Valentina Monetta

Valentina Monetta (born 1 March 1975) is a Sammarinese singer. She is best known for representing San Marino in the 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2017 Eurovision Song Contests. She also announced the Sammarinese points at the Eurovision Song Contest 2015. In the 2014 contest, Monetta became the first Sammarinese entrant to qualify for the final.

Valentina Monetta
Valentina Monetta in 2014
Background information
Born	1 March 1975 City of San Marino, San Marino
Genres	Jazz, Pop
Occupation(s)	Singer
Years active	2008–present
Labels	Jupiter Records

Early life

Valentina Monetta was born and raised in San Marino, the youngest of the two children of a Sammarinese mother and an Italian father. A graduate of the Giovanni da Rimini school in Rimini, she played piano and sang from an early age. She began her singing career in 1995 fronting the group Tiberio and was subsequently involved with a number of bands including Parafunky, Harem-B, 2blackBluesmobile, and My Funky Valentine.[1] She competed in the 2001 edition of the televised singing competition Popstars. (it).

Career

Eurovision 2008

In 2008 Monetta sent in the song "Se Non Ci Sei Tu" for the San Marino national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2008, but she was not selected by San Marino RTV.

Eurovision 2012

On 14 March 2012, it was announced by San Marino RTV, that she would represent San Marino in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012, to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan with the entry "Facebook Uh, Oh, Oh". She was internally selected by RTV.[2][3] However, on 18 March 2012, a few days after the song was announced, the EBU deemed that the song contained an unreasonable commercial message for Facebook, which resulted in the lyrics' disqualification; according to the Eurovision Rule 1.2.2.g, commercial messages within songs are not allowed. San Marino was then given the option of submitting a new song for Monetta, or revising the lyrics to remove any references to Facebook, no later than 23 March 2012 12:00 CET. On 22 March, SMTV announced that the song and its lyrics has been revised with a new title, "The Social Network Song (OH OH – Uh - OH OH)", with mostly the same lyrics, except without directly mentioning Facebook.[4][5] Monetta performed at the first semi-final but failed to qualify for the grand final. However, she placed 14th with 31 points making it San Marino's best ever placing in Eurovision Song Contest until 2013.[6]

Eurovision 2013

On 30 January 2013, it was announced by San Marino TV that Monetta would return for a second time in a row representing San Marino in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö[7] with the entry "Crisalide (Vola)", composed by Ralph Siegel with lyrics by Mauro Balestri. She competed in the second semi final on 16 May 2013 and once more failed to qualify for the grand final, despite her performance having been voted second only to Denmark (the eventual winners) by the Organisation of Eurovision Fans, OGAE. Her performance gained 47 points and was the best of the non-qualifying countries in either of the two semi-finals and consequently improved their previous best placing of 14th in 2012. Crisalide (Vola) gained them an eleventh place in Semi Final Two.

New album 2013

In June 2013 Monetta released her new album La storia di Valentina Monetta which included multiple versions of "Crisalide (Vola)" and some songs previously available on her 2011 EP.[8]

Eurovision 2014

Monetta once again represented San Marino in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014.[9][10] This made Monetta the first singer to represent a nation in three consecutive Eurovision contests since 1966, the year Udo Jürgens of Austria competed in Eurovision for the third consecutive time. Monetta became the fourth singer to compete in three consecutive Eurovision contests as prior to Jürgens both Lys Assia of Switzerland and Corry Brokken of the Netherlands competed in the Eurovision contests of 1956, 1957, and 1958. Assia, Bokken and Jürgens each won one of the three consecutive Eurovision contests in which they competed.

Monetta unveiled her third Eurovision song on 14 March 2014. It will be included on her forthcoming album, which will include songs composed by Ralph Siegel and by Monetta herself.[11] The first single from her upcoming album, "L'amore verrà", was released along with the music video on 11 October 2013.[12]

During the Eurovision semifinal Monetta made it to the final for the first time in three attempts, achieving her personal best placing in the contest but also securing San Marino's first, and until 2019, only qualifying song. She finished the final in 24th position.

