Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

After Pippo Baudo another Sanremo legend leaves us. Bebbe Vessicchio is dead. He has conducted maybe more Sanremo entries than anyone else (or so it seems as it was always a pleasure to see him appear!) and each time he appeared in front of the orchestra it was a good sign, his sole appearance made you in a good mood.  Giuseppe, or Bebbe as everyone knew him, was born in Naples in 1956. He started his musical career with singers like Nino Buonocore. Edoardo Bennato, Peppino di Capri, Peppino Gagliardi and Gino Paoli with him he wrote hits like Ti lascio una canzone . Soon he was working in television and most notably in festival of Sanremo since 1990 conducting dozens of entries, apparently over 120! His arrangement won the best arrangement award in 1994 , 1997 , 1998 and 2000 , and he conducted the winning entries in 2000 (Avion Travel - Sentimento ), 2003 (Alexia - Per dire di no ), 2010 (Valerio Scanu - Per tutte le volte che ) and 2011 (Roberto Vecchioni - Chiamami amcora amo...

Latest Amici winners Riki and Andrea (the dancer, he won it all while Riki won the singers) have a joint affair in Riki's latest Balla con me . Well, he's just fooling around in this party summer video while the rumors of their bromance heats up the web more than Lucifer.... Samuel continues his string of hits with very summery La statua della mia libertà . The video makes me think of Cuba but I suppose it's Palermo? Paola Turci covers Anna Oxa's classic Un'emozione da poco from Sanremo's cover night.  May I say this is almost better than the original...? Marco Carta is trying hard to have a succesful comeback but Il meglio sta arrivando promises the best is yet to come. When? Nothing wrong with this groovy radio friendly song either, it just didn't really go anywhere, did it?

Nicolas Burioni from San Marino, aka Lo Strego from the latest Amici edition offers as an ironic take on summer hits and making fun of stereotypes in the video filled with "butts and palm trees" as he puts it and all the other clichés of music videos. In the lyrics he sings about needing a summer hit, a number one hit that talks about sun, heart, love and the Caribbean because the rent in Via del Corso  is so high and time goes by and as we know, time is money. He nods to Roma-Bangkok - the megahit of summer 2015 - and urges us to use his Mastercard to make him climb the charts.  Apparently he did it as then in the last lines he wonders if anyone will ever listen to him, remember him, the one summer hit wonder.... A very tongue in cheek and not at least offensive, this could become the summer hit. Maybe. As they say in in his native San Marino. 

The Maria De Filippi show ended some time ago and even if the overal reality show was won by dancer Andreas Müller, the singers are having the most visible success. Riccardo Marcuzzo aka Riki won the singers selection and came second overal, followed by Federica Carta . However it's Thomas (Bocchimpani) who's also having the greatest success so far with Riki. Riki's debut EP Perdo le parole has sold already gold and thousends gather to see him in in store signing sessions. His instagram has exploded to nearly 700.000 followers. Also Thomas sold gold with his Oggi piú che mai in less than a week..... Thanks to that both also got to perform in this week's Wind Music Awards in Arena di Verona in front of the massive audience. I'm loving Polaroid :-) Check out their WMA live performances after the jump.....

Lele Esposito. Now that's an interesting story. First of all he's from Maria De Filippi's talent reality Amici, the latest season. He came third and is in Sanremo in the newcomers selection. Now that Marianna Mirage and Tommaso Pini are out he's propably the biggest favorite. But. As said he came third. The winner Sergio Sylvestre and runner up Elodie Di Patrizi are among the Big. Yet they all have pretty much the same experience and number of releases to their credit. And to make things even more interesting he's dating beforementioned Elodie.  Let's see what happens tonight. Will he be the next Sanremo newcomers winner? Will Elodie (or Sergio) make it to the podium and maybe end up singing for Italy in the Eurovision? Or will Lele be the one with success this time around? His song would be perfect anyways.  He has also other goodies  

