Senhit Zadik Zadik (born 1 October 1979), known professionally as simply Senhit (formerly written as Senit), is an Italian pop singer. She represented San Marino in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Düsseldorf with "Stand By", but failed to qualify for the final. She would have represented it again in 2020 with "Freaky!", before the contest was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, she was chosen to represent San Marino at the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 with the song "Adrenalina", where she qualified to the final and placed 22nd with 50 points.
Biography
Senhit was born and raised in Bologna to Eritrean parents. She started her career abroad. She performed in musicals like Fame, The Lion King and Hair in Switzerland and Germany.[1]
In 2002, she returned to Italy and began her climb to fame in the Italian music business releasing her debut album the self-titled Senit in 2006 and her second album Un tesoro è necessariamente nascosto in 2007 with the three singles "La mia città è cambiata", "La cosa giusta" and "La faccia che ho". In 2009, Senhit released her third album, the English language So High. Three more singles were released off of the record: "Work Hard", "No More" and "Party on the Dance Floor".
Following her participation in Eurovision in 2011, she released a new pop single titled "Through the Rain" on 22 June 2011. In 2014, she became a regular guest on the Canale 5 Sunday show "Domenica Live" and decided to be referred to as Senhit, marking a new phase in her career.
Senhit represented San Marino again at the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 with a new song, "Adrenalina". The official music video featured a rap section by the American artist Flo Rida. However, Team San Marino behind the entry declared that "Flo Rida has been part of the production and is featured in the music video, but it's yet to be decided if he will take part on stage in Rotterdam. The rap part will either way remain."[4] On 18 May 2021, ahead of the first semi-final, the San Marino delegation confirmed that Flo Rida would be joining Senhit on stage in Rotterdam.[5] San Marino was the first country to perform in the second semi-final of the contest, where they finished 9th place with 118 points, qualifying the country for the final.[6] In the final, held on 22 May 2021, they were the last to perform, and finished 22nd with 50 points.[7]
Freaky Trip to Rotterdam
Leading up to her participation in Eurovision 2021, Senhit released monthly covers of previous winning and non-winning Eurovision songs as part of her #FreakyTripToRotterdam series, giving them new interpretations and perspective in collaboration with Luca Tomassini who directed the videos. The series ran from July 2020 to May 2021. The 11-song collection included:[8][9]
After the contest, Senhit released one more #FreakyTripToRotterdam video, featuring her entry "Adrenalina". The video showed her adventures through Rotterdam, and behind the scenes material from her time at the contest.
