Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Italy took its well deserved third victory - finally! - at the Eurovision song contest 2021. Over the years several other Italian entries would have been worthy winners. In this series I will go through all of them from the worst ranking to the winners. We'll live it all again  (Also known as Noi lo rivivremo di nuovo, or We'll live it all again - Lo rivivrei, or E fu subito amore ) was the very first Italian entry to feature non Italian lyrics which is rather fitting as Romina indeed is basically American. They also recorded it in Spanish and French, and even anew in Spanish in 1982. This said they placed 7th out of 18, a placement they'll live all again in 1985. They were chosen internally by Rai for no special reason at all.  Albano Carrisi (78) started his music career in mid 1960's and soon hit it big selling already millions by the end of decade. Then he met Romina and the rest is history. His solo career continued in mid 1990's and among curious facts he did...

Italy took its well deserved third victory - finally! - at the Eurovision song contest 2021. Over the years several other Italian entries would have been worthy winners. In this series I will go through all of them from the worst ranking to the winners. Fausto Leali (77) and Anna Oxa (60) joined forces for Sanremo 1989 and I recall them stating somewhere they did it so they could go to Eurovision. Or at least Anna did. And indeed they won with Ti lascerò . For Eurovision they instead brought re-write of that titled Avrei voluto . After a very slow start at the voting they finished rather disappointing 9th out of 22. Fausto Leali has been around since 1960 in the music business first in various bands and then solo. Big success came in 1967 and has lasted with ups and downs until these days as he's still around, for example in Big Brother VIP 2020 where he's disqualified for using the N word...... Thirteen Sanremos to his credit, with eight of them with a Top-5 finish between 1...

Italy took its well deserved third victory - finally! - at the Eurovision song contest 2021. Over the years several other Italian entries would have been worthy winners. In this series I will go through all of them from the worst ranking to the winners. Enrico Ruggeri (64) took his second Sanremo win with Mistero , the first and only rock song to win Sanremo until Måneskin. His first one was in 1987 in Trio Morandi-Ruggeri-Tozzi wherefrom Umberto Tozzi went on to Eurovision with Raf instead. However he didn't bring Mistero but Europe inspired Sole d'Europa but Europe wasn't shining too much love on him and he placed 12th out of 25. Ruggeri is one of the Big names and has been around in music business since early 1970's, first in I Decibel band with whom he does his first Sanremo in 1980. After 22 studio albums and over 50 singles he's also writer, tv and radio host and the president of Italian artists football club. After this presence Italy stayed home for three y...

Sanremo 2021 Giovani will provide two names for the Big category in next Sanremo festival and therefor could become also the Italian Euroviison entry in Torino 2022. Out of over 700 submissions 46 names were announced instead of planned 30 due to "high standard of submissions". The auditions will take place in Rome and only eight will make it to the live television show in December. As usual among the names are quite a few already familiar names with some success in their CV. For example Blind, a rapper who has already sold platinum after his third place in X Factor. From last year's Sanremo we have Matteo Faustini, and Giulia Mutti from 2018. From X Factor also Mydrama and Manitoba, from Amici Enula and from The Voice Thomas Cheval trying again. Francesco Faggi is Elena Faggi's brother. She did Sanremo last year and together they have done Italia's Got Talent. Angelina Mango is daughter of late legend Mango and Laura Valente, ex-vocalist of Matia Bazar.  Here...

  Italy took its well deserved third victory - finally! - at the Eurovision song contest 2021. Over the years several other Italian entries would have been worthy winners. In this series I will go through all of them from the worst ranking to the win ners Domenico Modugno (1928-1994) returned to the contest the year after his global success, US #1 and two Grammys winning Volare but he didn't better his 3rd place but slipped to 6th out of 11.  Piove (Ciao ciao bambina) was performed in Sanremo also by Johnny Dorelli and Modugno had wit it another international success hitting also the US charts at #97. Dalida covered the song and made it a number one hit in the French speaking countries and recently another Eurovision veterans, Il Volo covered it, too. Yes, it's another evergreen for Italy that did't win....

Italy took its well deserved third victory - finally! - at the Eurovision song contest 2021. Over the years several other Italian entries would have been worthy winners. In this series I will go through all of them from the worst ranking to the win ners. Italy returned to Eurovision 1983 after two year's break and now I can only recall how the things went in Finland, as I was already a big fan and followed everything in media with a lot of interest. When the first news and reports were out for the previews they stated that Sanremo winner Tiziana Rivale and Sará quel che sará would be the Italian entry. Photos and all. When it was time to air the previews in television it had changed to Riccardo Fogli and P er Lucia because, according the preview host, Tiziana had been disqualified due to some voting scandal and Rai had enrolled Fogli, who just happened to me in Munich already in studio recording his new album. True or false, I don't know. He had also won Sanremo the year be...

