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BLOGILKAR EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: ALESSANDRO CAPICCHIONI

Alessandro Capicchioni, the Sammarinese Head of Delegation concludes the round of interviews with San Marino team. What kind of ideas San Marino has for hosting the contest should they win? Who he would like to represent them? Why they don't have a big Italian artists representing them? And who was the one who tried? What do Georgian drivers do with promo material? Read it all here:

Alessandro, back in Eurovision again. With the same team but a completely different response by the fans. How does it feel?
Well, it feels very good indeed.
How scared are you that you will do very well this year?
It's too early for real worries. I mean, if we win our semifinal and during the final we have 100 points more than the second and only three countries left to vote, well, then I would start to worry. But seriously, we're such a small country and everything is twice harder for us than for a regualar one. This success among fans may, and I say may, help us to get to the final.
Are you in the contest to win or would you prefer ”only” 2nd place like Iceland in 2009 in the middle of the economical crisis?
I love second places! We're not in a crisis, it's Italy, and they try to screw us! :)
If San Marino should win, what would happen? That must have crossed your mind, at some point. Would the contest go to Italy instead?
Well, all possibilities are open. We would have a serious problem in terms of infrastructures and number of hotel rooms. And the TV hasn't got enough people to take care of the event, true. But we could think of an open air structure, or hire some of the thousands hotel in Rimini, which is only 15 km far from here. But what about a yacht where all delegations could stay, anchored 200mt from the beach, shuttle boats every 15 mins for all the press and fans that would stay on the shore instead?
In the presentation show you seemed hesitant about Crisalide staying in Italian. Why was that? Don't you think Italian will work better than English? Foreigners love the Italian langauge and fans have been asking for an Italian song for years.....
True, all my doubts slipped away during these weeks.
How important it is to you to have a Sammarinese artist?
Our country is based on a strong feeling of being 'Sammarinese'. That permitted us to stay indipendent from Italy throughout the centuries and this feeling is somehow left in San Marino. We will try to have Sammarinese artists everytime we can.
Would you like to have a fully Sammarinese team next year? Or could there be one? Even Miodio was partly Italian, wasn't it?
The band Miodio was formed by two Sammarinese and three Italian boys, while the management was from Rome. Right now I think it's impossible to have a fully Sammarinese participation because we do not have strong production companies nor managements in the country. This year we have a record: stage made up of Sammarinese artists, video shooted in our TV studios, art direction by a young Sammarinese artist...who could ask more?
In the past the ministates like Monaco and Luxembourg usually ”hired” singers abroad, mostly France, to represent them in the Eurovision. Why hasn't San Marino taken this easy way out taking some big Italian name with fame in Europe, names like Paola & Chiara, Alexia, Giorgia come to mind.....
We had an even bigger Italian name among the proposals we received but the fact is that Italian music industry is quite old fashioned for the ESC and they don't seem to be in tune with the needs of such a big European contest. Things are slowly changing, nevertheless.
If you could get anyone you wanted to sing for San Marino, who would it be? A dream artist?
U2 :)
You are already an Eurovision veteran, so to speak. How demanding is the work as HoD? Do you have time to enjoy your time in the contest or is it run run run all the time?
Most of the time you have no time, yes it's run run run all the time. You have rare moments in which you enjoy what you're doing, meeting some 'old' friends, gaining new European collaborations, recalling same good experiences of the previous years. I will relax a bit in Malmo, probably.
What is your happiest moment in Eurovision as HoD?
The 2011 promo tour in half Europe, 11 countries, and the discovery of the Caucasus countries where I never was before, their cities, their habits, their outstanding hospitality.
And the funniest?
Well, back in 2011 again, Tblisi-Yerevan by car, hired driver who could only Georgian and...Russian, which are languages we are not typically keen of here in southern Europe. We let a bag with all the promo material in the car and when we're back we find that he threw everything away, thinking it was rubbish. Big discussion, first English-Russian then switched into Italian-Russian, considering that the result was the same: total incomprehension. Then silence during the 5 hours of return trip to Tblisi. Once back to the hotel the driver explodes in a 15 mins long apology in Georgian with the reception host. That was funny.
Is there something you would have done differently in the past participations if you could turn back the time?
I would have pushed more the TV for the JESC in 2011.
Back to present. Is everything ready for Malmö 2013?
No, of course, it's never ready but we'll be in Malmo with a very good staging, I think.
Why should my readers vote for San Marino on May 16?
Well, if you like the song and the singer, just vote it!
Thank you Alessandro for the interview. 

Read the other interviews, too. Valentina Monetta is here, lyricist Mauro Balestri here, art director Fabrizio Raggi here. I also interviewed composer and Mr Eurovision himself, Ralph Siegel last year, here.

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