Turkish singer Serhat was announced as San Marino’s man for Stockholm back in January. Today, at a press conference broadcast live from Paris (and not the beautiful city-state), Serhat presented his song “I Didn’t Know”.
It’s certainly…different. The music video mainly features Serhat standing on what appears to be a beach, with several closeups of his face. There’s an artistic vision, but we’re not quite sure what kind of vision that was. The lyrics are fairly simple, with Serhat repeating the titular phrase several times throughout the song. It’s also at a slower tempo than most of Serhat’s previous work, although apparently there is a disco version of the song. Such fun.
During the press conference, we heard from Italian legend Raffaella Carrà. She wished Serhat luck, complimenting him on his wide range of talents as a singer and producer. Serhat explained that Paris was a “very special” city for him, hence why he filmed the “I Didn’t Know” video there, and chose it for the press conference. He brought it back to his “adopted” country though: “I’m representing the smallest country in the Eurovision Song Contest with big pride.” Serhat also stressed how important it was that this was a song contest, not just reliant on the singer.
The music video was directed by Manfred T Mugler – the artist formerly known as fashion designer Thierry Mugler. Talking about the video, he said, “I have developed for him a new vision of a man: a fun Dandy attitude; sophisticated and strong; but also charming and touching.” Mugler will also be the artist director of Serhat’s performance in Stockholm.
Serhat — “I Didn’t Know”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waIJ1VuzjyA
While Serhat is Turkish, San Marino has been emphasising the international team behind the entry. The song was composed by Turkish musician Olcayto Ahmet Tugsuz (he wrote Turkey’s Eurovision entries in 1982 and 1987), with the lyrics by Greek songwriter Nektarios Tyrakis (the man behind Greece’s third-placed “Shake It” in 2004 and Belarus’ 2004 entry).
French fashion designer Thierry Mugler is serving as the creative director of Serhat’s entry. In the past, we’ve seen Eurovision stars wearing creations from top fashion designers, but this is the first time one has become actively involved with the staging.
This makes a change from San Marino’s previous Eurovision entries. From 2012 to 2015, the microstate’s entries were overseen — and sometimes written — by the German Eurovision veteran Ralph Siegel. San Marino earned its best result in 2014, when Valentina Monetta became the first San Marino artist to qualify for the final, where she placed 24th.
What do you think of Serhat’s song? Can he follow Valentina Monetta in 2014 and make it to the final? Share your thoughts below!
Ok… listening without the video, it actually doesn’t sound too bad. His vocals are too loud in the recording, though, which doesn’t take too well to when he doesn’t quite hit the notes. He’s probably trying to sing artistically but the mixing just makes it sound jarring. And the English lyrics/pronunciation aren’t great.
But the video is just outright bizarre. If they do something similar at Stockholm they will make people laugh just like I did with this video. It was just a bit too much. A monocle???
Maaaaaaaaaaybe they should just send Valentina. oooo ooooo beep beep.
I love how everyone is taking this seriously LOL
In all honesty, they DID an AMAZING job with trolling the EBU and that was their point this year apparently……
They don’t care about points cos next year, there will be NO San Marino at Eurovision and this song basically is their parting gift…… I LOVE IT.
Bless them, we needed this moment to make things fun !!!
Way to go San Marino for peeing in SVT’s mind lol……. <3
Just ditch Serhat and bring back Margaret!
It is so bad ,that makes me love even more each time i listen.San Marino 2017 :)))))))))))))))
Putting the terrible song asidefor a moment , I feel Serhat is making no effort to connect to San Marino. Dont know how he was allowed to release his song from paris. Not sure if he could evem point San Marino out on a map.
This is so bad that it’s good. What are those raspy vocals omg. Douze points!
Who would even vote for this?
Doesn’t San Marino set any kind of standard for the artist they choose, like don’t make a fool out of us, make it a good sound?
They said they would leave us, it would be better to go out with a bang than this
i feel for San Marino, it’s not the worst song this year
that honour will go to Montenegro and Georgia, who just scream my ears off
and Netherlands in the first half, not a good slot i guess
maybe not 0 points, just very few points for San Marino
i’m looking forward to Czech Republic, song and artist, Malta’s song for Ira Losco and Bulgaria’s song for Poli Genova
In The Netherlands (where I am from) we would call this ‘fout’ . It’s like so wrong that it starts to be funny.
What do you think about his feet in the video?
I DON’T KNOW if this is going to make it to the final, Actually I do, It won’t!
Grow up everyone! This is way more creative and has far more character than the mediocrity most countries are dishing up to us this year; Germany, Belgium, Israel and Moldova are four just for starters. Not everything has to sound like disco or power ballad. This one has echoes of Serge Gainsbourg and Leonard Cohen and at least San Marino will stand out from the flock.
What really ruins this song though are the horrendous English lyrics like “hide into your arms” and Serhat’s atrocious pronunciation.
I really don’t like the song, but when I heard a snippet of it in someones Top 35, the video and the song made me laugh. Gets my humour vote!
