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. Il Volo won Sanremo and even Eurovision televote against all odds when people said they are too corny and too old fashioned but it seems Grande amore was just what people in Italy and Europe wanted to hear after all. The professional juries in both cases put them down but they ruled the televote and eventually finished 3rd out of 40. Piero Barone (28), Ignazio Boschetto (27) and Gianluca Ginoble (27) met when doing a kid's talent show Ti lascio una canzone in 2009 and soon they were put to sing together and when a producer/manager saw the result Il Tryo, later Il Trio, then Il Volo was born. Thanks to Tony Renis they were soon in the US the latest singing sensation and soon they made it in Europe and Latin America as well. Too b...

Il Volo's Notte Magica concert featuring the original Three Tenors Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras featured will be shown in the cinemas across Finland on June 7, 2017. Movie theaters in Helsinki, Espoo, Jyväskylä, Kuopio, lahti, Lappeenranta, Oulu, Pori, Tampere and Turku will be showing this one off concert extravacanza.  Meanwhile the trio has started the Italian leg of their world tour and are in Rome this weekend. The tour continues from May 23 from London to Malta, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Spain, POland, Austria and Bulgaria before moving in South America in September. Apparently they are also working on a new pop album that is produced by Emilio Estevez!

Francesco Gabbani's hot Eurovision winning candidate Occidentali's Karma is still gathering an average of nearly 900.000 daily views on Vevo and has entered already the all time Italian music videos top-10 (besides being the already the most watched Eurovision video ever in overal) with over 99 million views when writing this on Sunday midday April 23. At this rate he will be the number one by midsummer but as the average views will surely be more during Eurovision and right after it, it will most propably happen sooner.... :-) But how have the other Italian entries featured in this chart? Here are their positions when writing this: #9 Occidentali's Karma - Francesco Gabbani 99.020.953 (daily average 879.250) #11 Grande amore - Il Volo  86.970.984 (64.929) #19 L'Essenziale - Marco Mengoni 48.200.124 (32,655) #64 Nessun grado di separazione - Francesco Michielin 25.594.696 (11.756) Marco Mengoni has two videos with more views than L'Essenz...

Gianluca at home without electricity (from his Instagram) The past few days we have read again by the terrible earthquakes that keep hammering central Italy since months. This week  four strong ones caused further damage to the zones that are also suffering these days also from the excessive cold and snowfall (most snow in 70 years) up to 1,5 meters, that has also caused the electricity be missing. The most tragic news came yesterday when a whole hotel has been distroyed by an avalanche caused by the earthquake. Hotel Rigopiano in Farindola is no more, and over 30 people are still missing; two has been found alive, two dead so far. The helpers have had to ski there for ten kms as there has been no other way to reach them. Il Volo's Gianluca Ginoble, who is living the tragedy closely being from the region, Roseto degli Abruzzi has told in social medias the owner of the hotel is a good friend of his, and he was ment to be in the hotel for some relax but never made it there a...

I had a pleasure to visit Qormi wine festival and spend a fabulous night. The food was great, the music was great, the wine was great.... and the people were amazing. In between enjoying the music by a duo Gianni & Papps first, and then by Spiteri Lucas Band with singers Kaya, Neville Refalo, Ivan and Eurovision veterans Ludwig Galea and Chiara taking leads (on again.... off again so to speak) and supporting each other through rock and pop classics to today's hits.  Highly entertaining evening in every sense of the word. I was lucky enough to have a chat with Chiara and greet also Ludwig, who I saw last in Istanbul 2004. Chiara turned out to be the most lovable and wonderful person - check out the video of Grande amore below to see her blowing kisses just for you!    She also sung her very own Angel , but also Euphoria and Waterloo , Dancing queen .... Sadly by dear old Lumia decided not to cooperate at that point anymore :-( But after the jump yo...

It's been a busy year for last year's Eurovision song contest viewer's favorite Il Volo from Italy. After winning the televote - but placing only 3rd, a fate shared by Sergey Lazarev this year - they have been touring the world and selling a lot of records. In short, after winning Sanremo 2015 with Grande amore they released an EP that sold triple platinum while the single sold platinum. During the Christmas time their old Christmas album hit the charts and sold gold. Their follow up album released September last year sold doube platinum. And that Italy alone. But they are not stopping here. They have announced the new album will see the light in the end of September 2016, and the ticket sales for their yet another Verona di Arena concert in May 2017 are going well. Now let's see if the album features again covers or new material!?

