Italy's lost chances: Angelo (2005)

In 2005 Sanremo got rather confusing with the introduction of all sort of categories; Men, Female, Groups, Classic and Newcomers. Top-5 of each went on to the final and winners of each category had sort of death matches... After all this confusion Francesco Renga's Angelo came out as the winner (Men) with 54% of the televotes, followed by Come noi nessuno al mondo by Toto Curugno & Annalisa Minetti (Classic), Echi d'infinito by Antonella Ruggiero (Female), Che mistero é l'amore by Nicky Nikolai & Stefano Di Battista Jazz Quartet (Groups) and Non credo nei miracoli by Laura Bono (Newcomers). Many previous winners and/or Eurovision artists were there, too: Marco Masini, Paolo Meneguzzi, Umberto Tozzi, Alexia, Matia Bazar (once again a new singer!) and Peppino Di Capri. Worth mentioning is also Paola & Chiara who's A modo mio was eliminated the first night.... Laura Bono went on to have success abroad and would have been great for Eurovision. Or Alexia. Again.