Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

73rd Sanremo festival will kick of tonight at Teatro Ariston in Saremo. The formula is pretty much the same as previous years when Amadeus has been in charge, his year number 4 out of 5 confirmed - just more young artists and more songs making the super final come Saturday night!  Tonight, the first night Amadeus will be hosting with  Eurovision veteran Gianni Morandi and influencer Chiara Ferragni, Mahmood and Blanco will be on stage singing their winning entry and Euroviison 6th placed Brividi , and Blanco will present his new single L'isola delle rose as well. I Pooh will perform as well, including Eurovision veteran Riccardo Fogli who has in it from 1966 to 1974 when he went solo (and won Sanremo 1982 and did Eurovision 1983 ), Pooh won Sanremo in 1990 and continued until 2016, and on and off ever since. They have sold over 100 million records so they are Big.  Besides action in Teatro Ariston we will have Salmo performing from a cruise ship anchored outside the c...

Last night's fourth night was a..... yes, you guessed it, a record breaking fourth night. With a share of 60,5%!!! and nearly 11,4 million viewers it is the most watched since 1995, and only third time the magic 60% has been broken. Streaming on RaiPlay has grown 90% (well, that's what you get when you lift the geoblock!), 7,4 million contacts on social medias and 4,4 million plays on demand.  But let's leave all those figures behind and concentrate on tonight's final and a few comments on last night's karaoke night.  As much as I am not a fan of that covers night last night it was rather enjoyable. Some covers were far from good, some were nice, some were prettygood. The most talked one was of course Gianni Morandi enrolling Jovanotti next to him to belt out their biggest hits. Or not quite as they started of with Morandi's Euroviison entru Occhi di ragazza, not exactly a major hit for him. The controversies aside if that was fair or not as Jovanotti is a megas...

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. Umberto Tozzi (69) won Sanremo 1987 with Gianni Morandi and Enrico Ruggeri with Si puó dare di piú , co-written by Raf or Raffaele Riefoli. Morandi had already done Eurovision and Ruggeri would do it later so Tozzi took along Raf (in the beginning of his career spelled Raff) with another song they wrote together, Gente di mare . It also marked Raf's debut singing in Italian. They placed 3rd out of 22. Umberto Tozzi is one of the most selling Italian artists abroad in the 1970's/1980's with songs like Gloria , Ti amo , Tu , Stella stai . Laura Branigan made both Ti amo and Gloria global hist in English. Over 80 million records sold he's still active today. Four Sanremos with that one victory, 17 studio albums and 60 s...

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. Enrico Ruggeri (64) took his second Sanremo win with Mistero , the first and only rock song to win Sanremo until Måneskin. His first one was in 1987 in Trio Morandi-Ruggeri-Tozzi wherefrom Umberto Tozzi went on to Eurovision with Raf instead. However he didn't bring Mistero but Europe inspired Sole d'Europa but Europe wasn't shining too much love on him and he placed 12th out of 25. Ruggeri is one of the Big names and has been around in music business since early 1970's, first in I Decibel band with whom he does his first Sanremo in 1980. After 22 studio albums and over 50 singles he's also writer, tv and radio host and the president of Italian artists football club. After this presence Italy stayed home for three y...

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. In 1970 Rai decided to skip the Sanremo connection for the first time used Canzonissima to choose its entrant for Sanremo. Gianni Morandi (76), winner of Canzonissima 1965, 1968 and 1969 went to Eurovision with Occhi di ragazza (Girl's eyes) but managed only 8th out of 12 - the year after 1969's fiasco when several countries boycotted demanding a rule change.  Sanremo 1970 was won instead by Adriano Celentano with Claudia Mori and Chi non lavora non fa l'amore . Claudia's version .  Morandi is one of the Big names in in the Italian music scene since his debut. Over 30 studio albums, over a dozen movies, countless tv-productions including Sanremo 2011-12 and transforming from a teenage heartthrob to a ideal son-in-law an...

Last night the huge tribute event took place in the Arena di Verona with 50 artists to honor and commemorate late Franco Battiato. Originally the plan was to tribute his La Voce del padrone album, released 40 years ago and one of the most sold albums ever in Italy. Twist of fate and everyone was there but the maestro himself. His closest collaborators had created his songs in their original arrangements played live and the singers who worked with him like Alice and Juri Camisasca, and singers who wished to work with him but didn't make it in time like Diodato and Mahmood along with singers who had covered his songs or simply considered him a real idol. The four hour long event was a celebration of life and his art that goes well beyond music rather than a mourning. When his latest song Torneremo ancora (We will be back) was played at the end of the show with a lonely spotlight on stage indicating where he would have been one could only think "He is still here". Indeed, ...

