Three More Emerging Artists Advance for San Marino, Former Eurovision Backing Singer Kurt Cassar Among Them

Artika, left; Kurt Cassar, top right; Lorenza Rocchiccioli, bottom right.

Three more artists are one step closer to representing San Marino at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.

Tonight was the second night of San Marino’s week-long national final extravaganza, Une Voce per San Marino, and 20 more acts competing in the Emerging Artist category were on hand to perform their hopeful Eurovision entries. They were:

• Giada Varaschin
• Claudia F
• Gisele Abramoff
• I Koko
• Jessica Anne Condon
• João Paulo & Miguel
• Joe Romano & The Stolen Clipper
• Katrin Roselli (Artika)
• Kimberly Genil
• Kumi Watanabe
• Kurt Cassar
• Le Bebae
• Leonardo Frezzotti
• Lorenza Rocchiccioli
• Luca Cima
• Luca Veneri
• Luci Blu
• Mad
• Marco Saltari
• Maria Chiara Leoni

After the all 20 acts had performed, the jury selected a top eight and invited them back on stage to perform a cover song. They were:

• Giada Varaschin
• Gisele Abramoff
• Artika
• Kumi Watanabe
• Kurt Cassar
• Lorenza Rocchiccioli
• Mad
• Maria Chiara Leoni

At the end of the night, the jury selected the top three acts who would advance directly to Friday’s Emerging Artist final. Those lucky three are:

• Artika (🇮🇹) with the song “Cyberpunk”
• Kurt Cassar (🇲🇹) with the song “Tears of Gold”
• Lorenza Rocchiccioli (🇮🇹) with the song “Non Mi Batte Mai Neanche Il Cuore”

Artika is the stage name of 21-year-old electro pop chanteuse Katrin Roselli. She competed in the youth section of the 2018 Festival Show, a touring music competition festival in Italy. She placed 2nd at the 2021 edition of the Volavoce Accademia Musicale Festival in the Unreleased Music category. Her most high-profile music release up to this point was “Another Time“, and electronic song she collaborated on with Italian DJ Doub7e. See tonight’s performance of “Cyberpunk” below:

🇸🇲 Katrin Roselli cantando en #UnaVocePerSanMarino pasará a la siguiente fase? pic.twitter.com/TZHeWKKgiM

— ESCplus España 🇪🇸 | Noticias de Eurovisión (@escplus_es) February 14, 2022

Kurt Cassar may be a familiar face to Eurovision fans. After winning Best New Talent at the 2014 Konkors Kanzunetta Indipendenza, an annual Maltese singing competition, the singer-songwriter made the shortlist for the 2014, 2015, and 2018 Maltese national selections. He has also auditioned for X Factor UK, X Factor Italy, and X Factor Malta. After meeting fellow contestant Kelly Moncado on the latter show, the two teamed up for the song “Not This Time” last year. He also provided backing vocals to Emelie de Forrest at the opening of the 2014 Eurovision Grand Final. Watch his performance of “Tears of Gold” below:

🇸🇲Malta representa en la voz de Kurt Cassar #UnaVocePerSanMarino pic.twitter.com/lEqK6JoeYX

— ESCplus España 🇪🇸 | Noticias de Eurovisión (@escplus_es) February 14, 2022

21-year-old Lorenza Rocchiccioli, sometimes credited as simply Lorenza, competed in Sanremo Junior in 2015 and has been a student at the Music, Art, and Show academy in Milan for the past three years. Signed to Greylight Records, her most recent single “Fuoco e neve” has over 70k streams on Spotify. She also previously worked as a DJ for a music festival in Belgium. Watch her performance of “Non Mi Batte Mai Neanche Il Cuore” below:

🇸🇲 Lorenza Rocchiccioli canta en #UnaVocePerSanMarino para conseguir el puesto en la final pic.twitter.com/fP4lkouGwU

— ESCplus España 🇪🇸 | Noticias de Eurovisión (@escplus_es) February 14, 2022

The other five acts who made it to the second round of tonight’s heat will compete again on Thursday in the Second Chance round. They will face off with the 4th-8th place finishers from nights one and three of the Emerging Artist section, with the top four from Thursday night’s show rejoining the Emerging Artist final on Friday.

Tomorrow night, another 20 Emerging Artists are scheduled to compete. Come back then to meet the next three Emerging Artist finalists!

Which of the acts that advanced tonight did #YOU like the most? Are #YOU grieving the loss of Claudia F like I am? Sound off in the comments below, in our forum, or on social media @ESCUnited.