This article forms part of the OnEurope archive and was originally published on oneurope.co.uk. It has been permanently migrated to oneurope.net, the official home of OnEurope.
Imagine, if you will, an ant standing next to an elephant, going “DUUHHH DUHHH DUUUHHHH MILLION VOIIIIICES. DUH DUHHHH DUHHH WON’T BE LOOOOONELY ANYMORE” in fabulously reckless mocking tones.
That was my immediate mental picture of San Marino’s Chain of Lights — although, to be strictly accurate, it was not actually performed immediately after Russia. San Marino’s 2015 entry was performed by Anita Simoncini and Michele Perniola, while Russia had Polina Gagarina singing A Million Voices in the other semi-final.
Still, the thematic contrast I was imagining remains: Earth in space – check. Peace and lurrrrve – check. Make the world better for us all because we’re all alike underneath – check. Cliché hell – hell yeah.
Chain of Lights was San Marino’s internally selected entry, presented in March 2015 after the broadcaster announced the teenage duet in November 2014. Its central image was a collective chain of light: people lighting candles, joining together and changing reality through peace, love and togetherness. Simoncini and Perniola also both brought recent San Marino Junior Eurovision experience to the senior contest.
I’m going to redesignate it from “serious effort” to “straight-faced parody entry”, because in that light it’s really slickly and professionally done and I can say genuinely positive things about the performance. Meh.
In the event, San Marino performed third in the second semi-final in Vienna on 21 May 2015, finished 16th of 17 entries with 11 points, and did not qualify for the grand final. A small country, a large message, and not quite enough voting love.