Eurovision 2015

In a video of the official Eurovision channel on YouTube, Valentina said that she would perhaps represent San Marino for the fourth time in a row, and consequently enter into Eurovision history as the only artist ever to represent their nation four consecutive times. In May 2014, it was confirmed by SMTV that Valentina would not return in 2015.

The singer later confirmed on Instagram that she would never return to the contest for a long while and it was her own decision not to go to Eurovision again.[13]

On February 2, 2015, it was announced that Monetta would announce Sammarinese votes at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, Austria. This was met with rather a lot of confusion as Monetta herself said that she had not been asked to do it yet, even though most people expected the microstate to choose Monetta to read out the Sammarinese votes in Vienna. [14]

Eurovision 2017

On 12 March 2017, it was confirmed that Monetta would represent San Marino for the fourth time, in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. Her song, "Spirit of the Night", is sung as a duet with American singer Jimmie Wilson.[15] The song placed last in the second semifinal with only 1 point which came from the German televote.

Monetta has tied the record as the woman with the most participations in the Eurovision Song Contest, tied with Elisabeth Andreassen and Sue of Peter, Sue & Marc.

Discography

Albums

Title	Details
Il mio gioco preferito	Released: 19 September 2011 Label: MFV Formats: Digital download
La storia di Valentina Monetta[16]	Released: 31 May 2013 Label: Meteor Musik Formats: Digital download, CD
Sensibilità (Sensibility)[17]	Released: 4 April 2014 Label: Jupiter Records Formats: Digital download, CD

Extended plays

Title	Details
Sensibilità[18]	Released: 4 July 2014 Label: Jupiter Records Formats: Digital download, CD

As lead artist

Title	Year	Album
"The Social Network Song (Oh Oh-Uh-Oh-Oh)"	2012	La storia di Valentina Monetta
"Crisalide (Vola)"	2013
"Maybe (Forse)"	2014	Sensibilità (Sensibility)
"Spirit of the Night" (with Jimmie Wilson)	2017	TBA

Promotional singles

Year	Title	Album
2002	"Sharp"	Non-album singles
2008	"Se Non Ci Sei Tu"
2011	"Una Giornata Bellissima"	La storia di Valentina Monetta
2012	"I'll Follow the Sunshine"
2013	"L'amore Verrà"
	"A Kiss"	Sensibilità (Sensibility)
2014	"Sensibilità"

References

1. Profile, smtvsanmarino.sm.tv; accessed 24 July 2014.
2. "Valentina Monetta rappresenterà San Marino a Baku 2012". San Marino RTV (in Italian). Retrieved 4 March 2012.
3. Roxburgh, Gordon. "Valentina Monetta to represent San Marino". EBU. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
4. "The Social Network Song for San Marino". Eurovision.tv. 22 March 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2012.
5. "EBU: San Marino song lyrics in breach of Rules". 19 March 2012. Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
6. http://www.eurovision.tv/page/history/by-year/contest?event=1573#Scoreboard
7. Roxburgh, Gordon (30 January 2013). "It's Valentina Monetta again for San Marino". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 30 January 2013.
8. "La Storia Di Valentina Monetta". esctify.
9. "ESC 2014, San Marino: "Disposti a riconfermare la Monetta"". Eurofestival News (in Italian). 21 May 2013. Retrieved 21 May 2013.
10. Storvik-Green, Simon. "Valentina Monetta to represent San Marino in 2014". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
11. Ko, Anthony. "Valentina Monetta to unveil her song in January". wiwibloggs.com. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
12. Jiandani, Sanjay (11 October 2013). "San Marino: Valentina Monetta releases new videoclip- L'Amore Verra". Esctoday.
13. http://instagram.com/p/ooXkwTzbOF/
14. Tarbuck, Sean (2 February 2015). "Valentina Monetta to announce Samarines votes". Escunited.
15. Vranis, Michalis (12 March 2017). "San Marino: Valentina Monetta and Jimmie Wilson to Kyiv". esctoday.com. ESCToday.
16. "La Storia di Valentina Monetta di Valentina Monetta su Apple Music". apple.com.
17. "Sensibilità (Sensibility) di Valentina Monetta su Apple Music". apple.com.
18. "Sensibilità (Sensibility) - EP di Valentina Monetta" – via itunes.apple.com.