San Marino was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018, held in Lisbon, Portugal. The Sammarinese national broadcaster San Marino RTV (SMRTV) partnered with the London-based company 1in360 to stage an online search for their entrant, marking the first time the nation did not select their representative internally. The process, entitled 1in360, culminated in an 11-participant final with acts chosen from three wildcard selection processes and two 11-act showcase events. The winner of 1in360 was "Who We Are" performed by Jessika featuring Jenifer Brening. The 2018 entry in the Eurovision Song Contest was promoted through performances in London, Amsterdam, Madrid and Lisbon as well as a 10-week anti-bullying campaign to raise money for the Diana Award. San Marino performed fourth in the second semi-final, held on 10 May 2018, and placed 17th with 28 points, failing to qualify for the final.

Background

Prior to the 2018 contest, San Marino had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest eight times since their first entry in 2008. The nation's debut entry in the 2008 contest, "Complice" performed by Miodio, failed to qualify for the final and placed last in the semi-final it competed in. San Marino subsequently did not participate in both the and contests, citing financial difficulties. They returned in with Italian singer Senit performing "Stand By", which also failed to take the nation to the final. From 2012 to 2014, San Marino sent Valentina Monetta to the contest on three consecutive occasions, which made her the first singer to participate in three consecutive contests since Udo Jürgens, who competed in 1964, 1965 and 1966 for Austria. Monetta's entries in ("The Social Network Song") and ("Crisalide (Vola)") also failed to qualify San Marino to the final, however in , she managed to bring the nation to the final for the first time with "Maybe", placing 24th. This marked their best placing to this point. The nation's next three entries, "Chain of Lights" performed by Anita Simoncini and Michele Perniola for , "I Didn't Know" by Serhat for and "Spirit of the Night" by Monetta and Jimmie Wilson for , did not qualify for the final.

San Marino RTV (SMRTV) confirmed San Marino's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 on 17 October 2017 and revealed that the nation would pursue a national final to select their entry for the first time.

Before Eurovision 1in360 On 17 October 2017, in a press conference to the foreign press of Rome, SMRTV director general Carlo Romeo and Sammarinese Head of Delegation Alessandro Capicchioni announced the broadcaster's partnership with 1in360 to organise their selection process for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. As announced, the entrant were to be selected through an online talent show with no restrictions on citizenship or musical genres. 1in360 consisted of three shows: two non-competitive showcase shows on 9 and 16 February and a final on 3 March 2018. The first showcase show involved each of the 11 candidates performing one of their two candidate songs in acoustic versions. During the second showcase show, each candidate performed their remaining candidate song in acoustic versions and one song per artist qualified for the final, where the winner was selected. The first two shows were pre-recorded, whereas the final was broadcast live from Bratislava, Slovakia by SMRTV through a terrestrial broadcast, satellite and on the YouTube channel of 1in360. The event was presented by Nick Earles and Kristin Stein.

Format The results of the first two shows were determined by a jury panel of music professionals, while the results in the final were determined by the 50/50 combination of votes from the jury and a public online. The ranking of both the jury and online vote were converted to points from 1–8, 10 and 12. As it was initially announced, there would have been two methods for public voting. The crowdfunding option that was ultimately selected would have served as one part (albeit with a minimal investment of €20) and voting with PayPal would have served as the other part. Each PayPal account would have been limited to one vote at €1. As the number of PayPal votes increased, their weight of the overall vote would increase. The percentages would have been as follows: 10% if not more than 50,000 votes were cast; 20% for between 50,000 and 100,000 votes; 30% for between 100,000 and 200,000 votes; 40% for between 200,000 and 250,000 votes; and 50% if more than 250,000 votes were cast. The jury panel for the shows consisted of Austrian representative in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 Zoë Straub, Capicchioni, Slovak entrepreneur Ladislav Kossár and English songwriter Neon Hitch. For the final's jury panel, Neon Hitch was replaced by SMRTV's frequent Eurovision commentator and spokesperson John Kennedy O'Connor, after she was unable to appear due to poor weather conditions.

Competing entries

Artists were able to submit applications by uploading covers and original songs to the 1in360 website until 30 November 2017. A total of 1,050 applications were received during the five-week submission window, with candidates submitting from 75 countries. 11 candidates were shortlisted: eight nominated by the 1in360 jury in consultation with SMRTV and three selected as wildcards. The three wildcards consisted of one entrant from San Marino selected by the event organisers, one as selected by Eurovision fan clubs and one decided by an online vote. The candidates were announced on 23 December 2017. After the list was released, all candidates attended a song writing camp in Vienna, Austria, where they prepared to perform the variety of styles and genres that would be expected of them as part of the process. At the camp, songwriters, producers and candidates collaborated to develop their entries. Entrants could provide their own music and/or lyrics or work with others to write their candidate songs. Straub was added to the songwriting credits for all but two of the songs, while Jenifer Brening penned four entries as a singer-songwriter. The live acoustic performances of the competing songs from the first two shows were released as an album and for digital download on 19 February 2018 and the fully produced versions of the songs were made available no later than 23 February 2018.

