San Marino participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with the song "I Didn't Know" written by Olcayto Ahmet Tuğsuz and Nektarios Tyrakis. The song was performed by Turkish singer Serhat, who was internally selected by the Sammarinese broadcaster San Marino RTV (SMRTV) to represent the nation in the 2016 contest in , Sweden. Serhat's appointment as the Sammarinese representative was announced on 12 January 2016, while the song, "I Didn't Know", was presented to the public on 9 March 2016.

San Marino was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 10 May 2016. Performing during the show in position 8, "I Didn't Know" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that San Marino placed twelfth out of the 18 participating countries in the semi-final with 68 points.

Prior to the 2016 Contest, San Marino had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest six times since its first entry in 2008. Their debut entry in 2008, "Complice" performed by Miodio, failed to qualify to the final and placed last in the semi-final it competed in. San Marino subsequently withdrew from the contest in 2009 and 2010, returning in 2011 with Italian singer Senit performing "Stand By", which also failed to take the nation to the final. Between 2012 and 2014, San Marino sent Valentina Monetta to the contest on three consecutive occasions, which made her the first singer to participate in three consecutive contests since Udo Jürgens, who competed in 1964, 1965 and 1966 for Austria. Her entries in 2012 ("The Social Network Song") and 2013 ("Crisalide (Vola)") also failed to qualify San Marino to the final. However, in 2014, Monetta managed to bring San Marino to the final for the first time where she placed 24th with the song "Maybe". In 2015, the nation once again failed to qualify to the final with the song "Chain of Lights" performed by Anita Simoncini and Michele Perniola.

...
Wikipedia