Always one of the most quirky and unpredictable of the modern Eurovision countries, San Marino kept us on the edge of our seats for a vast majority of the Eurovision 2020 selection season. It wasn’t until the beginning of March that SMRTV revealed their artist for Rotterdam, Senhit.
Senhit is no stranger to the contest, having already represented San Marino once before in 2011 when she failed to qualify for the Grand Final in Dusseldorf with the ballad “Stand By”. Now, nine years after her last attempt, Senhit has returned to the contest to see if she can once more bring glory to herself and the country of San Marino.
But Senhit has big shoes to fill. San Marino achieved their best ever Eurovision result last year in Tel Aviv. Serhat soared through to the Grand Final with his fun and lighthearted track “Say Na Na Na”, which placed eighth in its semi final and nineteenth in the Grand Final – both all-time records for the microstate.
But perhaps history is on Senhit’s side in 2020. Both times that San Marino qualified to the Grand Final, they did so with returning artists (Valentina Monetta on her third attempt in 2014 and Serhat on his second attempt in 2019). Now Senhit will be the third person to return to the contest for San Marino, which will hopefully bring her luck in Rotterdam.
Regarding Senhit’s song for San Marino, SMRTV revealed on Friday 6 March that they would be holding a small online selection between two potential entries for Senhit. The two songs would be available to stream on Senhit’s website for two days during which time the public can listen to each song and vote for the one which they would like Senhit to sing for San Marino in Rotterdam. This last-minute online selection sets two Eurovision records. Senhit’s 2020 Digital Battle, with just two audio-only entries announced a mere two days before the EBU’s deadline for each country to submit their Eurovision entry, is both the smallest ever Eurovision public national selection and the latest one ever to be announced.
Voting began on Saturday 7 March and voters from anywhere in the world were invited to listen to Senhit’s two potential entries, “Freaky!” and “Obsessed” and vote for their favorite before the poll closed 48 hours later. “Freaky” is, much like San Marino’s last Eurovision entry, an up-tempo, disco track which is at its worst delightfully dated and at its best infectiously fun. Obsessed on the other hand is a more subdued, mid- tempo pop entry. Originally released in Italian back in early September under the name “Un Bel Niente”, one has to wonder if “Obsessed” really had the same backing by Senhit’s team as her new single “Freaky!” did.
Ultimately, it was the song composed especially for Eurovision, “Freaky”, which won out in the end. But it was a hard-fought battle as Senhit later revealed that “Freaky!” just barely came out on top receiving only 51.6% of the total votes cast.