Il Volo has truly taken a flight again. After their Italian and American tour they will hit Europe..... The Italian tour is in its midway and mostly sold out success. Where is Måns performing? Or Polina, Loreen...? Italy 6.1 Roseto degli Abruzzi 8.1 Ancona 9.1 Padova 12.1 Livorno 15.1 Firenze 16.1 Roma 20.1 Caserta 21.1 Bari 23.1 Acireale 26.1 Bologna 27.1 Torino 29.1 Milano USA and Canada 5.2 Buffalo, NY 7.2 Orillia, ON (Canada) 9.2 Montrela, QC (Canada) 10.2 Boston, MA 12.2 Wallingford, CT 13.2 Atlantic City, NJ 16.2 Albany, NY 17.2 New York, NY 19.2 Washington, DC 21.2 Easton, PA 23.2 Hershley, PA 24.2 Cleveland, OH 26.2 Chicago, IL 27.2 Detroit, MI 1.3 Nashville, TN 3.3 Jackson ville, FL 5.3 Miami, FL 6.3 Tampa, FL 8.3 Fort Myers, FL 10.3 Orlando, FL 11.3 Atlanta, GA 14.3 New Orleans, LA 17.3 San Antonio, TX 19.3 Dallas, TX 20.3 Oklohoma City, OK 22.2 Denver, CO 24.3 Mesa, AZ 25.3 Las Ve...

Il Volo keeps busy and has now released a Spanish language video for the Latin market of Il tuo sguardo manca . Meanwhile they are prepairing for the North American tour starting in February 2016, that kinda ruined the offered job as Sanremo 2016 hosts next to Carlo Conti. You can find out the 20 acts in this year's festival announced today here . One of them will try to better Il Volo's 3rd place in Stockholm next May.... 

It must be Christmas. Il Volo has re-released their Christmas album Buon Natale . There's also a deluxe version including a DVD with them performing Christmas songs.... They have also re-relased their latest album L'Amore si muove   as Platinum edition with added CD+DVD featuring their concert in Pompei.... And if that's not enough you can also get the beforementioned Live a Pompei as a CD and a DVD. Separately. Buon Natale!

Il Volo has released a new single off their album, Per te ci sarò . Beautifully shot video and a catchy memorable song - what could you ask for more?

The Italians of America, Anthony Benedetto and Stefani Germanotta or better known as Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga has found new little friendS from native Italia, who are making it big in America. Already now their album has made it to Top-200 in reguar charts, but in the Classic albums it makes something weirdly wonderful: all three editions enter the Top-20: International version #1 Spanish version #6 Italian version #14 Just wait and see when they start touring America how things develop.....

Il Volo has been busy giving sold out concerts all over Italy ever since Sanremo and Eurovision and picking up a few platinum discs on the way. But Sanremo grande amore , the cover EP was just an aperativo. The real thing, the brand new album will be released on September 25. The title track and first single L'amore si muove was released a few days ago on iTunes. Meanwhile the tour goes on until the last date in Arena di Verona on September 21. Two days later Raiuno will have a primetime special on them.  During the summer they have also released a Spanish verison of Grande amore , with a new video and all) for the Latin market and they also ready to take over again the Northern American market with a 16 concerts tour in February-March 2016. But before that they will have aother tour in Italy in January: 15th in Florence, 16th in Rome, 20th in Caserta, 21st in Bari, 23rd in Acireale, 26th Bologna, 27th Turin and 29th in Milan. More gigs might be added once these has been s...

So, Italy took 80 points more than second placed Russia in televotes and Sweden managed only third. The came Belgium and Estonia, Australia and Israel before jury's favorite Latvia. Il Volo suffered the same fate as in Sanremo: common people love then, the juries snob them. In Sanremo's different way of counting and mixing the various votes gave them a victory in the end despite all, in Eurovision they were left third. I have nothing against the jury, mind you. There must be a jury but maybe the one currenty in use is a bit too limited? More about that in the jury vote post.... Oh, and Austria scored a flat zero, what do you think they scored with the juries? ;-) As they put it: "We are the zeroes of our time..." And did you realize? 366 votes, that's 9,4 average from every country! That must be a record of all time! Correct me if I am wrong....

