Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Apparently Rai and Ebu have been to the location of the suitable Eurovision bidding cities after having dropped from the race the ones that didn't fulfill everything needed for a successful event, including the capital Rome.  The front runners Turin and Milan are still there, as is Bologna that has been gaining support and quite surprisingly also Rimini (that wants to engage also San Marino in the party) and Pesaro. Could this mean we ae in for a somewhat unusual and surprising end, an Italian Millstreet perhaps? As we remember a total of seventeen cities wished to host Eurovision 2022, and after some over optimistic and ex tempore candidates we had eleven left. And now they are only five.... Five cities but seven venues: Torino - Pala Alpitour Rimini - Rimini Fiera Pesaro - Vitrifrigo Arena Bologna - Fiera di Bologna Paviglione 37 Bologna - Unipol Arena Milano - Mediolanum Arena Milano - Palazzo delle Scintille

Deadline has passed and the original 17 host city bidders were supposed to hand over their detailed offers to Rai for further examination and at this point six of them failed to do so, among them Florence. Surprisingly still 11 towns are in the process so one can only wonder what they have come up with! Especially Palazzolo Acreide! Addio to Bertinoro di Romagna, Firenze, Jesolo, Matera, Trieste and Viterbo at this stage.  Still in the race are Acireale, Alessandria, Bologna, Genova, Milano, Palazzolo Acreide, Pesaro, Rimini, Roma, Sanremo and Torino . As we know only Bologna, Milano, Roma and Torino have at first glance a suitable arena and all the rest, and Roma and Milano have already ruled themselves out with recently booked concerts by  Francesco Gabbani . Time will tell what the others included still in the list have in offer... some Italian style compromising and improvisation?  Palazzolo Acreide is a town of 8.668 souls in the deep south Sicily, living off agr...

Hours after Måneskin won Eurovision 2021 in Rotterdam and well before they went to dominate the global streaming charts (and not only) starting to collect gold discs from all over several cities stepped ahead in line to announce they are able and willing to host Eurovision 2022 in Italy. Or in most cases willing but not able. Check out EBU's requirements here Italy being the football nation (and soon European champions again, this blogger hopes) it does have countless arenas but for football, not indoor arenas suitable for Eurovision that can be counted by the fingers of one hand really.... That didn't stop a total of 12 cities shout out their willingness but I suppose once they actually take two minutes to read the requirements to drop out from this official bid and we can say grazie, ma no grazie already at this stage to Bari, Firenze, Napoli, Pesaro, San Remo, Reggio Emilia, Rimini and Verona.  We are left with Torino, Milano, Roma and Bologna. Bologna may be in trouble at t...

After a string of top-10 places since their return to the contest back in 2011 (2nd, 9th, 7th, 21st, 3rd, 16th, 6th, 5th, 2nd) Måneskin managed to finish the business Raphael Gualazzi, Nina Zilli, Marco Mengoni, Il Volo, Francesco Gabbani, Ermal Meta, Fabrizio Moro and Mahmood started nor forgetting Francesca Michielin and Emma. Now it's time to Rai to show what they can do and put the legend "Rai doesn't want to win" to rest for good. Italy has hosted the contest twice before but that was a long time ago and a different concept. In 1965 Naples had the honors in Rai's tv-studios there, and in 1991 originally planned Sanremo changed to Cinecittá studios in Rome due to the Gulf war in the last minute that caused some hick ups to the Italian style already a bit confused organisation. But that was and this is now.  Back then it was much small event and could be held in a theater or big studio but not now. And here comes the problem with Italy: the lack of suitable, bi...

 

Last night. Enjoy! (Guerriero - Esseri umani (Spanish) - Pronto a correre - L'Essenziale -  Ti ho voluto bene veramente - I got the fear - Io ti aspetto)

The EXPO 2015 exhibition has been a success for tiny San Marino. By the end of September over 240.000 people have visited their small but cute paviglion in the Bio Mediterraean area. That's about 7,5 times the population of the whole country. Also, September has been the busiest month so far with 3000-4000 daily visitors and October is expected to top even that. Also the income from the sales has been excellent as you can taste and enjoy some Sammarinese food and wine there. Also some very nice merchandise is on sale from pins to t-shirts and hats not forgetting the beforementioned food and wine. This summer I didn't know what to pick as I wanted it all..... Now we are onto the last month as the EXPO 2015 closes on October 31, 2015. If you haven't been there hurry up or.... wait for the October 28 because..... San Marino closes its success with the best possible and the most logical way: Sammarinese of the Year 2014 and their biggest star Valentina Monetta will give a ...

Alice's new album Weekend will be released on November 11, 2014 and she will be meeting fans and signing copies around Italy in La Feltrinelli bookstores. Below the list where you can meet her: November 11 -  Verona @ 18:00, Feltrinelli di via Quattro Spade 2 November 12 - Milan @ 18:30, Feltrinelli di piazza Piemonte 2 November 13 -  Genoa @ 18:00, Feltrinelli di via Ceccardi 16 November 14 - Turin @ 18:30, Feltrinelli di Stazione Porta Nuova November 19 - Rome @ 18:00, Feltrinelli di via Appia Nuova 427 November 20 - Florence @ 18:30, Feltrinelli RED di piazza della Repubblica

Alice returned on stage in Milanesiana 2013 last night in Milan's Teatro dal Verme and the concert was also streamed live on internet. This blogger was overjoyed to see her live for the third time, even if this modern way following the real live gigs in Helsinki and Rome over the years. She released her first album with new material after 14 years last year, Samsara . Now she told she's willing to release another one for Christmas! Fantastic. She also presented a new song, that would be on it, Sonata n 29 by Shakespeare and the grand finale included Franco Battiato on stage singing a duet in Prospettiva Nevski , after remembering their I treni di Tozeur together and Battiato joking about their points and placement in Luxemburg - that wasn't exactly as good as they hoped for but the song's success afterwards made up for it.  This is the track list for last night: Un mondo a parte, Come il mare, Sonetto n 29, A'cchiù bella, Orientamento, Il sole nella pioggi...

This is fantastic! If Marco Mengoni will perform this smiley and overjoyed version of his entry L'Essenziale in Malmö 2013 Eurovision  and is looking at the camera this loving way he will surely give something to think about to the other contestants and send the superfavorites to do some soul searching! Fabulous! Italy is in game! (Note, it starts around 6 minutes!)

  Happy survivors :-) The Eurovision in concert 2013 in Amsteram didn't have an happiest ending for Italian Marco Mengoni and Lithuanian Andrius Pojavis who were abroad a KLM flight from Amsterdam to Milan. Soon after the plane had reached the flying height the smell of smoke filled the plane and the right engine was apparently on fire.  The plane had to turn back and make an emergency landing in back to Schiphol airport. Pojavis reports to Lithuanian press there was some panic aboard with 112 passangers but apparently all ended well and both singers were scared but safe and ok now. UPD. It seems now that both have taken another flight back to Milan. This must have been a rather shaky experience for Mengoni who isn't so fond of flying! UPD2: Mengoni and Pojavis are already in Milan after taking another plane. Otherwise the situation is getting more confusing; some reports claim the plane took fire BEFORE take off, not when on air?! Anyways, Mengoni himself has pos...

Nina Zilli, the Italian representative concluded her sold out Italian tour just before Eurovision in Baku 2012 and tonight you can watch her Milan gig in Alcatraz including songs from her both albums and a couple of covers online thanks to Corriere Della Sera  here . The set includes obviously her Sanremo song Per sempre and her Eurovision entry L'amore é femmina . You have to register for the site though. Have fun! At 9pm CET.