Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

OMG San Marino I love you! You just keep surprising us year after year and this time the surprise is you really did what I think you should have done already years ago: Bring into contest some major Italian acts. And boy did you deliver! Starting with Achille Lauro that hardly has time to move from Sanremo to San Marino, Sanremo winner Valerio Scanu and a real Sanremo veteran and global hit maker Ivana Spagna. And that's just a start. Let's start with Ivana Spagna , my Eurovision dream of yesteryears. She scored a worldwide hit with Call me in 1987 and a string of hits followed like Easy lady , I wanna be your wife and so on until she made her Sanremo debut 1995 placing third with Gente come noi . She's been singing in both languages on and off ever since. Five Sanremos in competition, twice more as guest. Countless festivals and awards. 12 albums, six EPs, 15 compilations and over 50 singles later she's finally giving Eurovision a chance. Love it! Valerio Scanu , run...

Oh, I loved Spagna. I loved her also in the 90's when she switched eurodisco in English to Italian Sanremo pop in Italian. These days she's balancing between the two and still around, maybe not quite finding the success she used to, but she's been around in a form or another ever since late 60's, including this pearl . Barbara York , Mirage , Carol Kane , Yvonne Kay , Kika Le Pen ... those are some of her names she has released music besides Spagna and Ivana Spagna. As late as 2012. Check out also:

Ivana Spagna. She's ageless. She has so many careers it's hard to keep track. First steps with Mamy Blue in 1971 ( remix 2012 as Kika le Pen) and a band with her brother and then boyfriend touring Italy with minor success. In the mid 80's a change to disco and soon she was the Queen of Eurodisco all over Europe with Easy Lady , Call me , Every girl and boy , I wanna be your wife ..... albums made in the USA, being guest star in Sanremo.... In 1994 Elton John chose her over many (including Laura Pausini) to sing the Italian version of Circle of life from Lion King . The year after she debuts in Sanremo with Gente come noi , finishing third beating Andrea Bocelli with Con te partirò , 4th. She's back in 1996 with E io penso a te (4th) and an album that sells over 400.000 in Italy alone. She returns to Sanremo a few times (including epic  Con il tuo nome in 2000 that deserved so much more....), last time being 2008 with Loredana Berté in Musica e parole , that was ...

Italian artists who sing in English are a rarity. (The big names go for Spanish and Latin market and make wonders there from Pausni to Ramazzotti, Ferro and Nek.) Not many have made a career of it, if we don't count some dance acts. Those who did - Alexia, Spagna and Elisa come in mind - have sooner or later switched into Italian after all. Now all of sudden we have two new very interesting debuts in English. First of all Michele Bravi . He won the X Factor, got songs written by Tiziano Ferro among others for his debut album and EP. The EP was a success with #1 La vita e felicità but everything ever since went downhill and it seemed he'd be yet another forgotten winner. Now he's back with the single The Days and new album I hate music . (I suppose he means music business....:-) ) All of sudden he's very interesting..... Virginio Simonelli , another reality talent show winner (Amici). Similar story, after initial success a career that went downhill fast. His bi...

The 2008 edition provided a perfect Eurovision entry in both categories when Gianna Nannini penned  Colpo di fulmine by Gió Di Tonne and Argentinian Lola Ponce won the main category, and Sonohra's L'amore the newcomers. Anna Tatangelo came second with a gay themed Il mio amico , and third.  Fabrizio Moro.  Toto Cutugno was there as well (4th) and Paolo Meneguzzi (6th), Mietta (11th), L'Aura (13th). Mia Martini's sister Loredana Berté took care of the scandal as she presented a song she had already recorded back in the 1980's and was disqualified but still performed her song on stage, also along with Ivana Spagna .

The same confusing category mess was used as last year, but this time only top-2 of each category went on to the final, meaning there were only 8 songs! Also the Classic category was dropped. Death matches once again lead to the final 2 and eventually the winner, again from the Men category when Povia's Vorrei avere il becco beats - as rumoured - Nomandi's Dove si va with only 2% of the votes! Apparently Anna Tatangelo's Essere una donna was third most voted and Riccardo Maffoni with Sole negli occhi 4th. Previous winner or Eurovision artists taking part were Ron and Anna Oxa . Worth mentioning also Dolcenera , Ivana Spagna and L'Aura who would later be considering Eurovision for San Marino. Or so they insist. In all a rather mediocre and forgettable edition IMO.

Well, I'm not sure if Ron & Tosca's duet Vorrei incontrarti fra cent'anni would have done well in Eurovision but it's a lovely little song anyways. The craziness of the runner ups Elio e le storie tese would have been a no-no  but then we have again Giorgia scoring a respectable third place right after her victory a year before and again Ivana Spagna with Strano il mio destino and E io penso a te , both would have been perfect entries. The previous Eurovision stars didn't do so well again: Al Bano 7th, Luca Barbarossa 12th, Enrico Ruggeri 15th and Riccardo Fogli 20th.

In 1995 Italy missed one of its best songs ever in Eurovision if they only participated and sent Giorgia's  Come saprei , co-written by Eros Ramazzotti. The song also the critic's award for the best song - something rather unusual that wouldn't happen again until 2000. But that's not all, also the runner up In amore by Gianni Morandi & Barbara Cola and third placed Gente come noi by Ivana Spagna - the late 80's disco queen's first adventure in singing in Italian - would have been perfect for Eurovision. Soon to be worldfamous Andrea Bocelli was left 4th and the Eurovision veterans can be found in the bottom of the result list this time: Gigliola Cinquetti 14th, Massimo Ranieri 15th and Toto Cutugno 17th - for once he had a song I kinda liked!. Future winner Gió di Tonno didn't even make the final. Here's also the video for Come saprei . Giorgia went on to a glorious career and the rumour is she was rather pissed by the missed opportunity but ha...

Raffaella Carrà did it again: she brought Dima Bilan to Italy and managed to talk about Eurovision on prime time RaiUno. Also, she appaently demanded in press conference why Italy is absent and when it's going to return. Raffa, sei un mito! Watch Dima perform here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq2LtOaYe1A And here's an ABBA tribute from the same show with fabulous divas Alexia, Ivana Spagna, Fiordaliso, Marcella Bella and Raffaella herself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMwKzUl46fI with a real promotional opening speech by Raffa.