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 winners.  Mia Martini (1947-1995) and Libera  (Free) were internally chosen by Rai and Martini was in the 1970's by far the most popular and successful female artist delivering hit after hit and participating and winning several contest and festivals. Sadly Libera wasn't the most memorable one and landed only 13th out of 18 at the Eurovision. But she would come back later and cement her iconic status among the fans. Sanremo having its darkest years was won by Homo Sapiens and Bella da morire .  Mia's career come to a stop in 1983 when she was considered to bring bd luck and was forced to quite the music scene by her colleagues and music industry. (Only in Italy......) It took seven years but in 1989 she managed to make a triumphant...

  Pino Mango is one of my all time favorite artists and fully bloomed in the 90's for me, even if I followed him all the way from early 80's to his premature death on stage during his concert in December 2014. He had his very recognisable own Mediterranean sound with his unique voice. I love each of his albums, some more some less but none of them has left me cold or indifferent. Such a shame we won't be getting any new Mango songs. He's deeply missed..... He also wrote songs to likes of Mia Martini and Mietta among others. Check out also:

Sanremo is in midway and tonight the other half of songs will be performed and voted for the second time. Tonight's guest stars are Antonello Venditti, Ornella Vanoni, Alessandra Amoroso, Eurovision veterans Raf and Umberto Tozzi, Fabio Rovazzi, Serena Rossi (paying hommage to Mia Martini who she played in a television movie “Io sono Mia”) and comic Paolo Cevoli. Yesterday night was totally stolen by Marco Mengoni, and Virginia Raffaele finally had a chance to shine in her comic Carmen. That came thankfully after Michelle Hunziker was on stage and totally stole her thunder with Bisio. If Mengoni got a standing ovation so did Loredana Bertè who is reaching out for the lion under palm tree trophy for real this time. And it would be about the time, too, and I wouldn't mind her taking the ticket to Tel Aviv as well. How fun that would be? Her sister  Domenica Berté aka Mia Martini did it twice, let her make it a Bertè tris.  The viewing figures remain high but not breaking ...

Today we remember the amazing Mia Martini, twice the Italian entrant. Rest in peace.

Alice Paba (19) from Tolfa near Rome wins the fourth The Voice of Italy in Dolcenera's team. The final was incredibly tight and she beats Charles Kablan (22, from Ivory Coast) with 50,19% of the votes! During the show she sung both Britney Spears and Björk,  not forgetting Mia Martini...... dressed like Polina Gagarina.  Italian media is also reporting Dolcenera would be the very first female coach to win it in all editions around the world. True? Last night she also dueted with the guest of honor od the show, Francesca Michielin in her Eurovision entry Nessun grado di separazione .  Alice follows Elhaida Dani (Albania's Eurovision star in 2015), the singing nun Suor Cristina and Fabio Curto. Hopefully her career will be more succesful than the previous winner's..... 

Loredana Bertè, the one and only, has released a new album Amici non ne ho... ma amiche si! including a couple of new songs and new duet versions of her greatest hits over the decades. We have three Eurovision stars on the album; Emma ( Non sono una signora ), Nina Zilli ( La goccia ) and her late sister Mia Martini ( Stiamo come stiamo ). Other names include Fiorella Mannoia, Paola Turci, Noemi, Alessandra Amoroso, Elisa and Patty Pravo.  Loredana has been a controversial figure in the Italian show business since early 1970's. She's known for her questionable fashion sense, her unique voice, her fits and drama that surrounds her. She's been married to Swedish tennis legend Björn Borg. Over 20 albums, countless hits, quite a few Sanremos...  She's never left the spotlight.  The album takes name from her Sanremo 1994 song, Amici non ne ho (I don't have friends) that this blogger adores!

This is a sad day. Giuseppe Mango, or simply Mango suffered a heart attack last night during his concert while singing his first big hit Oro and didn't survive. Italy has lost one of its greatest voices and song writers. This blogger is particularly taken by the news as Mango has been one of my top favorite singers since his hit Australia back in 1985. Since then he has created his own style and released some fantastic songs full of Mediterranean flavor and heat of the south. The 1990's in particular were fantastic but also in 2000's he scored hits like La Rondine , one of his best songs ever. I was always keeping up the hope to see him do Eurovision one day..... His songs have been covered also my many foreign artists. His wife and mother of his two kids is Laura Valente, once a Matia Bazar singer.....  He also wrote a lot of songs for other artists including Mia Martini , Loretta Goggi , Andrea Bocelli ,  Scialpi , fabulous  Andrea Mirò , Dennis Fantina an...

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...

Late Mia Martini (born Domenica Berté) entered Sanremo only 1982 after having had already a lot of success in the 1970's, winning Festivalbar twice in a row with Piccolo uomo (1972) and Minuetto (1973). In 1977 she is selected for Eurovision thanks to all her success and sings Libera (13th). Her Sanremo debut comes in 1982 with E non finisce mica il cielo , that becomes a huge success afterwards and is a classic today. To compensate her lack of success in festival's scoreboard a special award is created Premio della Critica (renamed after her death Premio Mia Martini) for her. But things turn sour after that. Among the entertainment business there's a rumor she brings bad luck and many doors close for her for festivals and TV and some people refuse to work with her.  But in 1989 she's back in Sanremo against all odds with another success and classic, Almeno tu nell'iniverso (9th) and she wins again this critic's award as happens the year after when sh...

