It’s Jessika and Jenifer Brening to Lisbon for San Marino!

San Marino surprised us all this Eurovision season as they decided to amp up their selection process, and open the opportunity for artists across the world to apply for their innovative process of 1in360. The competition was organised by San Marino RTV alongside UK-based talent agency 1in360.

Over 250 entries from 60 countries around the world were received by the competition organisers, and the best of the artists were chosen to attend a songwriting camp, where each of the artists developed two songs with the help of experience songwriters and producers. Over the last few weeks there have been televised shows where the artists performed different versions of their entries, and the judges provided the artists with feedback. After the second round of shows, the artists were allocated their final entries which were performed in the final in their fully produced state.

The jury for the show was Zoë Straub (Austrian representative 2016), Alessandro Capicchioni (Head of Delegation for San Marino), Ladislav Kossár (investor, entrepreneur and philanthropist) and John Kennedy O’Connor (San Marino RTV’s Eurovision Commentator).

Here was the final list of participants:

  • Basti – Stay

  • Camilla North – Yo no soy tu chica

  • Emma Sandström – Diamonds

  • Franklin Calleja – Stay

  • Giovanni Montalbano – Per quello che mi dai

  • IROL feat. Basti – Sorry

  • Jenifer Brening – Until the Morning Light

  • Jessika (feat. Jenifer Brening) – Who We Are

  • Judah Gavra – Stay

  • Sara de Blue – Out of the Twilight

  • Tinashe Makura – Free Yourself

The winner was decided by a mixture of jury and online voting, and the winner was announced to be Jessika featuring Jenifer Brening with the song Who We Are. You may recognise Jessika, as this is not her first attempt at reaching Eurovision. She has previously participated in her home country Malta in their national selection, with her most recent attempt in 2016 with the song The Flame.

Jenifer Brening is from Germany, and was discovered on YouTube for her cover songs. In 2016, she released her debut album titled Recovery, with songs that she wrote and composed herself.

Listen to their entry below: