Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

The third night goes on as similar way as the second: first the Newcomer finalist will battle out the victory (it has been moved from Friday to Thursday) and then the rest of the Big will perform for the second time. Tonight's guest hosts are actress, hostess, model and Miss Italy 2008 Miriam Leone,  singer and media celebrity Elettra Lamborghini and comedian and hostess Katia Follesa. The guest acts are Eurovision veteran Ermal Meta and Sanremo veterans Duran Duran - for their 5th time! First time was 40 years ago and the last 17 years ago. They equal Take That with most visits as guest in the festival with this visit. Eurovision veteran Iva Zanicchi will receive a lifetime award. And Edoardo Bennato will open the show tonight. The voting is for the Newcomers aka Nuove proposte Press, TV and web (33%), Radio (33%) and televote (34%). For the Big it's Radio (50%) and televote (50%). The Top-5 of the evening will be announced in random order, and then the votes will be added to ...

Tonight is the cover night. The artists perform songs of their choice with guest stars which means the Eurovision veterans Mahmood, Ricchi e Poveri, Emma, Il Volo will be joined by Francesco Gabbani, Umberto Tozzi, Fabrizio Moro and Ermal Meta (and tomorrow we will have Gigliola Cinquetti but that's another story). Previous years there's been some theme or era to choose songs from but this year Amadeus throw out all restrictions and therefor we have some insane (and unfair) efforts like Sangiovanni singing his Sanremo 2022 (!!!) entry, RengaNek singing a medley of their own songs ALONE. Ricchi e Poveri do their own songs BUT with Paola & Chiara, as does Alessandra Amoroso with Boombadash. Maninni wants to Fabnrizio Moro as he sings Non mi avete fatto niente with Ermal Meta. Fabrizio Moro is busy singing his songs with Il Tre. Rose Villain will do a medley of Gianna Nannini songs with Gianna Nannini while Alfa, Bnkr44, Irama, Clara, Mr.Rain, La Sad and Fred De Palma do a son...

  Mahmood first tried his luck in Sanremo in 2016 placing fourth with Dimentica among the Newcomers. The ones doing better (and I say being understood easier) were certain Francesco Gabbani, and a certain Ermal Meta, and err... Chiara Dello Iacovo who we haven't heard ever since. But he did beat a certain Irama though, what a cast that year!!! This blogger loved Dimentica from the first hearing and also got very interested in Mahmood and certainly I haven't been disappointed the past few years when he's been belting out hits in steady stream and has won two Sanremo along the way, and almost won Eurovision, too. What a find!

Every year a certain part of Italian fandom is complaining and lamenting and suggesting Italy should have a selection separately from Sanremo, or select internally or something, anything but send the Sanremo winner automatically.  Which in my opinion is like the silliest idea ever - unless they want to do bad or at least not so good. Because why? Italy is the first country in three decades to have a consecutive six  top-6 streak! (Correct me if I am wrong but it's Germany from 1978 to 1983). And on top of that it would surely be a seven year one if 2020 Euroviison wasn't cancelled. Since Italy's return Italy has sent a non Sanremo winner in 2011 (2nd), 2012 (9th), 2014 (21st) and 2016 (16th). In 2013 it was Marco Mengoni with L'essenziale, Sanremo winner and placed 7th. And then only winners... 2017 Francesco Gabbani - Occidentali's Karma (6th) 2018 Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro - Non mi avete fatto niente (5th) 2019 Mahmood - Soldi (2nd) 2021 Måneskin - Zitti e b...

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. Yet another duet! Fabrizio Moro and Ermal Meta joined forces and indeed did win Sanremo together with Non mi avete fatto niente . For once Italy was not among the top favorites but they reached a respectable 5th place out of 43.  Fabrizio Moro (46) started his career in mid 1990's and came to Sanremo's newcomers in 2007 that he won with two albums and one participation in Newcomers. The year after he's third among Big and has ever since collected awards here and there. he also writes for other artists, and 2012 he's behind the 3rd placed song sung by Noemi. Nine studio albums, almost 30 singles and a career that is still going very strong. Ermal Meta (40) was born in Albania, tried Sanremo newcomers twice with diffe...

