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. Mia Martini (1947-1995) did her second Euroviison and it went much better than the first  time  in 1977 . In Malmö the home audience was very intrigued not for her artistry but simply because she was the sister of Loredana Berté, tennis legend Björn Borg's ex-wife! But she handled the situation graciously with elegance and won over most everyone and landed a 4th place out of 23 with Rapsodia , a song Rai picked for Eurovision. She came 2nd in Sanremo with already evergreen Gli uomini non cambiano won by Luca Barbarossa and Portami a  ballare .  Poor Mimi's career was made of highest heights and deepest lows until it came to a sad end in spring 1995. Her legacy lives on and she has left us with several evergreens an...

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 win ners By 1988 the Eurovision enthusiasm in Rai must have been very low as they ended up sending Sanremo 1988 third placed Luca Barbarossa (60) after the winner Massimo Ranieri ( Perdere l'amore ) and runner up Toto Cutugno ( Emozioni ) apparently had declined. So, Barbarossa took his Sanremo entry's L'amore rubato single's B-side Vivo and renamed it Ti scrivo pretending it was a new and unreleased song. And for Eurovision he didn't even bother to cut this nearly 5 minutes long song to 3 minutes but it only faded away after 3 minutes.... finishing still 12th out of 21. Many still wonder how Rai even got away with it?! But Luca back then had already tasted success at home and this Roman singer-songwriter went on to win Sa...

The first episode of AmaSanremo aired yesterday and the jury on spot in the studio (Luca Barbarossa, Morgan, Piero Pelù and Beatrice Venezi) provided 33% of the result along with the selecting commission (33%) and the televote (34%). You can watch it online HERE .  Amadeus was hosting, of course Luca Barbarossa was judging Arisa (Newcomers winner 2009) was performing both Sincerità , her winning entry back then, and her Sanremo runner up La notte M.e.r.l.o.t opened the night and scored 29 points from the jury. I gave 7. Quite nice, catchy but not so sure about the lyrics..... Ginevra followed with 36 points. I gave 5. Somehow I didn't connect and was surprised about the jury's high scores and praise that I totally didn't relate to somehow. Wrongonyou scored a full 40 points. I gave 8. A lot of praise from the jury, and I did like this. Not so sure about the live performance and its sound effects but propably sounds great on studio version.  Gavio scored 30 despite heavy cri...

Luca Barbarossa presented the last six artists and entries for Sanremo Giovani with some more small talk and live performances. Tonight things get serious as the first final takes place and out of 12 artists one gets the ticket to Sanremo 2019. Some familiar names in tonight's hopefuls... Check out the previous posts here .  La Rua started with their Alla mia età si vola . Two years ago they didn't make it the festival among Newcomers creating a major holabaloo. That makes them frontrunners this time around but sadly their song isn't as strong as Tutta La Vita Questa Vita back then. They are however seasoned performers and have a fanbase so let's see how it goes this time. I'm not that impressed really. Cordio from Catania, Sicily is another pre-contest favorite and his La nostra vita is a solid, good song he sings with emotion and gives a very credible performance. One of the best of 24 for sure. But is it enough? Nyvinne , born in Luxemburg, ...

Rai1 started today the simple talkshow like shows hosted by Eurovision veteran Luca Barbarossa presenting the competing songs and the artists with short interviews and small talk before they sung their songs live in the studio set in the Casinò di Sanremo ahead of the two final nights in prime time later this week that will determinate the two artists joinng the Big artists in the festival next February. Symo started with her Paura di amare . A bit shaky vocals and nervousness all over while she performed her simple little ballad that did't leave much of a mark to remember.... Roman siblings Fedrix & Flaw followed with their ukulele driven L'impresa . Flaw is only 17 and the vocals left room for improvement for both of them. Kinda nice little tune. Andrea Biagioni performed flawlessly his Alba piena , Beautiful arrangements, good vocals and the only negative thing I can say is he kept his eyes shut most of the song. Open them up and deliver! I Ros is ...

The 24 finalists for Sanremo Giovani in December will be selected among these  previously announced ones from open call, and among these ones below coming through Area Sanremo selection. In previous years Area Sanremo ones had two places reserved among the Newcomers, but this time it seems the 24 will be selected among all these entries without limiting the numbers. Both groups have the live auditions in front of the committee, Area Sanremo ones on November 26, while the other already had theirs on November 12. It's worth remembering one of these could become Italy's entrant for the Eurovision song contest 2019... Sanremo Giovani runs from December 17 to 22, with the first four nights presenting six entries each before the prime time and will be hosted by Eurovision veteran Luca Barbarossa. The two final nights in prime time live television are presented by Sanremo legend Pippo Baudo and Fabio Rovazzi.   Listen Area Sanremo entries here .  Adabell - Questa ...