After all the fuss and hassle Cyprus has confirmed Despina Olympiou for malmö 2013 Eurovision. Wasn't it like this from the beginning before some sites started spreading all kind of false and unconfirmed informarmation? Anyways Despina, 37, will sing a ballad in Greek it seems (hooray!) Her seventh album will be released in 2013 and her rather succesful past includes collaborations with Michalis Hadzigiannis among others, like their duets Na 'soun allios (which is actually a cover of Mia Martini's duet with Roberto Murolo!), O paradeisos and Vale mousiki , penned by Hadzigiannis. Her Eurovision entry is written by Andreas Giargallis and Xenon Zindilis though. The song will be presented later.

Out of 32 Italian Eurovision performers only six have been female soloists before Nina Zilli who now becomes the seventh. That's against 17 male soloists, two groups and six duets! Some consolation comes from the fact that two of these six ladies have done it twice. It all started with the first Eurovision in 1956 where Italy, like the other six countries, sent two songs by two female artists who were also the top-2 of Sanremo festival. Franca Raimondi (1932-1988) won Sanremo with Aprite le finestre while Tonina Torrielli came second with Amami se vuoi . Both ladies soon left the show business and Torrielli officially stopped singing in 1965, but has made occasional appearances in nostalgic shows since 2008! Five years later it was time for Betty Curtis (1936-2006), that year's Sanremo winner with Al di là . She remained some what active in the music business until late 1970's and was also seen in nostalgic variety shows on TV in the 2000's.  Three yea...

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...

To continue with yesterday's Mango post here is some more of him for you! I discovered he has been covered both in Greece by Eleftheria Arvanitaki and in France by Helene Segara besides the several local Italian covers I already knew. That great female artists want to cover him is nothing new as already back in 1976 Mia Martini did Se mi sfiori and over the decades Patty Pravo , Loretta Goggi , Mina, Mietta, Leo Sayer , Neri per caso , Scialpi and Wender ft Saretta have covered his songs. Besides that he has written songs to Mietta , Loredana Bertè , Andrea Bocelli , Andrea Mirò and Dennis Fantina , just to name a few. And he himself has covered many songs by other artists, like Franco Battiato for example. And this is Mango, too. And if pnly one day Mango would collaborate with Alice....

Not is Italy only a returnee as a country (making returns after absenses in 1983, 1987, 1997 and 2011) also its artists seem to be returning. I have no statistics but my wild guess is they have more returning artists than any other country! Domenico Modugno first entered in 1958 with Nel blú, dipinto di blú, better known as Volare . It only scored third place but later became a world hit and is the most sold and covered Eurovision song in the history. He returned next year to score another megahit Piove , better known as Ciao, ciao bambina . Only 6th. Despite all he returned for the third time in 1966 with Dio, come ti amo sung also by Gigliola Cinquett i in Sanremo. A flat zero points and last place! Italy's only null pointer.... Another Italian legend Claudio Villa also did Eurovision twice. In 1962 with Addio, addio (9th) and in 1967 with Non andare piú lontano (11th). Like with Modugno the international jurors didn't quite get them. Then came wonderful Gigliola Cinque...

A new compilation Altro che il cielo will be released next Tuesday December 7, 2010 by late Mia Martini. Most of the songs are live recording from her 1989-90 tours, after her great comeback. Most of the songs are written for her by, or covers of great Italian songwriters like Francesco De Gregori, Ivano Fossati, Pino Daniele, Paolo Conte and Claudio Baglioni. Included is also Paolo Conte's Spaccami il cuore , a song that was written for her and snobbed by the Sanremo jury and didn't make it to the festival in 1983. The song was later covered by Miriam Makeba ft Dizzy Gillespie as Don't break my heart . There are also cover of Randy Newman's It's money that I love and even Pround Mary , Tina Turner's classic. And as an icing on the cake two previously unreleased tracks from early 1980's: Signorina and Amore mio (amore bello, amore assurdo) . Her Eurovision entries Libera (1977) and Rapsodia (1992) are not included.  Here's the full track list: Danza...

This day, May 12, in 1995 or 15 years ago Mia Martini died alone. She was found dead in her apartment only two days later. Incredible artist with a very eventful life with its ups and downs. We all remember Rapsodia , her second Eurovision entry but so many songs were left unrecorded, amongst them a duet with Mina and this Attimo x attimo , later then recorded by Anna Tatangelo. Some of her most memorable recordings include jewels like  Minuetto , Almeno tu nell'universo , E non finisce mica il cielo , Donna , Piccolo uomo , La nevicata del '56 and my personal favourite Cu'mme that gives me the shivers everytime she enters the stage....

Alice is awarded the 15th Mia Martini award in Bagnara Calabra, late Martini's birth town. Two other ex-Eurovision stars will get the Mia Martini award for their life work and career: Iva Zanicchi and Peppino Di Capri. Alice started singing pubblicly in 1967 at the age of 13, won Castrocaro 1971 and tried her luck for the first time in Sanremo in 1972. She made it big in 1980 with Il vento caldo dell'estate and Una notte speciale .She won Sanremo 1981 with Per Elisa and the rest is history as they say.... Her popularity abroad (especially Germany and Scandinavia) soon shadowed her success in Italy. Her latest album is Lungo la strada live that was released earlier this year, her first release since Viaggio in Italia six years ago.

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 .

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...