Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

    It's almost 24 hours since the artists for Sanremo festival 2018 were announced and as Italian Eurovision fans are in despair for the passable Eurovision artists among the artist chosen by Claudio Baglioni and his team two things are rather striking at first glance: It's nearly all male cast. And most of them are... err... rather elderly.  In fact, with a quick count (excluding the groups) the average age is 51,5 years. Giovanni Caccamo is the youngest at 28 (and the only under 30) while Ornella Vanoni is already 83... She's one of the four female singers among the big with Nina Zilli, Noemi and Annalisa .  The media had most of the acts right beforehand but some like Ron came out of the blue, as well as the artists performing with discussed artists in duets or trio: Diodato, Bungaro, Pacifico and Peppe Servillo. Max Gazzé was mentioned (and I forgot to add him in my previous post below, oops) Several previous winners are in the list: I Pooh won ...

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 ...

Rumors, rumors, rumors. I already wrote here about the possible Sanremo 2016 names but as the date December 13 is coming closer, the rumor mill is just getting wilder and new names are coming up. The most interesting one is Ricchi e Poveri ! But with a twist: there might be a reunion with Marina Occhiena , the original 4th member who was fired back in 1981 in a scandal involving her and Angela's husband or something.... Could it be that after 35 years they would be again in talking, or rather singing terms? It all ended in Sanremo and could restart in Sanremo? Other names that have come up are Patty Pravo , Loredana Bertè , Paolo Vallesi, two newcomers Amara and Levante who might just not qualify to be among big ones. Rocco Hunt is a newcomers winner so he could make it instead. Then we have Negrita , Francesco Renga once again, Daniele Silvestri and those crazy Elio e le Storie Tese . Marco Carta and Valerio Scanu , two previous young winners are among the rumored on...

Sanremo might or might not be the selection method for the Eurovision 2015 for Italy. In the past days RAI has confirmed its presence in Vienna to a huge relief of those Italian (and not only) fans who were in doubt and still can't believe Italy is back in game for real. Among the fans the speculation and opinions run wild if Sanremo will be linked with Eurovision, and also should it be at all? One possibility is that the artist will be selected internally beforehand and will still take part in Sanremo, and whatever the result, will go to Vienna anyways. Or then it simply has nothing to do with Sanremo 2015. This blogger would love to see Arisa , this year's winner to have her chance now as she seemed more than eager to do Eurovision this year and seems to be well aware of what it is all about. Another name I want to push forward (again) is Giorgia . She should have gone already back in 1995 when she won Sanremo and was apparently not so happy about Italy's non-partici...

L'essenziale , the winning song of Sanremo 2013 by Marco Mengoni has shot to number one in both downloads and radio play in Italy. His other song Bellissimo is also in downloads at #17 when writing this but has practically zero radioplay. Meanwhile and English 3-minute cover version of the first one has emerged.... The runner ups Modà are #2 in both charts with their Se si potesse non morire . Their other song Come l'acqua dentro il mare is #20 in downloads and #19 in radioplay. Elio e le storie tese's La canzone mononota is #3 in downloads and #5 in radioplay. The other one, Dannati forever is #18 in radios and #45 in downloads. So, at least in downloads the top-3 is the same and in same order.  In downloads we have at #4 the Newcomers winner Antonio Maggio with his Mi servirebbe sapere and Malika Ayane at #5 with E se poi . In total 8 songs in top-10 are from Sanremo, and 16 in Top-20. In radio Chiara and Malika are played more than Elio. Marco Mengoni...

Today's gossip and rumor from Sanremo tells that Elio e le storie tese will invite the Italian Stallion Rocco Siffredi to duet with them on Friday night's Sanremo Story. That would be a new adventure to this man of large talents. He's CV includes some 450 movies as an actor and over 250 as a director in adult business that have earned him countless awards, a couple of mainstream movies, Italian TV-ads for snacks, a SMS service and he used to be a fashion model as well. Plus the very Elio e le storie tese wrote a song about him, Rocco e le storie tese that Rocco directed the video for. Has Siffredi and porn come so mainstream that he is welcomed to the stage of Teatro Ariston? We'll see....