The biography in Luca Barbarossa's official website writes that in 1988 he participated in the Eurovision song contest in Dublin with Ti scrivo , that was actually Vivo , a song released too early for the contest. Because of that he was disqualified two months after Eurovision with a letter.   Now, that Ti scrivo wasn't a new song is no secret or news but that he has been disqualified is. Have anyone of you heard of this before? Vivo was originally the B-side of his Sanremo single L'Amore rubato . To discover this bit in his biography is Federico Stufi of OGAE Italy. The other Eurovision experts in Italy seem equally uninformed of this fact (if it is a fact, of course!). Emanuele Lombardini of EurofestivalNew s says he has been trying to interview Barbarossa for months but the man has always refused with "I have no time". Let's wait for further developments and clarification.... Italy came 12th in Eurovision 1988 with 52 points. Btw, is this also t...

This week offers the new one from Lordi , The Riff , that has it all: half naked babe, blood, violence, toilet paper and the new members beltin gout a rather melodic and electronic sounding tune. Patricia Kaas releases a second single of her Edith Piaf tribute album, Avec ce soleil , a rather unknown Piaf track that she makes completely her own and she's not afraid to look... ehmm, less beautiful! Then an older song but it's still a good one: Luca Barbarossa with Raquel Del Rosario of ESDM in his Sanremo 2011 song, Fino in fondo . Last but not least Eurovision veteran Hind with her new offering Make it count that is a very hypnotic retro sounding track.... Dum dum dum....

The Spanish final with ESDM was rather Italian show, when  Marco Mengoni was one of the judges, Luca Barbarossa sent a video postcard to Raquel (they dueted in Sanremo 2011with Fino in fondo ) and  Nek duetet with ESDM But also Pastora Soler was there.... ... so was Rosa! I kinda liked all of their three songs equally. Dame tu voz reminded me somehow Mecano, but the other two were very ESDM indeed and either of them winning will be ok for me. In the end they all agreed; the jurors and televoters all put Dame tu voz 3rd, Atrevete 2nd and Contigo hasta el final first. What an agreement, untilt he end!

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.

Next years Italy participated with Sanremo related entries. In 1987 one of the winners Umberto Tozzi took the winning song's writer Raf with him to perform Gente di mare and in 1988 third placed Luca Barbarossa took it away with Ti scrivo after the winner Massimo Ranieri and runner up Toto Cutugno or declined or were not asked. In 1989 the winning team Anna Oxa & Fausto Leali took another duet to Eurovision and instead of  Ti lasceró sung Avrei voluto .  In 1990 runner up Toto Cutugno , already in RAI's payroll was given the job even if the rumours of third placed Mietta were very insisting until the last moment. The winners Pooh propably never ever considered participation. 1991 after Toto's win in Zagreb Peppino di Capri came out of the blue without any connection to that year's Sanremo. 1992 runner up Mia Martini got second chance in Eurovision but instead of bringing the Sanremo song Gli uomini non cambiano sung Rapsodia . The winner Luca Barbarossa m...

After two rather succesful years and two duets - Alice & Battiato in 1984 (5th) and Albano & Romina Power in 1985 (7th) Italy skipped again 1986 and it is such a shame as the possible one would have been none other than future global superstar Eros Ramazzotti who won with epic Adesso tu .  Renzo Arbone came second with Il clarinetto but then we have another suitable Eurovision entry, Marcella's Senza un briciolo di testa (3rd) or even better, Anna Oxa's classic É tutto un attimo (5th). Toto Cutugno was 4th with Azzurra malinconia and further down two interesting names and tracks: 14th Mango with Lei verrá and 16th Scialpi with No east, no west . And two future Eurovision names are even further down the list: 17th Enrico Ruggeri with Rien ne va plus and 18th Luca Barbarossa with Via Margutta . In all 1986 was filled with big names or future big names with several possibilities for Eurovision!  Ps. Apparently Sanremo 1985 winners Ricchi e Poveri were offered the...

As we know Italy has been absent from Eurovision since 1997 but they started skipping years already in the 1980's and continued to do so also in the 1990's before stopping participating altogether. Even if often the Sanremo winner was sent to Eurovision that was no rule and especially in the 1980's artists were invited by other merits, or often the singer had won Sanremo not that year but the year before. Anyways, I would like to stick to the original idea and think that the winner (or runner up) would have been sent and in this series will speculate on that. So, here we go with 1981 - the year Italy skipped Eurovision for the first time: 1981. Officially because of the low quality of the songs, and judging the skirt ripping winners in Dublin they might just be right... Alice won this edition with classic Per Elisa beating another classic, Maledetta primavera by Loretta Goggi. This contest also provided an international megahit for Ricchi e Poveri with Sará perche ti a...