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.
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 Per 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 before with Storie di tutti i giorni so maybe that also helped?
Riccardo Fogli (74) who was to become very popular in Europe in the 1980's along with Albano and Romina Power, Toto Cutugno, Ricchi e Poveri, Umberto Tozzi, Marco Armani and others of that Italo schalger genre only placed only shared 11th with Finland out of 20.
Over 30 albums in his solo career after he left I Pooh, one of the legendary Italian groups, eight Sanremos he was, and is, like most Italian Eurovision stars a real Big One. While Tiziana is not.
And btw, Toto Cutugno came 5th with L'Italiano while 4th placed Matia Bazar had the biggest hit that year with Vacanze romane. And the runner up Donatella Milani with Volevo dirti. All Eurovision win worthy! A good year!
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