39] SMRTV considered the event successful, announcing the next day that it had over 430,000 views through formats including radio, television and on-demand, as well as over six million views on social media.^[40]

As part of the promotion of San Marino's participation in the contest, a music video of "Tutta l'Italia" was released in March 2025.^[42] Ponte then attended several publicity events including the Eurovision in Concert event in Amsterdam on 5 April 2025,^[43] the London Eurovision Party on 13 April 2025,^[44] and PrePartyES in Madrid on 19 April.^[45] Ahead of the contest, he also attended a press event where he met with Sammarinese government officials who wished him luck at the contest.^[46]

The Eurovision Song Contest 2025 took place at St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland, and consisted of two semi-finals held on the respective dates of 13 and 15 May, and the final on 17 May 2025.^[47] All participating countries, except the host nation and the "Big Five", consisting of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom, were required to qualify from one of two semi-finals to compete for the final; the top 10 countries from their respective semi-finals progressed to the final.^[48] On 28 January 2025, an allocation draw was held to determine which of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show, each country would perform in; the EBU split up the competing countries into different pots based on historic voting patterns, attempting to split up nations that historically voted for each other.^[49] San Marino was scheduled for the second half of the first semi-final.^[50] The shows' producers then decided the running order for the semi-finals; San Marino was set to perform in position 11 of 15.^[51]

In San Marino, all the shows of the contest were broadcast on San Marino RTV, as well as on the broadcaster's streaming platform RTV Play, with commentary by Anna Gaspari and Gigi Restivo.^[52]

Ponte took part in technical rehearsals on 6 and 8 May,^[53][54] followed by dress rehearsals on 12 and 13 May.^[55] The performance of "Tutta l'Italia" at the contest was altered from its San Marino Song Contest staging, with the six-person maximum quantity of performers on stage being cited by Ponte as the impetus.^[56][57] The many dancers that had surrounded Ponte were replaced by two masked vocalists,^[53] and the backdrop consisted of Italian monuments and landmarks on screen. Occasionally they'd turn pink and Michaelangelo's David was shown animated and chewing gum.^[58]

San Marino performed in the first semi-final in position 11, following the entry from Azerbaijan and before the entry from Albania.^[51] At the end of the semi-final, it was announced that the nation qualified for the final;^[59] it was later revealed that the act received 46 points.^[60] In the final, held four days later, Ponte performed second to last in the running order, after France and before Albania.^[61] The entry received 27 points, placing last of the 26 finalists.^[62]

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding sets of points from 1–8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting in the final vote, while the semi-final vote was based entirely on the vote of the public. As San Marino shares its telephone system with Italy, the country's jury votes were used during the semi-final, while at the final an aggregate televote created using the televotes of neighbouring countries was used.^[63][64] The Sammarinese jury consisted of Alessandro Riccardi, Fabrizio Raggi, Piermatteo Carattoni, Olivia Marani, Sofia Toccaceli.^[65] These members were music industry professionals who are Sammarinese citizens, and each jury and individual jury member were required to meet a set of EBU criteria regarding professional background and diversity in gender and age. Additionally, no member of the national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they could not vote impartially and independently.^[63]

In the first semi-final, San Marino placed 10th and qualified for the final. It received 46 points in total, which included a top 12 points from the Italian televote. In the final, the nation placed last of the 26 entries with 27 points, which again included a top 12 points from the Italian jury. Over the course of the contest, the nation awarded its top 12 points to Belgium in the first semi-final and to Italy (jury) and Greece (aggregate televote) in the final.^[60][66] Senhit served as the Sammarinese spokesperson, announcing the votes awarded by the Sammarinese jury during the final.^[67]

The members of the Sammarinese jury were:^[65]

• Alessandro Riccardi
• Fabrizio Raggi
• Piermatteo Carattoni
• Olivia Marani
• Sofia Toccaceli