Wildcard selection The first wildcard was awarded by members of international fan clubs that applied for participation in the selection. 1in360 accepted applications for interested fan clubs until 23 November 2017 and announced the included fan clubs the next day; selected fan clubs then had to cast their votes by 1 December. The selected fan clubs consisted of those representing Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Hungary, Malta, Belgium, the rest of the world and ESC Press. 70 acts were shortlisted for the first wildcard and they were announced on 24 November 2017. Following the tallying of the votes, Emma Sandström was announced on 4 December 2017 as the first wildcard to qualify for the 1in360 final.

The second wildcard was chosen through an online poll on the 1in360 website; all of the likes for the competing entries on the website were reset to zero following the selection of the fan club entry for the first wildcard. The public then voted for their preferred entry, with the highest vote receiver becoming the second wildcard entry. A total of 557 entries were listed on the website's candidate page for the public to choose from. The candidate with the most votes, Giovanni Montalbano, was announced on 11 December 2017. The selection process for the second wildcard received allegations of fraud, with event organisers responding that there is "very little [they] can do to prevent fraud in a free social media vote". This was in response to a number of candidates amassing tens of thousands of votes in a short period of time. Organisers elaborated that their intent was to make the selection process as inclusive as possible and some of the mechanisms to reduce fraud, such as requiring fans to pay a small amount of money to vote, would not have aligned with that goal. They went on to emphasise that the 2018 entry was set out to be what they described as an internet candidate, selected with "all the good and bad things that this entails" and that those who are not satisfied with the wildcard results still have the opportunity to vote accordingly in the live shows.

The third wildcard was reserved for an artist from San Marino. Eight acts (of the 1,050 submitted to 1in360) were eligible to be the third wildcard: Alessandra Busignani, Alibi, Simoncini, Fabrizio Valentini, Fiorella Giudi, Gianluigi Colucci, Irol and Jimmi JDKA. On 20 December 2017, SMRTV and 1in360 announced Irol as the third wildcard during a video posted to SMRTV's website and presented by four time representative for San Marino Valentina Monetta. Irol was the Sammarinese spokesperson who announced San Marino's 12-point vote during the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 and was a past winner on SMRTV's Città di San Marino talent show.

+ First wildcard results – 4 December 2017 Artist PointsPlace Emma Sandström 511 Franklin Calleja 492 Sada Vidoo 363 Tiago Braga 354 Yana Glushak 315 Domenico Caringella 296 Judah Gavra 247 Justinas Stanislovaitis 248 Mahan Moin 209 Rick Jurthe 2010

+ Second wildcard results – 11 December 2017 Artist VotesPlace Giovanni Montalbano 388,6331 Gloria Zaccaria 382,3372 Julian Lesinski 203,5793

Heats

The two heats took place on the respective dates of 9 and 16 February 2018 and consisted of pre-recorded acoustic performances. Each of the 11 acts had one of their two songs presented during each show. After the second show, the jury selected one song from each act to proceed to the final. The judging panel consisted of Straub, Capicchioni, Kossár and Neon Hitch. During the show, the jury also provided commentary and feedback to the artists.

+ Heat 1 – 9 February 2018 Artist(s) SongResult 1 Emma Sandström "Diamonds" Advanced 2 Irol feat. Jessika "Stuck Without Me" 3 Giovanni Montalbano "Per quello che mi dai" Advanced 4 Basti "Moonlight" 5 Judah Gavra "Stay" Advanced 6 Tinashe Makura "We Are One" 7 Jessika feat. Irol "Who We Are" Advanced 8 Sara de Blue "Until the Morning Light" 9 Jenifer Brening "Sorry" 10 Franklin Calleja "Best Years of Our Lives" 11 Camilla North "Free Yourself"

+ Heat 2 – 16 February 2018 Artist SongResult 1 Emma Sandström "Hold On" 2 Irol feat. Basti "Sorry" Advanced 3 Giovanni Montalbano "Immenso blu" 4 Basti "Stay" Advanced 5 Judah Gavra "Moonlight" 6 Tinashe Makura "Free Yourself" Advanced 7 Jessika "Out of the Twilight" 8 Sara de Blue "Out of the Twilight" Advanced 9 Jenifer Brening "Until the Morning Light" Advanced 10 Franklin Calleja "Stay" Advanced 11 Camilla North "Yo no soy tu chica" Advanced

Final The final was held on 3 March 2018 and was broadcast live from Bratislava, Slovakia by SMRTV through a terrestrial broadcast, satellite and on the YouTube channel of 1in360. The results were determined by the 50/50 combination of votes from the jury and a crowdfunding online vote. The crowdfunding vote consisted of the results from crowdfunding, where users could invest between €2 and €8,000 to the songs on the website Global Rockstar. The crowdfunding also entitled investors to royalty payments for streams and downloads of the songs. The ranking of both the jury and crowdfunding vote were converted to points from 1–8, 10 and 12. All songs that received over €8,000 in investments would receive 12 points and the rest of the pool of points will be reduced accordingly (the highest investments received 12 points, and if two songs got the same highest investments, both of them received 12 points, with the next highest-placed entry receiving 8 points instead of 10). The jury for the final consisted of Straub, Capicchioni, Kossàr and John Kennedy O'Connor.