Sergio Sylvestre (26) beat Elodie in the most recent Amici final and just like her, also him enters Sanremo among the Big. Big he is: 2,08m! No guessing where his nickname Big Boy comes from then!  Sergio was born in Los Angeles from a Mexican father and Haitian mother. In 2012 he visited Italy as a tourist and ... well, now he's an Amici winner, in Sanremo and who knows heading off to Kyiv as well! Life's so strange at times :-). He has mostly sung in English but now for Sanremo he tries out his Italian with Sai che (You know), co-written by Giorgia, one of this year's super guests. He has released one EP and a three singles so far, but his self titled debut album will be released right after the festival.

Elodie Di Patrizi (26) is the runner up of the latest season of Amici, the reality talent show hosted by Maria De Filippi. She's an ex-model and tried to get into music business already in 2009 with X Factor, but she didn't get that far. Now she's under wings of Emma, ready to release her second album and hoping for some Sanremo (and Eurovision?) glory. Emma is also co-writer of her entry Tutto colpa mia (All my fault). However one can wonder if she really qualifies for the Big category yet....

The rumour is back also this year. The leading lady of the competing tv-company could join forces with Carlo Conti in Rai this year. Usually the other channels have tried to do everything to steal viewers from the festival and even Maria De Filippi has done her best by placing Amici final during the festival at times. Now, Amici. The talent show of her creation uniting a bit of Idols, X Factor and Got Talent is currently running its 16th season and over the years many artists from there have ended up in Sanremo - to the horror of purists. The fact is the whole top-3 of the last season is in Sanremo: winner Sergio Sylvestere and runner up Elodie amongst the Big, and third placed Lele amongst the Newcomers.  Previous winners Marco Carta , Valerio Scanu  and  Emma Marrone have won also the festival and quite a few others have participated. Last year Amici winner Deborah Iurato placed third, and Dear Jack , her runner ups did Sanremo already twice, and their ex-fr...

Deborah Iurato won Amici two years ago but her career was maybe shadowed by the success of Dear Jack from the same edition. She debuted in Sanremo in duet with Giovanni Caccamo and they finished third earlier this year. This season the Sicilian won the most watched entertainment series in Italy, Tale e Quale show where she won the episodes imitating Adele and Aretha Franklin and generally finished always in top places proving her incredible singing talent and flexible voice. The other artists she imitated were Noemi, Anastacia , Katy Perry, Laura Pausini , Whitney Houston, Antonella Ruggiero, Lara Fabian and Beyoncé . It's been a good year 2016 for Deborah - how about making 2017 even better by winning Sanremo and going to Kyiv?

Time for another foursome aiming to reach the top12 first and then the top6 and Teatro Ariston in Sanremo 2017, and who knows maybe even Eurovision in Kyiv? Lelio Morra from Naples tried to get to Sanremo already last year and has a long career behind him. He's been playing in the streets, in bands, has won awards as songwriter. His song is Domani , a traditional singer-songwriter song with catchy beat. Luca Tudisca is a Sicilian singer-songwriter who found fame in Amici. and is now looking for life after reality with Il ritrattista , a tender beautiful ballad. Marianne Mirage is an allaround artist; actress, writer, singer, photographer and musician who has lived in London, Paris, Berlin and Turkey among other places that all have left traces in her. She has just released her debut album and is backed by Caterina Caselli's Sugar who's artists usually end up winning. One to watch out. Her entry is Le canzoni fanno male . Marie and the Sun , or Giulia Magnani...

