The Sammarinese entry was chosen on March 8th during the show "San Marino Song Contest". Leading up to the final there had been months of open auditions which lead to a number of semi-finals. Those that qualified joined the pre-selected big acts in the final. As ever, the winner was selected via a jury. Going to Basel is Gabry Ponte with the song "Tutta l'Italia" (All of Italy)
Gabriele "Gabry" Ponte is from Torino and came to worldwide prominence as part of the group Eiffel 65. He was the main producer of their biggest hit "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" selling over 8 million copies and their debut album "Europop" sold 4 million copies. In the year 2000, they won the European Music Award as the "Best Italian Artist In The World". As well as his work with the group Ponte also produced and remixed for other acts. In 2005 he left Eiffel 65 to concentrate on solo work and go give him time with his Dance and Love. He has remained very active over the past 15 years working with acts as diverse as Pitbull, Prezioso, Aloe Blacc and LUM!X. With the latter, he was a co-writer and producer of "Halo" which was the Austrian Eurovision entry in 2022. "Tutta l'Italia" was used as the theme music for the 2025 Sanremo Music Festival before being picked up for the San Marino preselection.
Gabry is stood dressed in white behind his mixing desk in the middle of the stage. Either side of him are two male singers, dressed in top hat, black jacket, white scarf and silvery blindfolds. There are also two female contemporary/folk dancers and a male percussionist playing a hand drum. The background is primarily green, white and red and displays the name of the song in a graffiti like way. Although Gabry is not the singer, he mimes and dances along with the song and does so good interpretive gestures to go along with the lyrics which touch on Italian culture an lifestyle. The song's structure is rather simple with a quite lengthy verse then pre-chorus and chorus although in some of the instrumental parts there is some football-esque chanting.
I have added at the bottom of this review the performance from the final night of Sanremo, showing an alternate staging .The vocalist on the recording, and at Sanremo, is Andrea Bonomo,. He is also a co-writer but was not on stage during the national final. It is possible the stage show was put together in a rush so there may have been issues getting personnel together. There needs to be more engagement between all of those on stage and the audience - the mood in the hall (which will be very positive) needs to be just as enthusiastic on stage. The singer - or singers - need to show energy and personality more like video from Sanremo and less like the national final. On the other hand, the static nature of the singers made the camera focus in on Gabry who is the name of the act after all, which is also a fair and understandable production decision. I liked the dancers' choreography, mixing tarantella with a more contemporary style, but didn't have enough of a visual impact. The song is catchy and the guaranteed crowd participation will transmit down the camera lens. The only thing is - it is not a bit odd that a song that repeats 'Italy' is representing San Marino? If they get to the final, how will it be made clear to vote for San Marino and not for Italy? Only time will tell...
ARTIST - Gabry Ponte
SONG - Tutta l'Italia
WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Andrea Bonomo, Gabry Ponte, Edwyn Roberts
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