Sanremo 2022 rules and other info has been revealed. There are changes to voting, and next year there will 24 Big artists, two of them coming from the Newcomers Sanremo Giovani 2021 selection that is the biggest change really, or no more two different categories. This isn't anything new either as already 2019 this was tried out and gave us Mahmood.  For the Giovani selection there were 711 submissions out of which 30 acts will be invited to live auditions on November 8 in Rome. A special invitation there is also for Castrocaro winner Simo Veludo . Eight of them will make to the televised selection in December, with addition of four acts from Area Sanremo. That's doubled to previous years when only two made it that way. Each of the chosen ones has had to have two songs ready already and has input in decision; one for the Giovani selection and one new one for the Sanremo itself.  As already common, the same phrase is in the rules: The winner goes to Eurovision if only has agreed...

Italy took its well deserved third victory - finally! - at the Eurovision song contest 2021. Over the years several other Italian entries would have been worthy winners. In this series I will go through all of them from the worst ranking to the win ners Claudio Villa (1926-1987) first Eurovision experience came in 1962 (the second one is here )  with Addio, addio that won Sanremo performed by himself and Domenico Modugno who already had two Eurovisions behind him (and third yet to come). Placing 9th out of 16 it quite wasn't the result the supertsar wished.  The song wasn't a domestic hit the way Sanremo winners tend to be either and one can only wonder did it win only because it was a joint effort of the biggest stars Villa and Modugno?  The song that came 4th became an evergreen and global success, namely Quando quando quando by Tony Renis and  Emilio Pericoli.. The Renis version ends up selling more copies than all the other entries put together..... Oh well.....

Italy took its well deserved third victory - finally! - at the Eurovision song contest 2021. Over the years several other Italian entries would have been worthy winners. In this series I will go through all of them from the worst ranking to the win ners Italy has had a real triumphant comeback to the contest since 2011 and they have only two two figure placements since, this one being the other. 21 out of 37. Oh my. It is also the only year they searched outside Sanremo for the entry. Big mistake! Sanremo 2014 was won by Arisa who is wel known to dream of Eurovision, and Controvento . Instead we got Emma Marrone (37) and somewhat medicore song in her catalogue, La mia cittá .  It was like a flashback to the 70's when the entries were not from Sanremo and finished mid table or lower... Emma however was the Sanremo 2012 winner with Non è l'inferno and even 2011 runner up with Arriverà (with Modà). In 2010 she won the talent show Amici and has been a top selling artist ever sin...

Italy took its well deserved third victory - finally! - at the Eurovision song contest 2021. Over the years several other Italian entries would have been worthy winners. In this series I will go through all of them from the worst ranking to the win ners By 1988 the Eurovision enthusiasm in Rai must have been very low as they ended up sending Sanremo 1988 third placed Luca Barbarossa (60) after the winner Massimo Ranieri ( Perdere l'amore ) and runner up Toto Cutugno ( Emozioni ) apparently had declined. So, Barbarossa took his Sanremo entry's L'amore rubato single's B-side Vivo and renamed it Ti scrivo pretending it was a new and unreleased song. And for Eurovision he didn't even bother to cut this nearly 5 minutes long song to 3 minutes but it only faded away after 3 minutes.... finishing still 12th out of 21. Many still wonder how Rai even got away with it?! But Luca back then had already tasted success at home and this Roman singer-songwriter went on to win Sa...

Italy took its well deserved third victory - finally! - at the Eurovision song contest 2021. Over the years several other Italian entries would have been worthy winners. In this series I will go through all of them from the worst ranking to the win ners. Sergio Endrigo (1933-2005) won Sanremo 1968 with Canzone per te (with Roberto Carlos ) but went to Eurovision with Marianne . He placed only 10th out of 17, but for example the runner up Cliff Richard made his own version of Marianne a bit later.  Endrigo surely left his mark in the Italian (and Latin America) music business with songs like Io che amo solo te and beforementioned Canzone per te and his songs are still today often covered by other big names. He did nine Sanremos, placing first, second and third among others, recorded 23 studio albums and countless compilations, over 70 singles and one soundtrack and starred in a couple of films. And talking about films, Luis Bacalov wins Oscar for Il Postino soundtrack and there's...

