The San Marinese final "Una voce per San Marino" was held on February 25th at the Teatro Nuovo in Dogana, hosted by Jonathan Kashanian and former San Marinese Eurovision performer Senhit. Before the final there were four semi finals and a second chance round. 2 San Marinese artists then joined the artists who qualified through the heats. The winner was chosen via a jury vote. Going to Liverpool is Piqued Jacks with "Like an animal".
Piqued Jacks are a four-piece Italian rock band from Tuscany. The group was formed in 2006 and its current members are known by their stage names E-King, Majic-o, littleladle and HolyHargot. Their first releases came in 2010 and 2011 and their first album, "Climb Like Ivy Does" came out in 2015. In total the band has four studio albums to their name. In 2019 they won the main Rock category at the Sanremo Rock festival. In 2022 they performed at Musexpo in Los Angeles and opened for Boomtown Rats at the Lechlade Festival. To publicise their last album the band parachuted from a 11200ft altitude and, on landing, played the full tracklist on the landing strip.
The group members are dotted around the small stage playing their instruments or holding the microphone. They are all dressed in a smart-casual way thought the singer is wearing a black sparkly jacket. The background is weirdly reminiscent of the new Eurovision logo and has a 3D tunnelling effect. The song starts with a guitar intro before a short burst of the chorus. The verse has a lot of repetition and the lines seem to elongate as it goes on and leads quite nicely on into the chorus. This roundel is repeated again before a short quieter bridge leading into the outro. This end part is a little more free form but shows off the singer's vocal range and power that wasn't really show in the rest of the song. Although a rather powerful way to end the song it leaves the ending feeling a little bit cut off early.
I am going to cut this entry a little bit of slack because the setup, visual and audio, has so much more scope for improvement. The technical level of the show was not the best and with a potential carte blanche for Eurovision this particular stage show could really glow up. Given that the band has experience of playing live shows the group might need to be a bit more 'rehearsed' when if comes to camera angles and making memorable visual moments. The song is not that bad but presently feels a bit flat. The ending in particular leaves you on a bit of a tenterhook. Ideally I would like the to return back to the chorus even if this was under the singer's outro (I have no idea if this works sonically) The background also needs to be more pointed and effective, although I hope they just don't resort to playing GIFs of animals.
I find it rather interesting how the San Marino national final manages to entice well known acts into its fold, yet this entry was apparently the best package, according to the jury. There were some familiar names and acts involved, with a rather wide standard of performance, and would have generated a lot of publicity for the microstate and the contest as a whole. Maybe we will see the results of the money-making scheme for RTVSM in whatever props and technical wonders they have in store! Unfortunately for San Marino they have to share the second half of semi 2 with Voyager and Joker Out and compared to them, this feels extremely weak. This is not great but not bad either, we will have to see what they bring to the stage in May.
ARTIST - Piqued Jacks
SONG - Like an animal
WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Piqued Jacks
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