San Marino: Serhat's song for Eurovision 2019 released – "Say Na Na Na"

The Sammarinese broadcaster announced back in January that the Turkish born singer Serhat will return to the Eurovision stage. He previously represented San Marino in 2016 with I Didn't Know, which finished 12th in Semi-final 1.

Serhat was picked internally by the Sammarinese broadcaster, and now his song for Eurovision Song Contest 2019 has been released: Say na na na:

Serhat

Serhat Hacıpaşalıoğlu (51) was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey, and is a singer, producer and television presenter. He has been hosting several shows on Turkish TV in the 90s and 00s. It started with the quiz-show "Jeopardy!" ("Riziko!") on Turkish TRT back in 1994. His musical career started in 1997 where he released his first singles.

Serhat has been working in both France, Germany and Greece, and in 2016 Serhat was revealed as the Sammarinese artist at Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with I Didn't Know, which finished 12th in Semi-final 1.

When Serhat was announced as the Sammarinese participant, he said:

– San Marino is always in my heart, our friendship lasts forever and ESC 2016 was probably one of the best memories of my career. Despite my tight schedule, it didn’t take me long to decide. I am very proud to represent San Marino for the second time.

During the press conference, Carlo Romeo, general director of SMRTV explained their choice:

– When we started to plan the next edition of ESC, we realized that this participation will be our 10th entry. It is a "round" number, an important goal for us, and we thought that we should celebrate our anniversary in Israel, with someone special. We were always in touch with Serhat during the last two years and now after 2016, we are fully empowered and believe that Serhat being full of interesting ideas, is the right choice in the right moment.

Carlo Romeo continued:

– The choice fell on Serhat because we believe in experience. Like Valentina Monetta, entry in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2017, reached the final after two tries, SMRTV hopes it happens again with Serhat. The choice of the singer has been a hard work, lasted from June to Christmas.

San Marino in Eurovision Song Contest

San Marino is one of the newest – and smallest Eurovision countries.

They have been participating nine times since their first Eurovision Song Contest in 2008. But not with great succes. In eight out of nine participations they didn't manage to qualify for the Grand Final. San Marino qualified for the Grand Final for the first – and only – time in 2014. The worst results were in 2017 and 2008, where they came last in their Semi-final.