I am familiar with Croatia and Slovenia by name, but San Marino? I had never heard of it before Eurovision. I have to thank this competition for giving me a much needed geography lesson. San Marino is a small republic within Italy and, according to Wikipedia, it is the “oldest surviving sovereign state and constitutional republic in the world.” Good to know. Let’s see how they stack up in a singing competition.

Nina Badrić is representing Croatia with the ballad, Nebo

It’s raining men! But not in the fun, disco way. Aside from video silliness, this is a nice, romantic ballad sung by a woman with a nice voice. So, yeah, nice. Obviously, I wasn’t real impressed by this. Then I found this remix on YouTube. Awesome! Love this. While it’s true that I have a thing for dance music, I do love a powerful ballad. As sung, this version didn’t have enough power and passion for me. We’ll see what she brings to the stage for the semi-finals.

Eva Boto is representing Slovenia with the ballad, Verjamem

Nice song, nice voice, but again, nothing special. I do appreciate that this was a live performance, but it felt stilted rather than fresh and exciting. I wanted to give her another chance, so I looked for a different video. I found this English version, and discovered that “Verjamem” means “Pure Love.” I liked it better. It sounded more lively and her voice had more power. Again, we’ll see what she brings to the semi-finals. Hopefully, the backup singers won’t be dressed as bridesmaids.

Valentina Monetta is representing San Marino with the pop song, The Social Network Song

Yeah. This really is about Facebook. What I find interesting is it seems like Monetta is trying to appeal to a younger audience, while many of the other official videos feature performances that appeal to an older base. If this was American Idol, which has a very young voting base, this would be a good move. I’m not sure about Eurovision. The song was too silly for me. Even though you don’t hear many (any?) songs about Facebook, there was nothing else original about this.

I’m going with Slovenia here, but only because of the unofficial, English version of the song. I want to reiterate that I like it when people sing in their own language and my preference here has nothing to do with language.

These videos are from the list of Eurovison 2012 contestants on YouTube.