  Italy took its well deserved third victory - finally! - at the Eurovision song contest 2021. Over the years several other Italian entries would have been worthy winners. In this series I will go through all of them from the worst ranking to the win ners. Ricchi e Poveri and Questo amore were chosen by Rai for Eurovision because... why not? They were popular and their record label was linked to Rai by ownership. Sadly their entry, that placed only 12th out of 20, is almost a forgotten one among their countless hits but for this blogger, 11 years old at the time,  it is the start of love Italian language and all things Italian and I still just love Ricchi e Poveri. The quartet of Angela, Angelo, Marina and Franco was founded in 1967, has sold over 20 million records globally and is still going strong. Marina left, or was forced to leave depending sources, in 1981 - apparently for flirting a bit too much with Angela's man -  just before the group had their biggest hit Sa...

Italy took its well deserved third victory - finally! - at the Eurovision song contest 2021. Over the years several other Italian entries would have been worthy winners. In this series I will go through all of them from the worst ranking to the winners. Sanremo 1857 was won by Nunzio Gallo and Claudio Villa both performing Corde della mia chitarra (Strings of my guitar). It was Villa's already second win but Nunzio Gallo took it to Eurovision and it was to become the longest ever entry with 5 minutes and 9 seconds causing Ebu to set a 3,5 minutes maximum length to the songs that later became the 3 minutes we know today. Despite or because of the length he only placed 6th out of ten.  Nunzio Gallo (1928-2008) from Naples started as opera singer and later moved to pop and won the very first Canzonissima with Mamma , and the year after also Sanremo and ended up at Eurovision. And year after that he wins also Festival di Napoli. And as always he ends up also in films, like all big n...

Ebu has revealed today that 41 countries have intention to participate in  the 66th Eurovision song contest in Torino next May.   Sadly missing Turkey, Hungary and Bosnia & Herzegovina with Luxembourg, Monaco, Morocco, Slovakia and Andorra..... 

Italy took its well deserved third victory - finally! - at the Eurovision song contest 2021. Over the years several other Italian entries would have been worthy winners. In this series I will go through all of them from the worst ranking to the winners. Renato Rascel (1912-1991) won Sanremo with Tony Dallara with Romantica and being also co-writer of the song went on to Eurovision where this evergreen and international success amazingly placed only 8th out of 13. The song is recorded besides Rascel also by Dallara , Dalida , Claudio Villa , Mario T revi , Jane Morgan at the time and countless times thereafter until our days, including Il Volo. Renato Rascel, like most big star at the time was all around entertainer. besides singing and writing songs he did cinema, theater, television and radio.  17 studio albums, about 80 singles, EPs and 78s to his credit along with nearly 50 films and about 20 theater productions he surely left his mark in the Italian entertainment history. His...

Italy took its well deserved third victory - finally! - at the Eurovision song contest 2021. Over the years several other Italian entries would have been worthy winners. In this series I will go through all of them from the worst ranking to the winners. Claudio Villa (1926-1987) won Sanremo with Iva Zanicchi with Non pensare a me, his fourth win but has to go to Eurovision, his second, with Non andare piú lontano (Don't go far anymore). The Eurovision has February 1st rule and Sanremo was held the last week of January and for the first time Italy sends a song that wasn't from Sanremo. It placed only 11th out of 17, maybe giving a hint of things to come if and when Italy sends a non-Sanremo song? Claudio Villa was, and is, one of the big Italian legends with his music and acting career. Nearly 100 albums/EPs, 28 songs in Sanremo between 1955-1985, over 30 films between 1947-1983 and so much more. His last appearance, sort of, in Sanremo was in 1987 when his death was announc...

Italy took its well deserved third victory - finally! - at the Eurovision song contest 2021. Over the years several other Italian entries would have been worthy winners. In this series I will go through all of them from the worst ranking to the winners. In 1970 Rai decided to skip the Sanremo connection for the first time used Canzonissima to choose its entrant for Sanremo. Gianni Morandi (76), winner of Canzonissima 1965, 1968 and 1969 went to Eurovision with Occhi di ragazza (Girl's eyes) but managed only 8th out of 12 - the year after 1969's fiasco when several countries boycotted demanding a rule change.  Sanremo 1970 was won instead by Adriano Celentano with Claudia Mori and Chi non lavora non fa l'amore . Claudia's version .  Morandi is one of the Big names in in the Italian music scene since his debut. Over 30 studio albums, over a dozen movies, countless tv-productions including Sanremo 2011-12 and transforming from a teenage heartthrob to a ideal son-in-law an...

