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EUROVISION: IF YOU WIN, IS IT WORTH COMING BACK? - GIGLIOLA CINQUETTI 1964, 1974


Loreen of Sweden is the 15th previous Eurovision song contest winner who has decided and/or managed give it another try. Only Ireland's Johnny Logan has managed to win twice, as we all know. One can't really do a ranking however as the contest had changed so much from the 1950's with maybe a dozen songs to the approx 40 we have these days. In coming days I will feature the winners who decided to come back after winning the contest as there also many winners who have won with their second or third try.
 

Closest winning for the second time so far has been Italian Gigliola Cinquetti (75). Just 16 she took an overwhelming victory in 1964 with Non ho l'età scoring 49 points vs runner ups 17. She launched a successful international career singing all over the globe in multiple languages scoring hits here and there and everywhere. Ten years later she was chosen internally by Rai (whereas Non ho l'età was Sanremo winner) with Si. Weird choice in a way as Rai self censored themselves from broadcasting the show live in the middle of divorce referendum and Italians got to see Eurovision only a month or so later. She scored this time 18 points, six points behind Sweden's ABBA and placed second. That didn't hurt her stardom one bit and the hits kept coming. She slowed down in the 80's when starting a family and besides singer and actress she started hosting tv-shows among other things. She would host the Eurovision song contest 1991 in Rome with Toto Cutugno (and saving it from a hosting disaster if you ask me) and would still return to the Eurovision stage in Turin 2022 as a guest star.

1964 Italy - Gigliola Cinquetti - Non ho l'età 1./16
1974 Italy - Gigliola Cinquetti - Si  2./17

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