The San Marinese act and song was chosen on February 24th during the show "Una voce per San Marino". The entire selection process started back in November '23 with the first round of auditions. By the end of January, 129 acts were still involved at the semi-finals stage with just 8 of these joining the 8 preselected 'big artists' in the final. In addition, the winner of a competition to find the best AI written song was also included the final. The overall winner was selected solely by a jury vote. Going to Malmö is Megara performing the song "11:11".
Megara is a four-piece Spanish rock/metal group from Spain which formed in 2015. Although billed as an alternative rock band, the group likes to play and mess around with the boundaries people may perceive that this music should be. Very soon after forming they made their first EP and the next year they released the first of their four albums. The band came to fame in Eurovision circles when they entered Benidorm Fest 2023 where they came a credible 4th in the final. The group then entered the Spanish preselection again with the song "11:11" but was not chosen for the live shows, so the band made some changes to the lyrics and was then was added to the San Marino process.
The song is a rather frantic and fact-paced song. The background sound is their trademark electronic-punk mix which drives the song on and on and on. It starts with what sounds like part of a telephone call although not much is made of this during the staging. We begin with verse one and a pre-chorus before the chorus comes in. We then run straight into a short post-chorus and another verse. This time we go straight into the chorus which works better than the time before. There is then another post-chorus followed by a few words in English. We are now up to the 2 minute mark when there is finally a sizable pause. An instrumental break with a prominent Spanish guitar gives everybody a short rest from the frantic beat an crunching guitars. The final chorus - albeit longer - comes back in to fire up the pace once again but then breaks down again for the outro.
The stage at "Una Voce Per San Marino" had a rather basic layout although the LED screens on the back wall were used effectively by all of the acts. As well as the four band members (mostly in black) they were also joined by two dancers initially covered in black and pink fur. During the instrumental break they disrobe to reveal black catsuits with the print of a pink skeleton but also white bald heads! It did look and feel slightly chaotic on stage but I would put the down to the lack of space rather than lack of direction. With more space, more scope for action and a better vocal mix this could look and sound a hundred times better without putting much effort in. At first listen I felt the song was a collection of bits and it took me a long time to re-listen and break it all up before I understand the cohesion of the piece. I feel like the group could easily lose some of the pre and post choruses to make more space for the viewer to breathe and feel the flow of the song. Repeating the "We like to party" line more would also give a clear signal of the start or end a section - especially at the very end. The finish as it stands is a little underwhelming and could be helped by having a real full stop to make a proper moment. I don't mind too much the fact that this is mostly in Spanish as that particular language has that syllable driven beat which this style of song needs to drive it on.
ARTIST - Megara
SONG - 11:11
WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Sara Jiménez Moral, Roberto la Lueta Ruiz, Isra Dante Ramos Solomando
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