  The 68th Festival della canzone Italiana aka Sanremo kicks off tonight with the first of its five evenings. There are several changes to the format this year and one of them is no Big artists will be eliminated this year so any of them could end up in Lisbon 2018 Eurovision. Claudio Baglioni is the new Artistic Director and the Dictator and he will be hosting the show with Michele Hunziker and actor Pieerfrancesco Favino . As always the evenings will be also filled with countless guests from all areas of life: music, movies, comedy,  ... even if Baglioni promises it's all about music and less media fuss and television friendly choices. And guess what? Sanremo gets spider cam!!! Yes, and other technologies like pre-programmed cameras and video effects etc used in Eurovision already for years so expect a bit familiar and not so stiff camera work in Sanremo this time :-) Then we will have living Sanremo legend Pippo Baudo making an appearance (unless he got too angry o...

After the artists have been revealed in both Big ad Newcomes categories the rumor mill turns its attention to the hosts next to Claudio Baglioni, and the superguests. The names of Francesco De Gregori (66), Gianni Morandi (73)  and Renato Zero (67) seem rather certain, as well as the trio Nek (46), Max Pezzali (50) and Francesco Renga (49) - giving you more "grumpy old men" for your viewing and hearing pleasure.  As for the hosts Michelle Hunziker and Luca Argentero seem to be taken for sure, and now - like almost every year recently - emerges the name of Laura Pausini . If she can hold her own succesful prime time show, a few nights in Sanremo would be a piece of cake and she can do it so let's hope it is true! If Carlo Conti did his most to make Sanremo younger and hip again, Baglioni seems to be bringing back all the old glories but doing so, will he lose the young audiences again? Does quality and real music reign over disposable music and firewor...

  So it seems. According Italian media but still waiting or the official confirmation. Besides being the Artistic Director Claudio Baglioni will also be hosting the 68th festival of Sanremo in February. But he won't be alone but will have a different co-host(s) every night, and most likely they all will return for the Grand final.  If I have some doubts about Baglioni as Artistic Director - makes me think that his musical taste and line of selection will be more like: "Al Banos in, Baby Ks out" - but I hope he will surprise me and have a valid and varied cast of old and new artists, very popular and some less popular ones to create a nice mix of ballads and uptempo.  To follow up Carlo Conti's three succesful years won't be easy. Not only did Conti present a string of hits and worthy Eurovision entries (nothing has been officially yet said about the Sanremo winner once again going to Eurovision, but Rai has confirmed Lisbon 2018), he also managed to inc...

Francesco Gabbani continues as the most played song in the Italian radios  for the third consegutive week! Eurovision veteran Gianni Morandi holds the second place..... 1. (1) Francesco Gabbani - Tra le granite e le granate 2. (4) Fabio Rovazzi ft. Gianni Morandi - Volare 3. (5) Thegiornalisti - Riccione 4. (6) Takagi & Ketra ft. Arisa & Fragola - L'esercito del selfie 5. (2) J-Ax & Fedez Vs. T-Pain - Senza pagare 6. (11) Benji & Fede ft Annalisa - Tutto per una ragione 7. (8) Tiziano Ferro - Lento/Veloce 8. (10) Giusy Ferreri - Partiti adesso 9. (3) Fabri Fibra ft. Thegiornalisti - Pamplona 10. (7) Samuel - La statua della mia libertà

Giacomo who? I hear you ask. Watch closely Valentina Monetta on stage in Baku and also in Copenhagen and there he is providing backing vocals. Among his other musical productions this versatile singer has had time to record and release his own Italian song book of the songs he thinks are some of the jewels of the last 40 years of Italian music.  At first glance it seems to be like any other including the usual classics from Lucio Dalla's Caruso to Gino Paoli's Il cielo in una stanza, Battisti's E penso a te and Gianni Morandi's Canzoni stonate , but then, there are some pleasant surprises like Banane e lampone by Dalla/Morandi and E non finisce mica il cielo by Mia Martini. But there's even more. Cu ti lu rissi and Lugano addio are two songs less familiar to this blogger but they are great and fit his voice perfectly. On the track list one song sticks out like Lordi in the Eurovision history: Mamma Maria , a classic 1980's Italopop by Ricchi e Pov...

Umberto Tozzi was already a worldwide star when entering Sanremo for the first time as a part of the supertrio with Gianni Morandi and Enrico Ruggeri in 1987 with Si puó dare di piú . They won, of course. Apparently Enrico Ruggeri and Umberto Tozzi were supposed to go to Eurovision after that (Morandi already having done that before) but when Ruggeri said no, Tozzi took Raf along and they scored a respectable third place in Bruxelles with evergreen Gente di mare and refreshed his international career that had made him a million seller with songs like Ti amo , Gloria and Tu . He returned to Sanremo in 1991 with Gli altri siamo noi (4th) and again in 2000 with Un'altra vita (16th). His last participation to date is 2005, when Le parole failed to reach the final..... Tozzi has released 18 sudio albums since his debut in 1976, several compilations and live albums. His latest albums are Yesterday, today (2012), Non solo live (2009) and compilation Yesterday - the best of 197...

