It's Valentina Monetta again for San Marino

It's Valentina Monetta again for San Marino
Valentina Monetta the 2013 entrant for San Marino Photo: Augusto Betiula
San Marino -

At a special press conference held this morning, SMTV has revealed that for the second successive year Valentina Monetta will be performing the San Marino entry in this year's Eurovision Song Contest. The song entitled Crisalide, or Chrysalis in the English version, will also be composed once again by Ralph Siegel, with Mauro Balestri this time providing the lyrics.

In recent weeks there has been much speculation as to who would represent the small republic in Malmö, with many reckoning that a previous entrant would be making a return appearance to the contest.

In that respect the rumours have been correct, as the previous entrant has turned out to be Valentina Monetta who represented San Marino in the 2012 edition.

Since last summer, SMTV had received many different proposals regarding their 2013 entry. The television station appointed a commission made up of three Sammarinese professional musicians, and assisted by this commission SMTV decided to choose the proposal sent in by Ralph Siegel and Valentina Monetta.

Siegel has worked on many songs with Monetta since the summer of 2012. In August they recorded a selected number of songs, amongst which they have chosen Crisalide as the one to be presented to SMTV. The song has been especially written to suit Monetta's vocal characteristics, and is described as having an Italian style melody with a modern pop sound in the final minute, and Monetta is the perfect singer for it, both in Italian and English.

The actual song will be showcased and presented to the public at a later date in a special programme broadcast on San Marino RTV, and via satellite and the web.

SMTV has shared all artistical choices with the production team, and has asked for the asistance of Fabrizio Raggi, a Sammarinese actor and director, who has worked a lot with Monetta during the summer of 2012. He's the director of two shows in which Monetta sings her brand new CD and performs the works of various lyricists. The shows are Camelia and Ma Che Differenza Fa.

Valentina Monetta (Singer)

With her first group 'Tiberio' she got her first taste of Black Music vocals (R&B, Soul, Funky, Acid Jazz), while she worked with Hip Hop with her second group 'Parafunky' and started a new partnership with Monica Giacomobono for the Sharm project, which then became Harem-B. In 2002 she released the single Sharp in collaboration with Paul Manners Production.

She continued her collaboration with vocalist Vanessa J and high calliper musicians like Marcello Sutera, Nicola Peruk and Nabuk. In the meantime, she was able to put her love of jazz and Bossa nova into practice with various local bands.

In 2006, she joined the discography project, 2black, a very successful record in 2004 with the single (a remake of In Alto Mare by Loredana Bertè) Waves of Love, releasing the main track VAI with a new single in the summer of 2006.

She has backed performers such as Silvie Vartan, Vanessa-J, DJ Master Frees, Bombo’s, El Ruben, Elena Cattaneo and Dance-House for musical productions, and the New York artist R Fame. She has also worked with Sammarinese band Blue Mobile.

In the meantime, Monetta created her bases, her melodies and her beats, submitting the song Se Non Ci Sei Tu for the competition to select the artist to represent San Marino at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2008.

Last year Monetta performed the song The Social Network Song (Oh Oh - Uh - Oh Oh) for San Marino in the Eurovision Song Contest.and achieved 14th place in Semi-Final One, which was the best result to date for the small country.

Watch our interview with Valentina Monetta talking about her participation in the 2012 contest.

Ralph Siegel (Composer)

This will be the 21st entry into the Eurovision Song Contest for the veteran composer Ralph Siegel who was born in September 1945. He followed in the footsteps of his father who was a composer and lyricist, whilst his mother was an opera singer, so it is little wonder that Siegel began dedicating his life to music at an early age. Has composed more than 2,000 recorded songs and hit the Top 100 charts more than 100 times, with many of his compositions reaching the top chart positions worldwide.

In 1974 he founded his own record company, Jupiter Records, which is one of the most successful independent labels in Germany. In the same year he had his first entry in the Eurovision Song Contest, with the composition Bye Bye, I Love You, which finished in joint fourth place for Luxembourg when the contest was staged in Brighton.

It was however for his native Germany that he had some of his biggest successes in Europe's Favourite TV Show, and after having a couple of second places in 1980 and 1981 with Theater and Johnny Blue, he finally triumphed, along with his songwriting partner Bernd Meinunger, in 1982 with Ein Bißchen Frieden sung by Nicole.

In recent years his songs have also represented Switzerland (2006) and Montenegro (2009), as well as for San Marino in 2012.

Apart from his award for winning the Eurovision Song Contest in 1982, he has been the recipient of the World Music Award of Excellence, The Golden Europa and The Federal Cross of Merit. He is particularly proud that he was awarded the Paul-Lincke-Ring in 1983, which is a very exceptional German musical award given to just one person every two years.

Mauro Balestri (Lyricist)

Mauro Balestri was born in La Spezia in Italy in August, 1965. From childhood he had an artistic vision of the world, mainly influenced by his grandparents and his uncle, who was a painter. Alongside his technical studies he developed a great passion for music.

Under the guidance of Walter Calloni and privately with Giulio Capiozzo he studied drums, and started working in both studio and live performances with various artists and bands. He joined the 'Italian Extravanza' band, with whom he recorded the album L'eta Del Ferro, which was released in 1995. The following year he started work on the project 'Shipwrecks', alongside the trumpeter Paolo Fresu and the percussionist Naco,

In 2000 he recorded the album Meglio Illusi Che Chiusi with the band Exit, which included ten original songs written by him.

In the spring of 2010 he decided to reduce his live performances to devote himself to the profession of surveyor, teaching poetry and meditation, as well as writing songs.

He currently works as a lyricist with Ralph Siegel.

San Marino has been drawn to perform in the first half of Semi-Final Two on Thursday the 16th of May.


Comments