Meneguzzi was chosen by the Swiss national broadcaster, SRG SSR idée suisse, to sing for Switzerland in Belgrade, Serbia.

Their second and, to this point, most recent victory was achieved at the 1988, when Céline Dion won with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi".

In 2005, the internal selection of Estonian girl band Vanilla Ninja, performing the song "Cool Vibes", qualified Switzerland to the final where they placed 8th.

SRG SSR idée suisse opened a submission period between 20 July 2007 and 22 October 2007 for interested artists and composers to submit their entries.

[3] Eligible artists were those that have had television and stage experience (live performances), have made at least one video and have released at least one CD which placed among the top 50 in an official chart.

In addition to the public submission, the broadcaster was also in contact with individual composers and lyricists as well as the music industry to be involved in the selection process.

[12] "Era stupendo", which was written by Paolo Meneguzzi together with Mattias Brånn and Vincenzo Incenzo, was presented to the public on 12 January 2008 during the annual SwissAward show broadcast on SF1, TSR 2 and TSI 2.

[23] The 2008 contest was the first to feature two semi-finals, a change intended to reduce the problems of neighbourly and diaspora voting that occurred in years past.

[26] The commentators at the event were Sven Epiney for SF, Sandy Altermatt for RTSI, and Jean-Marc Richard and Nicolas Tanner for TSR.