San Marino was represented in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 with the song "Superstar", written by Anderz Wrethov, George Alan O'Dowd, , John-Emil Johansson, and Senhit Zadik Zadik, and performed by Senhit herself, with uncredited vocals from O'Dowd under his stage name Boy George. The Sammarinese participating broadcaster, San Marino RTV (SMRTV), organised the national final format San Marino Song Contest to select its entry for the contest. Over 800 candidate entries from 40 countries were submitted for consideration to the event, which after audition rounds, consisted of two twenty-entrant semi-finals and a final round, airing in March 2026.
Promotion of the entry consisted of a tour of a selection of nations participating in the contest, including Albania, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Greece, Norway, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. San Marino was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the contest, which took place on 12 May 2026. Performed during the show at position 13 in the running order, "Superstar" placed 14th with 41 points, failing to qualify for the final.
Background
Prior to the 2026 contest, San Marino RTV (SMRTV) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing San Marino 15 times since its first entry in . Its debut entry, "" performed by Miodio, failed to qualify for the final and placed last in the first semi-final. SMRTV subsequently did not participate in both the and contests, citing financial difficulties. It returned in with "Stand By" by Italian singer Senit, which also failed to take the country to the final. From to , SMRTV sent Valentina Monetta to the contest on three consecutive occasions. Monetta's first two entries failed to qualify to the final, however in 2014, she managed to bring San Marino to the final for the first time with "Maybe", which ultimately placed 24th. Following four consecutive non-qualifying years, San Marino qualified in with "Say Na Na Na" by Serhat and finished in 19th place. Senit, under her new stage name Senhit, was to return to represent the nation with "Freaky!" at the , however, following the contest's cancelation, SMRTV re-appointed Senhit for . Her 2021 song, "", performed alongside American rapper Flo Rida, qualified for the final, where it placed 22nd. The Sammarinese entries from to all failed to qualify, until "" by Gabry Ponte qualified in , ultimately getting last place in the final.
As part of its duties as a participating broadcaster, SMRTV organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. SMRTV confirmed its intention to participate in the 2026 contest on 8 September 2025, announcing the following day that a second edition of San Marino Song Contest would be used to select its entry. The announcement also indicated that the Sammarinese Ministry of Tourism and Information and the company Media Evolution had reached an agreement to hold the selection process until at least 2028, that Denny Montesi, Media Evolution's chief executive officer would be taking over as Head of Delegation for San Marino from Alessandro Capicchioni, who held that role since the nation's first participation in , and that four-time entrant Monetta would serve as ambassador for the contest.
Before Eurovision San Marino Song Contest 2026
San Marino Song Contest 2026 was the second edition of the national selection process organised by SMRTV and the company Media Evolution. Unlike the first edition in 2025, this year the both the semi-finals and final were branded as San Marino Song Contest and the event was modeled after the Eurovision Song Contest itself. Participants for the event were selected by an open casting call and Stage & Live Academy sessions organised by Media Evolution. The semi-finals of the contest took place on 2 and 3 March and the final on 6 March at the Nuovo de Dogana. The two semi-finals were hosted by and , while the final was hosted by Simona Ventura. The Artistic Director for the event was Massimo Bonelli and sets were designed by Marco Calzavara.
Participant selection A submission window for interested artists and composers was opened in late October 2025, with a deadline initially set for 20 January 2026, subsequently extended to 25 January. Over 800 applicants from a total of 40 countries were received by the deadline. A casting phase was then used to select acts to proceed to the "Stage & Live Academy" phase, which consisted of eight sessions of 30 candidates each. The casting phase was broadcast on SMRTV in 15-minute episodes from Monday through Saturday nights until the February Live Academy shows began broadcast in February 2026.
The selection of semi-finalists first consisted of an audition phase called Dreaming San Marino Song Contest, with live auditions held at San Marino Outlet Experience in Falciano in four rounds: the first on 20 November 2025, the second from 17 and 20 December 2025, the third on 7 January 2026, and the fourth from 27 January to 1st February 2026. Artists not residing in San Marino, Italy or neighbouring countries were able to attend the auditions online instead of attending in person. In addition to the regular selection process, SMRTV also confirmed a collaboration with , a Sammarinese music competition for emerging artists, for a second year in a row.
At the end of the auditions, SMRTV selected the 240 artists who qualified for the "Stage & Live Academy" phase, where the 40 artists admitted to the semi-final were selected.
Semi-finals The semi-finals took place on 4 and 5 March 2026 at the Teatro Nuovo in Dogana and were hosted by and . The artists who progressed to the semi-finals were publicly announced by SMRTV over two days: the acts for the first semi-final were revealed on 16 February 2026, followed by the artists competing on the second semi-final revealed the next day. The shows were filmed on 3 March 2026.
