San Marino 2026: Senhit Feat. Boy George with ‘Superstar’
Senhit’s back again, joining Valentina Monetta as a 4 time representative (if you count the 2020 contest):
“Featuring” really deserves to be in quotation marks here with Boy George awol in San Marino and even in studio only turning up deep into this song and contributing absolutely nothing musically to this. Adrenalina from Senhit in 2021 which dragged Flo Rida to Eurovision at least benefitted from a rap bridge. Obviously, he’s even more so only here for the name but that also seems badly miscalculated with Boy George not particularly a popular or likeable figure these days. Not that that the fandom are necessarily reflective of wider audiences but there’s more of a morbid curiosity than excitement for whether he turns up (“yes, yes ,yes yes” according to Senhit). In the end Europe proved indifferent to Flo Rida and I can only assume there’s an active drag on any vote here with more turned off by the overt desperation of this stunt than those impressed. Good for clicks sure, but this won’t translate.
The song itself is a decent bit of funk with Rihanna’s ‘Only Girl In The World’ remixed for the chorus and might be the best overall part of the package that a good showman could sell. Senhit herself doesn’t overly fit this in my opinion. The San Marino Song Contest stage can make the best look like it’s Karaoke night and that’s more of the vibe I was getting from this performance. There’s an enthusiam from Senhit, the vocal is fine and she is experienced but ironically no superstar quality was detected and she’s always been a bit of a frantic presence on stage.
Staging could be anything live and San Marino’s best bet, if they do actually have Boy George there is to rework this into more of a duet which feels far more natural for this song the way it is written and structured. The goal should be to now actually try and compete with this, not just get people sitting through it to have a laugh. Start with the absurdity and go for ‘actually, this is alright’ because again the trump card hope is badly misplaced. Not saying I expect that to happen, but in my opinion would be the better way to play it.
San Marino have Italy voting in the semi final but this is one hundred times likelier to get 0 on the televote than the 12 last year and otherwise San Marino are as isolated as always. Frankly this might be one of the worst halfs of a semi final in memory so that’s a positive I guess for any chances but is reliant on coming 9th-11th with both the jury and televoters as there’s no strong draw with either. I don’t see this making it.
Personal Rating: 9/20
Staging Potential: 7/20
Televote Potential: 4/20
Jury Potential: 4/20
Track Record: 2/20
Overall Rating: 26/100
Early Prediction: Semi One 13th-15th.
Volatility Factor: 2/5 - Money could theoretically be thrown at this and it actually work better live, or voters/juries maybe are duped raising this up, but that seems a very remote likelihood.