Serhat represents San Marino in Eurovision for second time
With all due respect, San Marino is one of the countriest with the worst track records in recent Eurovision history. The country is participating for the 10th time this year and so far only made it to the final once (in one of Valentina Monetta’s four attempts), where they finished 24th. This year they bring back Turkish singer Serhat, who represented San Marino in 2016, singing his disco tune ‘I Didn’t Know’. He missed out on a place in the final as he finished 12th in his semi final. This year he is hoping to improve his last result with the song ‘Say Na Na Na’. Is San Marino going to qualify for the second time in history?
Serhat composed the song himself and worked on the lyrics with songwriter Mary Susan Applegate, who contributed to Eurovision entries like Russia 2012 (‘Party For Everybody) and Belarus 2016 (‘Help You Fly’). Serhat stays true to the disco inspired sound of his first entry on ‘Say Na Na Na’. It sounds like it comes straight from the late 70s. Literally nothing in the production or composition screams ‘now’, but I suppose that is its charm at the same time. In comparison to ‘I Didn’t Know’, ‘Say Na Na Na’ has a stronger chorus with a memorable hook and a climax in the production. Lyrically it is of course very cheesy, but anything less than border on cringy would not have fitted the tune anyway.
San Marino is almost at the bottom of the bookmakers list every single year and although it might seem unlikely that Serhat is going to bring them back to the final, I would not completely rule him out yet. He gets to perform in the first semi final (while all top favourites perform in the second one), which has one less country after Ukraine withdrew. 10 out of 17 will qualify and San Marino was blessed with the last starting position, meaning Serhat’s performance will be the last one the viewers see before voting. The juries might still kill his chances of course, but I am pretty sure he will completely camp it up to give the first semi final a memorable climax!
Review on his semi-final performance:
Well, Eurovision isn’t really Eurovision if not at least one country qualifies leaving everyone wondering what the hell just happened. That is San Marino for you. Turkish singer Serhat returned after not getting San Marino in the final back in 2016 and tried again with the disco tune ‘Say Na Na Na’ which he wrote in about five minutes. That explains a lot right? Either way, he mumbled through his performance, sounding almost constantly out of tune. His dancing was cringy and the whole thing was just so wrong, it almost became right. Almost. Well, at least he brought the party I guess. We will see if he can top San Marino’s best result, which is the 24th place, on Saturday night.
Review on his final performance and result:
Serhat managed to surprise everyone by qualifying to the final from the first semi-final. As expected, this was mostly thanks to televoters. His oh so simple and infectious ‘Say Na Na’, performed with questionable at best vocal work, was put in 23rd spot by the juries, but televoters gave him the 10th place out of 26, with which he finished 19th overall. This is San Marino’s best result to date so he at least did something right!
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