Here are again some entries from the #SG 2017 that this blogger finds worth a mention. All are fighting for the 12 places in the December live final for the six places in the festival in February.  Jo M or Giovanni Mazzara from Catania presents L'Uragano non ci prende , a nice pop song from his debut album to be released shortly. He started as a drummer and is now ready to breakthrough, he has a very famous production team behind him. La Rua has done Castrocaro, Amici and has tried to get to Sanremo 2012, 2013, 2014... and now they are back with Tutta la vita questa vita . Will they make it this time? LaKurA or Laura Carpani is singer-songwriter with pop and r'n'b influences. Pagine di noi   sounds like a Swiss Eurovision entry. Not sure if that's a good thing really... Lele ( Esposito) is another ex-Amici, fron Naples. His Ora mai is a majestic pop tune with lovely arrangement. If he gets through he's going to be strong in televote at least..... at...

Let's have a listen to some of the entries running for the six places in the next Sanremo festival in the Newcomers section. Alberto Guarrasi aka APE'H, singer-violinist is back as solo this time with Proteggimi , a tender ballad. He has tried to get to Sanremo twice before with his ex-band Motovario. Cantiere 164 is an alternative rock band from Savona with touch of grunge, post punk and Italian singer-songwriter tradition. Their Se chiudi gli occhi is a catchy pop rock tune. Chiara Grispo is another familiar names from reality talent shows, from Amici. She tries her luck in Sanremo with Niente è impossibile , a song that could be written by Modà for Emma, and maybe it is. Catchy and easy song that she delivers with gusto. Carola Campagna , familiar from The Voice, has already picked up various awards here and there but is now trying the definite breakthrough in Sanremo with  Prima che arrivi il giorno , a classic piano driven ballad.

The 60 Newcomers are already online for the next Sanremo festival. Out of these the jury will select 12 in the live auditions in Rome for the prime time live show on Raiuno December 12, 2016 where six of them will qualify for the festival itself, to be joined by the two winners from AreaSanremo selection.  It's worth remembering that according the rules this year should the eventual winner of Sanremo festival decline the Eurovision ticket, these newcomers are in game as well as Rai will pick up someone else from the festival. It might as well be the Newcomers winner just like happened with Raphael Gualazzi.... Once again many names from the other reality and talent shows: 8 are from The Voice ( Alberto Guarrasi, Cristiano Turrini, Dylan Magon, Carola Campagna, Frances Alina Ascione, Francesco Guasti, Tommaso Pini, Frè Mont i ), also 8 from Amici, including two winners ( Chiara Grispo, Gerardo Pulli, Valeria Romitelli, Julia Vertaldi, Lele, Luca Tudisca, La Rua, Martha Rossi ...

Alice Paba (19) from Tolfa near Rome wins the fourth The Voice of Italy in Dolcenera's team. The final was incredibly tight and she beats Charles Kablan (22, from Ivory Coast) with 50,19% of the votes! During the show she sung both Britney Spears and Björk,  not forgetting Mia Martini...... dressed like Polina Gagarina.  Italian media is also reporting Dolcenera would be the very first female coach to win it in all editions around the world. True? Last night she also dueted with the guest of honor od the show, Francesca Michielin in her Eurovision entry Nessun grado di separazione .  Alice follows Elhaida Dani (Albania's Eurovision star in 2015), the singing nun Suor Cristina and Fabio Curto. Hopefully her career will be more succesful than the previous winner's..... 

The Sanremo 2016 festival is already the 66th Festival della canzone Italiana This year there are two real veterans: Enrico Ruggeri participates for the 10th time (since 1980) and Patty Pravo for the 9th time (since 1970) Nine out of 20 Big participants have participated in the X Factor or Amici reality shows searching for new talents: Deborah Iurato (Amici 2013-14 winner), Francesca Michielin (XF winner 2011), Valerio Scanu , Noemi , Dear Jack , Alessio Bernabei , Lorenzo Fragola (XF winner 2014), Annalisa , Giovanni Caccamo . No one from The Voice is there but at least lat year's winner Fabio Curto submitted a song (see below) Alessio Bernabei competes against his ex-band Dear Jack , but it's not the first time a similar duel happens: In 2002 we had Franceso Renga against his ex-band Timoria, and in 20015 Antonella Ruggiero against Matia Bazar Quite a few artists have made public their submission and not being taken to the festival. Scialpi and Marco...