Italian musical genius Lucio Dalla has died today in Switzerland. An unexpected stroke took him away. Just last month he did a come back to Sanremo where he performed with Pierdavide Carone in Nani , a song he also wrote and conducted the orchestra in. His first album came out in 1966 and the latest, his 40th in 2010. If you don't know who he is just listen to Caruso . He wrote it and originally sung it. Later it has been covered by most everyone from Luciano Pavarotti to Anna Oxa , Florent Pagny , Lara Fabian , and Il Divo . His other wellknown hits include Attenti al lupo , 4 Marzo 1943 ,  L'anno che verrá and   Canzone .  He also wrote the Italian Eurovision entry Occhi di ragazza in 1970 for Gianni Morandi. He had just started a tour and gave a concerts in Luzern and Zurich before last night's Montreaux. The tour was to continue to more dates in Switzerland, then to Germany, France and Luxembourg.

Italian composer, producer and musician Giancarlo Bigazzi passed away today. His is a household name in Italy and he has co-written with Umberto Tozzi most of his worldwide hits. He also wored a lot with Marco Masini and written songs to singers like Mia Martini, Gigliola Cinquetti, Marcella Bella, Gianni Bella and many others.  He also wrote music to movies, amongst them Oscar winning Mediterraneo directed by Gabriele Salvatores. The songs the readers of this blog recognize easiest include the Sanremo 1987 winner Si può dare di più  by Umberto Tozzi-Enrico Ruggeri-Gianni Morandi and Italian Eurovision entries 1987 Gente di mare and 1992 Rapsodia . And who doesn't know Tozzi's Ti amo , Gloria , Tu and Eva ? Grazie Giancarlo per la musica! La tua musica vive per sempre...

More problems for Gianni Morandi and RAI's staff. Living legend and Sicilian songbird Marcella Bella is next in line to throw dirt on Sanremo 2012. " I had my song ready , L'amore he ho dentro, and I had Monica Naranjo from Spain ready to duet with me on Thursday night. Then I see on TV that I am not included in the list! Couldn't Gianni give me at least a call beforehand?" She admits being a bit mad at Gianni and that she would have wanted to be in the festival that she has been already eight times during her career that celebrates 40th anniversary this year with a new album, now to be released in the end of January. Let's hear again Marcella's Sanremos: 1972 Montagne verdi (7th), 1981 Pensa per te (9th), 1986 Senza un briciolo di testa (3rd), 1987 Tanti auguri (6th), 1988 Dopo la tempesta (4th), 1990 Verso l'ignoto with brother Gianni (finalist), 2005 Uomo bastardo (2nd in "Classic") and 2007 Forever per sempre with brother Giann...

This year the Sanremo's newcomers selection will be done mostly by Facebook it seems as six artists will come that way (adding to two from SanremoLab or AreaSanremo or whatever it is called this year). SanremoSocial it is called and anyone under 28 can submit a song and then there will we live audition in Rome on 12.1.12. And that age has caused the scandal as many artists over 28 are complainging they cannot participate. Anyways, there will be 14 Big and 8 newcomers and this year the festival will celebrate the Italian songs that have become evergreens all over the world and they will be performed by the Big in competition and foreign artists in duets so that promises to be great fun. We will know the names of the Big on January 10 and four days later the newcomers. Gianni Morandi will also announce his co-hosts on January 10. Adriano Celentano has been confirmed as the first super guest. Watch the spot here .

Ex-Eurovision star Gianni Morandi will do a bis and host also Sanremo 2012 as he did with success in 2011. Not else is known about next year's edition so far as only recently RAI and the city of Sanremo managed to make a deal hosting the contest once again in the beforementioned city. An argument that seems to go on every year... Could you have Sanremo somewhere else but Sanremo really? Perche Sanremo è Sanremo! Sanremo 2011 was won by veteran Roberto Vecchioni followed by Modà with Emma and another veteran and Eurovision veteran as well, Albano .

And just about in time! What is Sanremo without a scandal? Nothing. In a press conference. The guy who's in charge for the televoting said Roberto Vecchioni is leading the televoting when it is ment to kept secret. The direector of RaiUno and Morandi got angry of course and Morandi left the conference with the infamous "Vaffan...". It was also revealed that Micaela won the televote for the newcomers but the jury vote put Raphael Gualazzi ahead of her. And it's not all, Robbie Williams made a scene as well. Take That came to rehearsals one hour late and Morandi asked "Where have you been?". Long story short Robbie took off and Morandi was running after him trying to make things right. In the end Elisabetta Canalis convinced Robbie to perform at all in one condition: Morandi should be nowhere around! Oh dear... Here's The Flood last night. Meanwhile the share driopped to 46,91% or 10.616.000. In all this is the most succesful edition in many years with th...