My flying/bicycling reporter Robert managed another scoop: to get the guys of Il Volo in front of his camera and send greetings to all of you. But as you know, things don't always go the perfect way.... like if your battery runs out, or you phone's memory..... This is exactly what happened here. A bit like the Finnish entry was the shortest ever, this is the shortest greetings video ever. Enjoy.... but don't blink, it's only 5 seconds! :-)

Il Volo has come and conquered. One of the top contenders for victory - and The One for me - rehearsed for the second time this morning. They haven't been easy to access due to popularity with medias but my bicycling reporter Robert managed to get them on video, more about that later! Stay tuned. They have also proved to be funny and friendly in their press conferences and media meetings, but then we #IlVolovers already knew that :-) But back to this morning. no major changes to the previous one. The backsdrop is the same, guys are wearing their Armani suits and sing easily their lovely tune. I know they will gear it up when the live audience is there so .... Can we say it? Turin 2016? If I have to find something negative, was Gianluca looking a bit too angry? Was Piero searching for his voice the first lines? But then, it was early morning..... maybe their cappuccino wasn't perfect this morning? The delegation says they still need to finetune some things - maybe we are ta...

Italy opened the first rehearsal for the Big5 & co this morning. Il Volo's song is a classic piece in belcanto tradition so what would be more fitting than some Ancient Rome statues in the background (replacing the angels seen in Sanremo). The trio looks handsome in their Armani suits and all this oozes Italian elegance and style - in a good way. It also seems they charmed the pants off the media in the press conference besides being determined to bring the trophy back to Italy. Some reviewers ae though worried about the camera shots and the guys singing to the arena instead of us at home, something very typical to Sanremo btw, but I am sure they will sot it out in the next rehearsals. Turin 2016 here we come!

Il Volo has released the new version of their multiplatinum Sanremo grande amore album. The new version includes a DVD with unreleased interview and other new material and everything that happened backstage in Sanremo that ended with their triumph.  They will have their first rehearsal on stage of Wiener Stadthalle on Sunday morning. The Thursday after, 21st they will have a meet & greet in EMI Record store in Vienna at 3pm. The same night they are present in the Italian Embassy in Vienna for a charity event for Fondazione Francesca Rava. Read more here .  Grande amore has passed over 24,2 million views in their VEVO, and over one million on eurovision.tv.

Various OGAE fan clubs have once again voted and even if the chances are 50-50% the result is nowhere even close to the truth it's fun and interesting even if a bit hard to take it seriously. Anyways, this season differs a bit from the previous: Sweden didn't win! Also, only 25 countries out of 40 scored points. The top-2 were far ahead of the next three, that were far ahead of the next six. Then the rest followed far, far behind. 

Italian entrants Il Volo are keeping themselves busy and are in Germany for promotion at the moment. At some point they have had time for some fun and humourous bridges has been built to other Big5 countries and Australia.... What do you think?  Meanwhile the video Grande amore is nearing 24 million views and they have gone doubleplatinum with their album Sanremo grande amore , just days before they will re-release it with bonus material.....  No bordes. No distances. Respect to all the cultures. That's the bridge to go everywhere.

Amici talent show is in full swing in Italian Canale5 and this season previous winner Emma is a team leader against the team of Elisa. Not being a RAI channel they failed to even mention Eurovision, or maybe the host and creator of the show Maria De Filippi is still sour her pupil Emma did rather miserably last year? Anyways, three recent Eurovision artists in a same show in Italy is still worth a notion.  Last episode had a special challenge with special guests: Il Volo supported Emma's Roman rapper Briga in Grande amore , and Marco Mengoni supported Elisa's band The Kolors in Superstition . Mengoni and co. won this duel, while Emma's rapper caused some polemics with the text he added to  his another song last night  Imagine , blamed of cashing on the emigrant problem in the Mediterranean sea. Previously he has already caused commmotion with his homophobic tweets in the past.....  Grande amore Superstition