It's been long four nights so far and the longest one is yet to come tonight. I must admit I haven't been able to stay up every night but that's not because of the length but because it's been a bit.... well, boring. Only the second night or Wednesday was very entertaining with a string of interesting guests and fantastic go-hostess Elodie . Also this year I don't have very clear favorites - at the moment it's Colapesce Dimartino only - and in terms of Eurovision it looks all very uncertain. If the guests performances ( Elodie and Mahmood ) are the best thing we have a problem. In short I guess I need more Fiorello in my nights because everytime he enters the stage it's fun (who would have thought!) and otherwise not so much..... The viewing figures have been highest on the first night (almost 11,2 million) and in media around 7-8  million or 42-46% share), lowest for years.  This said Gaudiano , my favorite by far, won the Newcomers last night and just wh...

Two nights down, three to go and tonight's the usual covers night. This year however the Big artists are not performing Sanremo classics with guests but they were free to choose basicly any Italian classic, and whether to have guest stars along them or not. And yes, the performance has weight on the final result, voted by the choir and orchestra in Teatro Ariston. Something I have never and never will understand. Is this the moment you pay if you have been bitchy at the rehearsals or viceversa? In reference to Domenico Modugno's last place in Eurovision 1966 with fabulous Dio, come ti amo (sung last night by Gigliola Cinquetti, btw) simply because he was bitchy and diva in the rehearsals as the legends tells..... The full ranking of the past two nights, voted by Demoscopic jury stands as: 1. Ermal Meta, 2. Annalisa, 3. Irama, 4. Malika Ayanae, 5. Noemi, - in short all the most traditional Sanremo songs all in top by real big Big names - 6. Fasma, 7. Francesca Michielin & Fe...

The 71st Sanremo festival will take place next week against all odds and even if it will be for the very first time without audience in Teatro Ariston there will be an endless list of guests and co-presenters and all the extra we don't even know yet. Amadeus has promised five nights, five hours each of resurrection of entertainment and music after the year of pandemic.  This blogger will keep an eye as always but maybe I'll be blogging less than usual until the Friday's Newcomers final and the Grand final on Saturday. But over the week we will have a string of Eurovision veterans performing in both competition and as guests. First of all Diodato will open the week on Tuesday evening re-performing his winning entry Fai rumore from last year, Il Volo will be performing in a tribute to late legendary Ennio Morricone with his son Andrea Morricone. Francesco Gabbani will duet with Ornella Vanoni in Un sorriso dentro al pianto , a song he wrote for her. Mahmood is the latest...

Let's continue the series and kill some time having a look at the last decade and see who were the Top-10 best scoring countries in the Eurovision song contest in the past ten years. The ways to calculate are many and here I have used the simple average placement method (and it's not all so serious). Next up is Italy at n.o 2. Italy made a comeback to Eurovision in 2011 with a bang and a 2nd place finish. And Mahmood secured yet another 2nd place for Italy last year. Add Il Volo's 3rd place and four other Top-10s and you're left with one 16th place and one 21st place. And that 21st being the only one not linked to Sanremo but an internal selection. Five entries were Sanremo winners. one a runner up and one a Newcomers winner. Three of the entries among the most watched Youtubes ever on Eurovision platform, and also breaking Italian streaming records. Each and every artist still present and succesful, as most every one was already back then! Other countries take exa...

Sanremo Giovani returns to Treatro Ariston next February after one year's absence when only two tickets were given to the festival, but among the Big and the rest is history. Mahmood won it all. That won't happen again next year. Now it's back to basics and the youngsters compete among themselves and have to wait at least a year to make it among the Big, like Francesco Gabbani and Ermal Meta in recent years. Out of the names below, 20 will be selected in live auditions to perform in television in Marco Liorni's show Italia Sí . The 20 will become first 10 , then five . The five chosen ones will meet in Sanremo the two from AreaSanremo selection, and one from Sanremo Young, or the winner 15-year-old Tecla Insolia.  Among the names several familiar names from various talent shows or previous editions: Federica Abbate, and Giulia Mutti with Icaro aka Antonello Carozza. Leo Gassman, Matteo Costanzo and Nico Arezzo already have X Factor experience, while Samuel P...