Italy took its well deserved third victory - finally! - at the Eurovision song contest 2021. Over the years several other Italian entries would have been worthy winners. In this series I will go through all of them from the worst ranking to the winners.  Mia Martini (1947-1995) and Libera  (Free) were internally chosen by Rai and Martini was in the 1970's by far the most popular and successful female artist delivering hit after hit and participating and winning several contest and festivals. Sadly Libera wasn't the most memorable one and landed only 13th out of 18 at the Eurovision. But she would come back later and cement her iconic status among the fans. Sanremo having its darkest years was won by Homo Sapiens and Bella da morire .  Mia's career come to a stop in 1983 when she was considered to bring bd luck and was forced to quite the music scene by her colleagues and music industry. (Only in Italy......) It took seven years but in 1989 she managed to make a triumphant...

  Syksyn sävel 2021 had its final tonight and ended with no surprises, if not the fact that three ballady boombastic well arranged tunes took the podium. Out of the finalists these were by far the best song in every sense; melody, arrangement, production and vocals. Antti Ahopelto sung again perfectly and the Bondesque tune ended third after Teemu Roivainen's somehow very catchy midtempo and the winner Saija Tuupainen that balances somewhere between power ballad and her tango music past. Charles Plogman came 5th and Henry Friman 4th. The other placements were not announced. Read more here , here and here.   1. Saija Tuupainen - Kuurasydän (Frosted heart) 2. Teemu Roivainen - Hiekkalinna (Sand castle) 3. Antti Ahopelto - Sydänpimeää (Darkness of heart)

Italy took its well deserved third victory - finally! - at the Eurovision song contest 2021. Over the years several other Italian entries would have been worthy winners. In this series I will go through all of them from the worst ranking to the winners.  Massimo Ranieri (70) was chosen by Rai for Eurovision mainly because he has won the previous Canzonissima variety show and the song choice fell to Chi sarà con te (Who will be with you). Sanremo 1973 was won by Peppino Di Capri and Un grande amore e niente più but he has to wait for his moment to shine at Eurovision for a few decades still! Ranieri, who was and still is, very popular in Italy probably wished to better his 5th place two years earlier but instead fall to 13th place out of 17. That didn't stop his fame and success at home and abroad and today he has sold over 14 million records, recorded 23 studio albums, acted in nearly 40 films, done countless tv-shows. over 40 theater productions, six Sanremo ( with one win ), f...

Italy took its well deserved third victory - finally! - at the Eurovision song contest 2021. Over the years several other Italian entries would have been worthy winners. In this series I will go through all of them from the worst ranking to the winners.  Raggio di luna (Moon beam) by Matia Bazar in 1979 managed only 15th out 19 despite being very popular band at the time and having also success abroad. They were chosen by Rai for reasons only they know but they had won Sanremo 1978 with ... e dirsi ciao! but their biggest hits were yet to come. And Sanremo itself was having its lowest peak in its history.  The band still exists but of the original members Stellita and Golzi have sadly passed away, vocalist Antonella Ruggiero left for a solo career in 1998 as did Marrale in 1994. The last one Cassano left in 2017 so none of the original members is left.  The band has 12 Sanremos with two victories in its CV, as well as 21 studio albums in various formations Raggio di luna...

Italy took its well deserved third victory - finally! - at the Eurovision song contest 2021. Over the years several other Italian entries would have been worthy winners. In this series I will go through all of them from the worst ranking to the winners.   Due grosse lacrime bianche (Two big white tears) wasn't the Sanremo 1969 winner but Iva Zanicchi (81) had won it with Zingara , a far better known song and that was also performed and shared victory with Eurovision veteran Bobby Solo . Maybe they should have sent Zingara after all as Iva managed only 13th place out of 16 in that crazy year of four winners. Apparently she chose Due grosse lacrime bianche over Non credere , a song that Mina then made one of the biggest hits of the year. Oh well.... Iva despite her age is still very much present with over 30 albums in Italian and in Spanish, over 60 singles, ten Sanremos (and three wins) as a regular presence in tv-shows as guest and opinionist. She's also done televison presen...

