Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

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?

While the guessing and gossiping continues and same names are making it loud and clear they are aiming for Sanremo - from Jalisse to Gerardina Trovato and Al Bano - and some surprise names like Fiorella Mannoia seem to materialize, some other artists are making it known they won't be there in 2017.  Those include fan favorites Annalisa  and Nek , Eurovision veteran Nina Zilli, teenage heartdrops Benji & Fede , previous Newcomers winner and last year's third placed Giovanni Caccamo (but this blogger bets his duet partner Deborah Iurato will be there!), and further Malika Ayane (too busy playing Evita ) and Giorgia (she's probably going to be a guest star instead), Noemi , Tiromancino, Fred De Palma , Valerio Scanu , Urban Strangers and TheGiornalisti . The mystery will be solved in 3 weeks, on December 12. Stay tuned...

Catholic world is celebrating an extra Giubileo declared by the Pope Francis and today it's the special event for the Youth. Olympic stadium in Rome is the venue and the climax of the day and evening is a megaconcert with top names like Francesca Michielin, Arisa, Rocco Hunt, Lorenzo Fragola, Giovanni Caccamo, Deborah Iurato, Moreno and Dear Jack, a real Sanremo reunion indeed! As you can see from the photo Francy & Francis have already spent some time together....

Stadio has won the 66th Sanremo festival with Un giorno mi dirai . They would have the right to represant Italy in the Eurovision song contest 2016 in Stockholm but they have said Nej tack already before so RAI is discussing who it will as we speak. Maybe second placed Francesca Michielin or third placed Giovanni Caccamo & Deborah Iurato? They both have expressed a will to do it. Here are the % of each jury (televoters-demoscopic-experts) They all had the same order: Stadio (44,0 - 35,9 - 40,9) 42,7 Michielin (30,0 - 34,7 - 27,1) 30,4 Caccamo-Iurato (26,0 - 29,4 - 25,0) 26,9  Full results here   Apparently we will know the answer tonight. Stay tuned! 02.07 Update: Apparently in the press conference Stadio are saying they have to rethink about it! Over the next few days and can't say for sure right now. Se parteciperemo all'Eurovision Song Contest? Valuteremo questa possibilità nei prossimi giorni, per ora non possiamo dare una risposta certa"....

One of the biggest favorites to win the festival, and also for Eurovision Giovanni Caccamo and Deborah Iurato have released their video for Via da qui. Is it up to expectations?

Tension is high. Sanremo festival has taken over the Italian media and for one week politics, immigrants and all the problems are forgotten and it's all about music and gossip because Sanremo è Sanremo!  Carlo Conti will be hosting from Teatro Ariston in Sanremo number 66 with Madalina Ghenea, Virginia Raffaele and Gabriel Garko. This festival Sanremo is going to be the most LGBTQ friendly ever with the ongoing discussion in Italy for equal rights. Laura Pausini has been fronting the argument for 20 years, and do we need to mention Elton John? On top of that there's an initiative to have all artists wearing soemthing Rainbow, let's see how that will work. It seems Arisa and Patty Pravo have already engaged into the project. As long as we won't see a dress like Lydia all is fine.... On top of that there's a rumour one of the artists is pregnant. Could it be Arisa? That would explain her sudden chance of heart concersing Eurovision perfectly..... Ten Big s...

Sanremo's 66th festival kicks off next Tuesday but the betting is on, and it seems we have clear favorites. It's worth remembering most every year there is a big favorite and quite often they also do win like it was Il Volo's case last year. As soon as the names were out they emerged as the top favorites to beat, and now more Sicilians are at it: Giovanni Caccamo & Deborah Iurato with their Via da qui . They are young and fresh, both from the same Sicilian town and both already winners: Caccamo won the Sanremo Newcomers last year (and co-write the 3rd placed song by Malika Ayane in the Big category, Iurato instead is the winner of Amici reality talent show in 2014. They are followed by more reality related artists: Lorenzo Fragola (who's entry already exists also in English and in case of a win we might have not only Spain but also Italy opting for a full English song... but let's not run too fast! ) is the winner of X Factor 2014. Noemi, also known from X ...

Sanremo songs haven't even been heard - except by selected journalists - but the betting is in full swing and the speculation who will win the festival (and go to Eurovision 2016!) heats up. As said the selected journalists were invited as usual by Carlo Conti to pre-listen the songs so they can have a better idea when writing about them when the festival starts. No cell phones or anything allowed, of course, and also this year everyone's been good and followed the rules. They are allowed to write their impressions and of course they did and based on this fans and Italians in general have formed already some opinions and expectations.  Quite a few are saying Lorenzo Fragola will walk it. But in the betting the new duo by Amici winner Deborah Iurato and Sanremo newcomers winner last year, Giovanni Caccamo takes the prize. Both from Sicily, as is Mr Strawberry Lorenzo as well btw. It is also said Fragola has his song ready for Eurovision and in English. Caccamo is eager for ...

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 :-)

One month to go before RAI and Carlo Conti will publish the list of the artists and songs for the 2015 Sanremo festival and the rumour mill running wilder than ever. Some interesting new names have emerged among the possible ones. First of all Nina Zilli who is currently one of the judges in Italy's Got Talent and has recently given final touch to her new album to be released. It would be only logical she would try to launch it with Sanremo. Amici winner Deborah Iurato is about to fight it again against Dear Jack , this time in Teatro Ariston's stage. Malika Ayane may be in the list again seeking revenge for her previous attempts when Sanremo didn't treat her as well as she deserved. Francesca Michielin is in the list as well now. Recently she has collaboratd with Alice and Franco Battiato. Then we have Tiromancino as a big maybe, as well as Sanremo newcomer's winner 2014 Rocco Hunt . As for the old glories - so fond for Carlo Conti's team in their attempt t...