San Marino participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2008, marking its debut in the long-running international contest. The Sammarinese national broadcaster Radiotelevisione della Repubblica di San Marino (SMRTV) officially confirmed San Marino's participation in the contest in November 2007 after deliberation amongst the broadcaster's shareholders.

The pop-rock band Miodio represented San Marino at the contest in Belgrade with the Italian language song "Complice". However, San Marino's debut entry in the contest was not very successful, with the song placing last in the first semi-final of the contest with just five points.

After participating for the first time, San Marino withdrew from the 2009 contest due to financial difficulties at SMRTV, having originally submitted its application for participation. It returned again in 2011.

San Marino's debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2008. Radiotelevisione della Repubblica di San Marino (SMRTV) announced in November 2007 that it was considering entering the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in 2008, all depending of the share holders of San Marino RTV. Half of the stock of SMRTV at the time belonged to Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI), the Italian broadcaster which withdrew from the contest in 1997. SMRTV, however, officially announced its participation at the Eurovision Song Contest 2008, held in Belgrade, Serbia in November 2007.

As the Sammarinese broadcaster of the event, it was SMRTV's job to organize a process to select the country's entrant. For its first Eurovision appearance, SMRTV sought to host an internal selection process.

A jury, headed by singer Little Tony, was appointed to select the entry from a pool of songs submitted by those interested; the deadline for songs to be submitted was set at 25 February 2008. When the deadline passed, fifty songs had been submitted to San Marino RTV from all across Europe. Many Italian artists wishing to enter Eurovision applied to San Marino RTV, including the Italian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1997, Jalisse. Other entries submitted to SMRTV included those by Massimo Bertacci and Michele Imberti. Entries from other Eurovision national selections in other countries were also submitted to SMRTV and included "If You Never Back" by Elnur Hüseynov and "We Are One" by Alexa from the Azerbaijani and Moldovan national finals.

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