Italy took its well deserved third victory - finally! - at the Eurovision song contest 2021. Over the years several other Italian entries would have been worthy winners. In this series I will go through all of them from the worst ranking to the winners. Dio, come ti amo! (God how I love you) by Domenico Modugno (1928-1994) is the only Italian nul pointer, and very undeserved one. In fact it's one of  this blogger's all time favourite entries. It's Modugno's third Eurovision entry following global success of Nel blu dipinto di blu aka Volare and Piove (Ciao ciao bambina) and was performed in Sanremo also by 1964 Eurovision winner Gigliola Cinquetti (as at the time songs were performed by two artists each), but Modugno went to Luxemburg himself and apparently managed to insult the orchestra along the way and wanted to perform it in his own arrangement and musicians. Many various stories are around about the incident but as said, it all resulted in zero points. Did the j...

  Italy took its well deserved third victory - finally! - at the Eurovision song contest 2021. Over the years several other Italian entries would have been worthy winners. In this series I will go through all of them from the worst ranking to the winners.  First however, the two unplaced debuting entries from 1956 as a warming up. Enjoy!  Aprite le finestre (Open the windows) was the Sanremo 1956 winner sung by Franca Raimondi (1932-1988). Like Tonina Torrielli Franca's career didn't last for many years and she recorded just one EP and handful of singles and this happy little ode to spring being the one people remember today.

  Amadeus seems to be aiming even higher with his third consecutive year as the Mr Sanremo. First he has changed the Newcomers and Big system by opening the door to a newcomer to win it all, something that Claudio Baglioni already did once resulting in the win of Mahmood against all odds. He is also maybe managing to bring some big guns back to Sanremo, like Elisa whose one and only participation resulted in a win (with fantastic Luce, what an Eurovision entry that would have been!) and launch of her career in Italian. Also Jovanotti could be making a comeback. Add Carmen Consoli and quite a few big names. On the other hand he's willing to bring even more young and fresh rappers etc to Teatro Ariston that will surely not please so much the purists. And that may be one of the reasons for the Newcomers/Big change as well. An artist who has streamed millions but is pretty much unknown to typical Sanremo audience is Big or not? Or even to this blogger, to be honest. Anyways, this is ju...

Italy took its well deserved third victory - finally! - at the Eurovision song contest 2021. Over the years several other Italian entries would have been worthy winners. In this series I will go through all of them from the worst ranking to the winners.  First however, the two unplaced debuting entries from 1956 as a warming up. Enjoy! Amami se vuoi ( Love me if you want) by Tonina Torrielli (87)   placed second in Sanremo, where she participated a total of seven times, with multiple songs and were considered the rival of Nilla Pizzi, aka Sanremo's own Lys Assia. Four albums and over 70 (!!!) singles to her credit she left the music business in 1965 to concentrate on her family and family's music store in Torino that they run until 2003. She has appeared in television rarely after that in revival and Eurovision related occasions.  Apparently she only realized she took part in Eurovision thanks to Francesco Gabbani, as she told the media in 2008. Until then she thought it ...

The second semi-final took place last night and from the very amateurish studio setting and graphics straight from the 1990's, non existing make up and poor sound with apparent problems for the singers another five songs made it to the final by telephone voting. Not that I agree. I would save only these four, but only Eini and Antti Ahopelto who gave the best vocals of all of them made it.  Check the final list all all the songs here   Eini - Mä en oo kenenkään Nomi - Repivää Johanna Pakonen - Vähän valoa Antti Ahopelto - Sydänpimeää

What a surprise! Not. This blogger has been sure since last May Turin is the one and couldn't be more happy about it. Torino, as I wish to call it in every language,  the home of Italian coffee, chocolate, movies and cars among other things, a royal city that has been heavily out shadowed in  touristic sense by Rome, Venice and Florence has so much to offer without the touristic hell that I just fell in love with its elegance and tranquility, beauty and atmosphere so different from the others. Torino is cool and chic like no other! The twist of fate is also its close to Eurovision 2021 runner ups France and Switzerland, so it's even more fitting. The land mark Il Molo gives a stunning sight against the Alps and after Naples and Rome Italy and Rai will be able to showcase something different, modern and vibrant that isn't Milan. The best possible choice indeed. Torino PalaAlpitour, May 10 and 12 for the semis, 14 for the final.

Syksyn sävel made a comeback. Here are the four best IMO for the semi-final one. They all made the final but Anja Niskanen.... which I think is the best out of these, while Teemu the front runner to win this at this point.  Anja Niskanen - Loistaa kuu Miika Mattila - Uusi alku Teemu Roivainen - Hiekkalinna Saija Tuupainen -Kuurasydän