ESC's "taking all applicants" national final had semi-finals on 19 - 23 February and the finale on 24 February. Like previous years, they separated acts into two groups - emerging artists and Big (established) artists, with the selected 8 Big artists qualifying to the finale. A song written using artificial intelligence qualified straight to the final, something new this year. Of 4 contenders, The Last Polar Bear by Dana Gillespie, a song from the polar bear's perspective, was chosen.
One artist qualified for the finale from each of the 4 main semi-finals, while 4 others went to the second chance round. A 5th semi-final was for artists from San Marino, with one of six chosen for the finale. Three artists out of the 16 qualified to the finale from the second chance. It was a jury only selection for every round.
The 8 Big artists, 1 AI song, 5 from the semi-finals, and 3 from the second chance round, comprised the 17 songs for the finale held at Teatro Nuovo di Dogana. There were two judges for the semi-finals and five judges for the final, and the original two weren't in the five-person jury for the finale.
Piqued Jacks opened with last year's song. The hosts then started the competition, going straight into the first four songs, proceeding quickly like the semi-finals moved.
Then, a children's choir appeared for an interval act, Sanremo style. It was a long night. The next 13 songs took all evening, interval acts and talks interspersed among them.
The last artist, Spain's Megara, finally took the stage at 12:25 am with their song 11:11.The "expected" end time was midnight. With more interval acts and talking from the two hosts, 1 am came. OMG. Piqued Jacks then played their new song Aria. (It's a banger.)
They then had several special awards, first being the best look fashion award going to Jalisse!!
The hosts called Jalisse's name, and they were nowhere around. The hosts laughed nervously, sat on the floor, and they went to commercial. They quickly announced the other awards including a fan award from OGAE Italy to Loredana. Megara won the best emerging artist award.
The results started with #17 to #4. The top three were announced as La Rua, Loredana Bertè, and Megara. La Rua won an award for the most radio friendly song but finished third. Megara and Loredana were the top two. The audience chanted Loredana's name while the hosts stalled the announcement of the winner.
The legend Loredana finished second though, and Megara won! Megara didn't win their semi-final, qualifying via the second chance round, but the judges for the final were different, though.
The audience chanted Loredana *again*, while the hosts encouraged applause for Megara. The audience started walking out immediately as they announced the winner's reprise. With about 1/3 of the audience remaining, they rushed out the instruments and staging, and at about 1:40am, the wild ride that was Una voce per San Marino 2024 ended with Megara's reprise.