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 winner s. Domenico Modugno 's first Eurovision happened after winning Sanremo 1958 with Johnny Dorelli with a little tune called Nel blu, dipinto di blu after the song was nearly rejected from the songs admitted to the festival. Dorelli's performance is forgotten but Modugno's , arms open wide was something that changed the Italian music forever. At the Eurovision the song placed only 3rd out of 10 but went on to sell over 800.000 copies in Italy alone in the coming years, went to Number One in the Billboard Top-100, Top-10 in the UK. Dalida , once again, made the song #1 in France.  The songs has been covered by countless artists ever since, and charted all over the world in various versions as Volare, and has become the best sell...

  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 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...

Tonight Carlo Conti and Maria De Filippi try to repeat the success of last night. Another 11 Big artists will perform and the newcomers will start their competition with first eliminations. Two of them will make the final on Friday, while 8 of the Big will make it to Friday, while bottom 3 will have to try to make it in second chance tomorrow night.  Keanu Reeves, Robbie Williams, Giorgia, footballer Francesco Totti, Biffy Clyro, magician Hiroki Hara, comedians Enrico Brignano, Flavio Insinna and Gabriele Cirilli, actress Sveva Alviti who plays Dalida in a new fiction are among tonight's guest stars I will be live blogging and commenting again tonight so please join me at 20.30 CET. 20.49 The Eurovision tune goes off... here we go again! Carlo enters the stage and goes straight to the business and so do we: the Newcomers elimination round starts right away! Two out of four will be sent home.... 20.53 Marianne Mirage - Le canzoni fanno male She's propably t...

Exactly 50 years ago Luigi Tenco committed suicide, on January 17, 1967. After 50 years this is one of the most tragic things ever happened in Sanremo festival. I borrow Wikipedia for this: In 1967 he took part in the Italian Song Festival in Sanremo. It was rumored, that he participated against his will. The song he presented was "Ciao Amore Ciao" ("Bye Love, Bye"), which he sang together with Dalida. Tenco allegedly committed suicide on January 27, 1967, he was only 28 years old, after learning, that his song had been eliminated from the final competition. Tenco was found by Dalida in his hotel room with a bullet wound in his left temple and a note announcing, that his gesture was against the jury and public's choices during the competition. Only days earlier, Tenco's wedding to Dalida had been announced. In Sanremo 2013 Marco Mengoni performed this song at Covers night with tears in his eyes and impressed everyone and it may have just naile...

It seems Laura Pausini has had to say "No" to Sanremo hosting again just like the past two years. That woman is just too busy touring the world! As soon as the news broke and her "certaintity" is gone in the rumour mill Italian press has gone wild reporting other ideas Carlo Conti may or may not have in mind. The most interesting and surprising one is that of Barbara D'Urso , leading lady in the competing Mediaset channels. That would be a wise move (and it wouldn't be the first time this tactic has been used) attracting her fans to Raiuno as well. This blogger approves, she's funny and professional. The other names include Miriam Leone , a web celebrity and a celebrity girlfriend (Fedez's). Chiara Ferragni , an actress both on silverscreen and television and another actress Sveva Alviti . She played Dalida in the movie about her life so maybe there would a Dalida tribute in Teatro Ariston as well? Last year Conti brought along also somet...