Serhat for San Marino 2019

🇸🇲 San Marino 2019 / “Say Na Na Na”
Photograph by Cem Talu
Grand Final | 19th Place | 77 points
Semi Final 1 | 8th Place | 150 points | Qualified
Ahmet Serhat Hacıpaşalıoğlu, simply known by the mononym Serhat, is a Turkish singer who was chosen by SMRTV to return and represent San Marino at Tel Aviv 2019 with the song “Say Na Na Na”. After previously competing for the microstate at Stockholm 2016 with “I Didn’t Know”, and despite not qualifying, Serhat continued to build his career. Despite San Marino’s history of poor results at the contest, Serhat has achieved the third best results for the country, falling just behind four-time representative and San Marino’s sole one-time qualifier Valentina Monetta (San Marino 2012, 2013, and 2014, and with Jimmie Wilson in 2017).
“Say Na Na Na” invites the listener to celebrate the joy life despite the trying times they’re in, especially in the current climate. The lyrics say that no matter how hopeless things seem or how dark the road ahead may be, that you should embrace the beauty of life and there’s always a place for you here to be yourself. Serhat, under the condition he would compete for San Marino once again if he had the right song, wrote the track while in Cologne, and called SMRTV shortly after to confirm his return.
Born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey, Serhat had initially graduated from the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Istanbul before choosing to pursue a career in entertainment. He founded his own production studio, End Productions, and was the producer and host of “Riziko!“, the Turkish version of Jeopardy!, from 1994 to 2000. His international career blossomed with the success of the single “Total Disguise” in 2004, where the single charted 11th in Greece and later led to a remake of the song with Eurovision winner Helena Paparizou (Greece 2005) in 2018. After competing at Stockholm 2016, Serhat rereleased “I Didn’t Know” with Grammy nominee Martha Walsh, for which led to him being the first Eurovision artist to be on the US Billboard charts in over ten years.
Follow Serhat on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Listen to Serhat’s extended discography, including “I Didn’t Know” and “Total Disguise”, on Spotify.