Ahead of the semi-finals two artists (Park and Samuele di Nicolò) subsequently withdrew their planned entries in the contest, which were replaced by two reserves (Yume e Ciro Maddaluno) initially eliminated from the "Stage & Live Academy" phase. The ten finalists were selected by an international jury consisting of (artistic director and record producer), Joseph Cauchi (Maltese executive producer), and Tomislav Štengl (head of the Croatian delegation to the Eurovision Song Contest). +Semi-final 14 March 2026 Artist Country of Origin Song Result 1 Alien Cut Tayma "Ethernia" Eliminated 2 Capabrò "" Eliminated 3 Daudia "Talk About It" Eliminated 4 ERISU "Ghost of Ninive" Eliminated 5 Giacomo Voli "Figaro" Eliminated 6 Lorenzo Bonfire "Ode to Guilt" Eliminated 7 Metiria "Attention Seeker" Eliminated 8 Mrtina "My Insanity" Eliminated 9 4Calamano "Twilight" Eliminated 10 Anna Smith "Bruised" Qualified 11 Myky "Outta Tune" Qualified 12 N'ice Cream "Not the Winner" Eliminated 13 Pellegrina Pibigas "" Qualified 14 Orphy "Rise Again" Qualified 15 Sheila "" Eliminated 16 Star Guy "Star Shadez" Eliminated 17 Stefano "" Eliminated 18 Yume "" Eliminated 19 Ryan Song "Break the Cage" Eliminated 20 Matias Ferreira "" Qualified
+ Semi-final 25 March 2026 Artist Country of Origin Song Result 1 Atwood "Midnight Alibi" Eliminated 2 Ciro Maddaluno "" Eliminated 3 Deva "" Eliminated 4 Elysa "The Alchemist" Eliminated 5 IlRed "" Eliminated 6 Iuna "Freedom Calling" Qualified 7 Klem "" Qualified 8 Luka "Where It Ends" Eliminated 9 Luka Basi "Chicolo" Qualified 10 Lupi Mannaggia "" Eliminated 11 Magdalena Tul "I'll Be Around" Qualified 12 Maraaya "Alu Alu" Eliminated 13 Marco Sbarbati "Pretty Little Secret" Eliminated 14 Maya Azucena "My Sin" Qualified 15 Nicolò Deori "" Eliminated 16 NovaBlue "" Eliminated 17 Paolo Martini "" Eliminated 18 Sezina Kelsey "You Raise Me High" Eliminated 19 UtopiaTwins and Valerie "Fake Smile" Eliminated 20 Xannova Xan "Unbreakable" Eliminated
Final
The final took place on 6 March 2026 at the Teatro Nuovo in Dogana and was hosted by Simona Ventura. It featured ten pre-qualified entries and ten entries that qualified from the semi-finals; an additional finalist was selected through a wildcard reserved for singers holding Sammarinese citizenship. All twenty-one finalists were announced by SMRTV on 26 February 2026, prior to the broadcast of the semi-finals. Guest performances by non-participants included Cristiano Malgioglio,who received a Lifetime Achievement Award from San Marino Secretary of State Federico Pedini AmatiElettra Lamborghini and former Eurovision entrants Al Bano ( and along with Romina Power) and Tommy Cash ().
The winner of the final was "Superstar", written by Anderz Wrethov, George Alan O'Dowd, Julie Aagaard, John-Emil Johansson, Thomas Stengaard and Senhit Zadik Zadik, and performed by the latter with uncredited vocals from O'Dowd under his stage name Boy George. It was selected by a jury consisting of Federica Gentile (television and radio host), Massimo Zanotti (conductor and arranger), (pianist, composer and conductor), Mario Andrea Ettorre (marketing manager at the Italian Society of Authors and Editors) and Roberto Sergio (SMRTV director).
The final also saw several acts receive special awards from the jury for their participation. These included SMRTV's Ludovido Di Meo Award to Pellegrina Pibigas with "",awarded by a press jury composed by Renato Tortarolo, Federico Vacalebre, Laura Rio, Loredana Errico, and Francesca Pierleonithe Critics Award to Dolcenera with "My Love",awarded by a selection panel composed by Morgan, and former Eurovision entrant Iva Zanicchi ()the Dreaming San Marino Award for the Best Emerging artist to Maya Azucena with "My Sin", the Titano Style Award for the Best Look to Rosa Chemical, and, finally, the SIAE Award to Dolcenera.
+ Final6 March 2026 Artist Country SongSongwriter(s) Place 1 Pellegrina Pibigas "" 2 Magdalena Tul "I'll Be Around" Magdalena Ewa Tul 3 Klem "" 4 Maxè "Fever" 5 Iuna "Freedom Calling" 6 Paolo Belli "" 3 7 Orphy "Rise Again" 8 Andreas Habibi Aura "All We Need Is Love" 9 Dolcenera "My Love" 10 Myky "Outta Tune" 11 "Oh là là" 2 12 Luka Basi "Chicolo"Aleš "Raay" Vovk 13 Anna Smith "Bruised"Anna Smith 14 Matias Ferreira "" 15 Rosa Chemical "" 16 "" 17 Senhit "Superstar" 118 Inis Neziri "In My Head"Inis Neziri 419 Edward Maya William Imola "" 20 Maya Azucena "My Sin" Maya Azucena 4 21 Marco "Shine" Marco Cervellini
Promotion Following the song's selection, Senhit and Boy George met in-person in Las Vegas in late March 2026 for the first time to begin coordination and planning for their Eurovision performance. To promote the entry, Senhit toured several countries in late March and early April, including Greece, Norway, Albania, Georgia, and Azerbaijan, meeting with fans, performing "Superstar", and taking interviews with the various broadcasters. The tour included a repeat visit to Greece on 6 April, where she appeared on network ANT1's The 2Night Show, and met with Cyprus's 2026 entrant Antigoni. Senhit also attended Eurovision pre-parties, including the Nordic Eurovision Party in Oslo on 21 March,, the Eurovision in Concert series on 11 April at the AFAS Live Arena in Amsterdam where she was one of 26 entrants for 2026 who took part, and the London Eurovision Party on 19 April at HERE at Outernet, which included her first time singing the song alongside Boy George.
A series hosted by Senhit titled Pop Road to Eurovision was aired in advance of the contest between 28 April and 1 May and 5 and 8 May, where she visited eight countries across Europe and met with Eurovision fans and prior artists to discuss performances and stories. Filming for the episodes that incliuded prior Sammarinese entrants Megara (2024) and Piqued Jacks (2023) took place in December 2025.
At Eurovision