Maltese singer wins jury vote in (Slovakian) San Marino final

The Schaub-family money-spinner aimed at picking a song to represent San Marino at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest has ended in the only way you might imagine. A jury picked the winner, and that jury favoured someone from Malta. Something that has never happened before at Eurovision

Maltese singer Jessika Muscat won 1in360 – a show widely criticised by Eurovision fans for being out of keeping with the spirit of the competition.

Muscat – alongside Jenifer Brening – beat ten other acts – only one of which came from San Marino, in a final held (naturally) in Bratislava.

The song is called Who We Are, and was picked by members of the public pledging at least 20EUR each to support it and a jury. When five acts reached a random funding cap imposed by organisers, it made a mockery of the ‘public’ vote by effectively shutting out half of the contenders and giving each of the five a maximum twelve points.

Shortly after the show aired, fellow contestant Sara De Blue passed comment on Facebook: ‘The production had another vision from the beginning, so the only thing I could do was give my very best.’

Jessika has repeatedly attempted to represent Malta in the Eurovision, and won the public vote with her song ‘Hypnotica’ in 2014 but didn’t on that occasion have quite enough money in brown envelopes to convince the jury.

Here is the ‘big moment’ – apart from the somewhat low-key atmosphere that recalls a school concert, there is a wonderful moment at around 3.18 where snot threatens to overtake. Enjoy.