@Eric: You never know. This might just be the general idea of their possible departure.
ummmm, NO
Bring back Valentina, please
IF you are going to leave over the insane voting system,
(which is totally understandable)
please don’t go out like this..
what’s the deal San Marino? and I direct this message to the assh*les who picked this song.
why the F do you keep sending sheez to esc? It’s like you guys like to swim in a pool filled with sh*t, because this song pretty much it’s a big FLAMING TURD
I didn’t thought it was able to be worst than Moldova but you do.
We need Valentina!!
@Robin: At least the kids tried with last year’s song. Serhat and his team had at least 2 months to come up with a song that was Grand-Final-worthy. This one doesn’t cut the mustard. If he was trying to outdo Knez, he failed miserably.
Oh, I hope Ira does not make the same mistake with whatever replacement song she has on tap. Malta is probably waiting to see who wins MF to decide which song, among 2 or 3, to send.
It’s….not that bad actually? After reading all of these negative (to put it mildly) comments, I expected much worse. It’s not getting out of the semi by any extent of the imagination, but it’s not unpleasant to listen to, the strings arrengement is quite good. I would say the worst thing about the song is the incorrect use of the verbal tenses.
The video is pure brilliance, the best one so far (sorry Russia).
#sanmariNO surely this is a joke? i was laughing the whole time
@PP: the odds of getting 0 points are lower now due to the new voting system, but I wouldn’t be surprised if history repeated itself for this composer. I don’t think even Azerbaijan is going to vote for this entry.
Ok… 0 points from me. Seriously. This song would sound so much better if it were sung an octave higher. It started out so good with the instrumental, too. But as it is now it just sounds unpleasant. Moreover, it doesn’t even sound like he’s in tune for some parts. I have no idea what they were thinking with this entry. They would have been way better off going with a swing number in the style of his last single rather than a slow, tender ballad that doesn’t suit his voice at all. They still have some time to change,… Read more »
what is up with that eyepiece it’s honestly scary
One word: NO
Bring back Valentina Monetta ! 😀
Really? Is it THAT bad? Gee some of the comments here……….
Apart from a few, I have been ridiculously disappointed with the entries this year. So San Marino have sent something different which is refreshing. It seems that everyone on this forum is just looking for some banal disco pop and boobs. I really like the moodiness of the song. Now all it needs is a bit more harmony in the parts and this could be a masterpiece.
the song is suitable for some sort of Englebert Humperdink, but on a big stage it might fail
There should be no need to say rude things about this song. These people are saying things that can be hurtful, thus making whoever written “I Didn’t Know” feel angry. Serhat is also scared about these “rude” comments. 🙁
Give us the disco!
Actually, the song itself would be pretty decent if he didn’t have this disastrous accent. But the music video makes it so ridiculous I can’t stop giggling. Thank you, San Marino!
Dire! It’s the mixing of tenses that makes the words so laughable…’I Didn’t know, that I’m falling for you…’ makes no sense whatsoever….
C’mon San Marino, you cracked us up with the parody of your song. You’ve made a music video as well !!! Now give us the real thing. This is not your song right?…………… RIGHT?
The best thing about this song is that it probably won’t get out of the semis. The second best thing about this song would be the memes. The worst thing about this song would be this song.
Not get too carried away folks. They might be pulling a “Valentina Monetta 2.0” again. Novelty song on first year then serious song on 2nd attempt by the artist. I won’t completely rule this song out just yet.
This song isn’t the greatest of this edition.
But at least I can listen to it…
Unlike MONTENEGRO or GEORGIA who destroyed my ears within just 10 seconds…
I like it! Some of the song s this year are so bland and boring they are just well bland songs listenable but nothing special this is a risk and the music video is funny it will stand out as it is a slow tempo song well done san Marino
Really San Marino.. you don’t get it at all do you? This is worse than terrible! But the video is really funny because it’s one big joke.
Y’know…this song might just be bizarre enough to make it to the final…if it were more upbeat. Unfortunately it’s rather boring and the weirdness isn’t enough to save it.
But hey…bigger surprises have happened.
Send this to your crush without context 😉
For me this is by far the best entry of San Marino for Eurovision Song Contest.
Brrrrrr
Maybe a few points from Turks here and there over Europe, and from Azerbaijan off course. But not because of the quality. YUK! Together with Georgia & Montengro an obvious non-qualifier.
Wow this song is suprising bad xD
I bet this is going to be popular among the obese 50 and 60 year old women that love to travel to Turkey and stare at young turkish guys.
How many decades late is San Marino with THIS
you are very shallow
I don’t see any quality in making a parody of the great Leonard Cohen … Only Eurovision embraces this sort of crap …
Still better than Ireland, at least…
Geogia is not the last on YT tops anymore?
Oh come on fans, this really HAS to be a deliberate parody. The uncomfortable ryhmes, and then the time it doesn’t ryhme (“i’m …. Addicted?!) the timing of the video is just so delibaretly comedic! Then there are those lyrics about being filled with the light of the moon just before an aeroplane obscures it!! The monocle, the perfume bottle etc. It’s all parody, and all delibaretly executed. Serhat plays the role very well. This is a brave choice for San Marino, and no doubt a last farewell to ESC. I can imagine the fans actually singing along with the… Read more »
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