Previewing the Entrants of Eurovision 2019 – Part Thirty-Five: San Marino

Hello and welcome to another post on The Blogging DJ, where we will continue to look in-depth at each of the forty-one entrants competing in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. Today we are off to San Marino, the smallest country by size in this year’s contest, to analyse their entry, Serhat and “Say Na Na Na”. But will Europe be saying that when he has performed in Tel Aviv?

Selection Process

After choosing their entry through a national final where they allowed acts from all over Europe to compete in 2018, the Sammarinese broadcaster SMRTV reverted to internally selecting their entry for this edition of the contest. On the 21st of January, they announced that Serhat, who claimed the country’s second-best result in 2016 (12th in SF), with “I Didn’t Know”, would return as their representative. His song, “Say Na Na Na”, was released on the 7th of March. It has also been announced that San Marino will close out the first semi-final, performing in slot number seventeen.

Music Video

The Blogging DJ’s Review

This is definitely better than Serhat’s last effort in respect to having this song built from scratch in his trademark disco/dance genre, instead of awkwardly throwing it on top of a terrible song. I thought it was a fun listen the first time I heard it, as they are aiming for that cheesy sound and hit their mark. However on repeat listens, it does become a bit flat and one-dimensional, like it’s on a three minute loop. Let’s be honest here, it is not the deepest song in the world but Eurovision needs songs like this to be a welcome relief from the darker songs and ballads. With that being said, being last in the running order is probably a good thing because juries may well crucify this, whereas the public may respond to it. I’m interested to see whether this qualifies. 6.5

Live Performance Video

Odds

According to Oddschecker, you can currently get odds ranging from 100/1 to 350/1 on San Marino winning the Eurovision Song Contest. Whilst this puts them near to the bottom with the bookmakers, it is worth noting that they will be closing the semi-final. If you believe in the song’s chances enough, it might be worth putting a punt on them qualifying for the Grand Final.

Record at Eurovision

San Marino have competed in the Eurovision Song Contest nine times since making their debut in the 2008 contest. They have only qualified for the Grand Final once, in 2014. That year, the woman who holds the record for appearing in the contest on the most occasions, Valentina Monetta, finished in twenty-fourth place with “Maybe”. Last year, the experimental national final called 1 in 360 combined a German rapper/singer with a Maltese singer, performing in English with tiny robots on the stage. Unfortunately for them, “Who We Are” could only come seventeenth in their semi-final.

So what do you make of the Sammarinese entry? Does it make you dance or make you say “No No No”? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below! There are still many articles planned in between now and the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 so subscribe to the site to get notified about when I post, and stay tuned for more country previews in the coming days.