Valentina Monetta
Valentina Monetta was born on March 1st, 1975 in the Republic of San Marino. She is the second of two children, her father is from Calabria and her mother is Sammarinese. Valentina spent her childhood in San Marino where she attended primary and secondary schools. She then graduated from the high school for arts,Giovanni da Rimini, in Rimini.In her childhood she discovered the love for music, listening in a tireless way to various musical styles, creating and forming over time a specific taste. Although she has not dealt with an academic background, she had studied piano and singing by herself, reaching the same professional high quality.
Starting from 1995, she has been working with the best local musicians, becoming a versatile singer with a great talent for improvisation; her voice is both colorful and versatile, ranging from jazz to melodic Italian, from soul to R&B and pop.
Valentina's artistic versatility has allowed her to deal with varied work experience as a singer, actor and presenter, and she had even composed the music and written the lyrics to her first solo album, a celebratory work of personal and professional balance, releasing the CD, Il Mio Gioco Preferito, recorded with the trio My Funky Valentine (Simone Migani on piano, Massimiliano Castri on drums, Alex Gorbi on bass).
In 1995 Valentina started an adventure with her first band Tiberio, and soon thereafter formed the Parafunky. She was also part of the group 2Black, as well as forming the female vocal duo Harem'B.
First Eurovision
In 2012 she took part in the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in Baku, Azerbaijan, on behalf of San Marino.
In March of 2012 she has worked with Fabrizio Raggi staging the show Ma Che Differenza Fa, a tribute to Ornella Vanoni in which Valentina shows her singing and acting talent.
In August 2012, still directed by Raggi, she was the protagonist of Camelia, a musical commissioned by UNICEF, in which Valentina presented her songs together with covers of some great Italian singers and songwriters.
Her most recent experiences are all with her live band My Funky Valentine. Performing live for Valentina is crucial. She really loves the stage, having contact with the public, with her band, she creates a fact in the 'here and now' of the scene; in that way she feels to be an active part of a unique artistic process, in which she assumes the risk of transmitting something real and concrete, becoming a free artist, and a free woman.
With her songs, she tells of human suffering, sometimes with irony, sometimes with sarcasm; love is a key element that is at the same time protagonist and antagonist. In her songs, on the stage, she wants to create a concrete fact, without deceit, without covers, making it a unique singer-songwriter style with great singing talent and musicality in the blood.
Second Eurovision
In 2013 she took part again in the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö, Sweden with Crisalide and became unlucky11th in the Semifinal.
Third time lucky?
So San Marino RTV asked Valentina and her producer Ralph Siegel, if they would go for a third time in a row. After long consideration both musicians agreed to take part one more time hopefully being third time lucky and going to the final.
In summer and autumn 2013 Valentina and Ralph wrote and produced the new album Sensibilità (Sensibility) and finally experts and fans have chosen the song Maybe (Forse) for Copenhagen.