Italian artists who sing in English are a rarity. (The big names go for Spanish and Latin market and make wonders there from Pausni to Ramazzotti, Ferro and Nek.) Not many have made a career of it, if we don't count some dance acts. Those who did - Alexia, Spagna and Elisa come in mind - have sooner or later switched into Italian after all. Now all of sudden we have two new very interesting debuts in English. First of all Michele Bravi . He won the X Factor, got songs written by Tiziano Ferro among others for his debut album and EP. The EP was a success with #1 La vita e felicità but everything ever since went downhill and it seemed he'd be yet another forgotten winner. Now he's back with the single The Days and new album I hate music . (I suppose he means music business....:-) ) All of sudden he's very interesting..... Virginio Simonelli , another reality talent show winner (Amici). Similar story, after initial success a career that went downhill fast. His bi...

Emma Marrone has spoken out while performing in Rome's GayVillage. This comes after she basicly didn't take any sides to her Amici "student" Mattia briga's homophobic tweets against Tiziano Ferro and Marco Mengoni earlier this year.... It was about the time Emma! Below enjoy her latest offering, a fantastic song titled Occhi profondi .  "I hope that sooner or later someone will find a cure for that terrible illness that is affecting us, homophobia. I'm not one to give advice, because as we all make mistakes in life, but my parents taught me that you never judge the lives of others." 

Amici talent show is in full swing in Italian Canale5 and this season previous winner Emma is a team leader against the team of Elisa. Not being a RAI channel they failed to even mention Eurovision, or maybe the host and creator of the show Maria De Filippi is still sour her pupil Emma did rather miserably last year? Anyways, three recent Eurovision artists in a same show in Italy is still worth a notion.  Last episode had a special challenge with special guests: Il Volo supported Emma's Roman rapper Briga in Grande amore , and Marco Mengoni supported Elisa's band The Kolors in Superstition . Mengoni and co. won this duel, while Emma's rapper caused some polemics with the text he added to  his another song last night  Imagine , blamed of cashing on the emigrant problem in the Mediterranean sea. Previously he has already caused commmotion with his homophobic tweets in the past.....  Grande amore Superstition

Sicily has produced a lot of famous and succesful artists from Franco Battiato to Giuni Russo , Marcella Bella and Gianni Bella , Carmen Consoli , Gerardina Trovato , Rosario Di Bella , Luca Madonia and Silvia Salemi come to mind from the past decennies. But the season of various talent shows and competitions 2014-2015 is all Sicilian! In 2014 Suor Cristina from Comiso wins The Voice Italia, Deborah Uirato from Ragusa Amici and Lorenzo Fragola from Catania X Factor, now Giovanni Caccamo from Modica wins Sanremo nuove proposte and Il Volo the festival itself. Two of the guys are Sicilian (Piero from Naro and Ignazio from Marsala), only Gianluca comes from Abruzzo region. 6-1 for Sicily vs. rest of Italy, not bad? Now all we need to add to the list is an Eurovision victory :-)

Il Corriere della Sera newspaper seems to be sure it's indeed Emma Marrone and Arisa on stage in Sanremo 2015 next to Carlo Conti , as rumoured for some time now. Tomorrow there will be an press conference by Carlo Conti and the secret will be out officially. It seems Emma has already signed few days ago but Arisa only last Friday. A question of money, it seems. But now both girls are already happily going through the high fashion houses trying to find their dresses for the five nights. Italian fashion world has always welcomed the visibility Sanremo gives but now apparently some are saying they would have preferred the usual top model as hostess - for obvious reasons. Irina Shayk , Cristiano Ronaldo's Russian model girlfriend was rumoured - and would have been perfect addition to the long list of Sanremo vallettes who can't do much else but stroll down the stairs with grace in fabulous dress - but once again money offered by RAI wasn't enough. There's still ...