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 winners. Francesca Michielin (26), a self declared Eurovision fan, got to Eurovision 2016 with her Sanremo runner up when the winners Stadio and Un giorno mi dirai declined the offer and said instead that Michielin should go. After a very long period - well, it felt like that anyways - Rai confirmed that they had chosen her indeed. She revamped and renamed her song, originally Nessun grado di separazione and travelled by bus (and social medias) to Stockholm but only placed 16th out of 42 with No degree of separation ..... Francesca shot to the fame after winning X Factor and has had a string of hit singles ever since, also in several featuring with various top rappers. In 2021 she was close to Euroviison again and placed second in Sanremo with...

Francesca Michielin releases sixth single off her album di20 (re-released as di20are ) following L'amore esiste , Battito di ciglia , Lontano , her Eurovision 2016 entry Nessun grado di separazione and Un cuore in due . Almeno tu is also on a soundtrack of Italian film Piuma directed by Roan Johnson, while Francesca will hit the road in october with her new tour. 

After iTunes let's check Youtube. There the most viewed one by far is Italy's Francesca Michielin with over 16 million views and counting. On the other hand she's extremely popular in Italy backed with this #1 hit from Sanremo and #1 album and #1 hit on every possible chart it seems. Far behind with under 11 million views is Sergey Lazarev, helpd with this amazing video everyone wants to see. Third again someone very popular inhis homecountry with a hge fanbase there, Poland's finest Michal Szpak.  Check how the others are doing here

Remember earlier this year when the Sanremo festival turned all rainbow in silent support for the equal rights? Many, most I would say, artists had the rainbow colored ribbons in their microphone, or shoes, or wherever, no words needed. Now those ribbons make appearance on Eurovision stage with Francesca Michielin again. 

Francesca Michielin hopes you will like her performance and sends you a kiss!

One of the most awaited ones. Francesca has travelled across Europe in her bus and charmed the folks on the route. After a nervous night with little sleep she was ready to take on the stage in Globen. She's living a dream that is coming reality as she has always watched Eurovision and as a kid told her mom she wants to become the Italian entrant one day. The day is here and now. The staging is a beautiful garden but with a twist. At some point the stage floor becomes water and she is standing on a little island. In the end she take sout a seed and gives it to the audience following the theme of her song. She's even dressed as a chic hippie gardener that suits her but would a fashion disaster on anyone else. On tv screen some sepcial efefcts will be added, sketches and drawings, something never seen before at Eurovision. Italy was welcomed with open arms and some are talking about a black horse. Let's see. Top-5 seems pretty sure at this point. 

Italian entrant Francesca Michielin  has arrived to Stockholm after her long six degrees of separation journey through Europe from Bassano del Grappa to Prag to Vienna to Berlin to Copenhagen and finally Stockholm and Eurovision song contest.  Upon her arrival Italian OGAE was to meet her among other fans.  Italy has the first technical rehearsal tomorrow morning.                                          Oh she met also Serhat from San Marino

True to the idea of her song No degree of separation , inspired by the infamous six degrees of separation, Francesca and her team will arrive in Stockholm by bus, stopping in six cities on the way. She will kick of on Friday 29 from her hometown Bassabo del Grappa . Next stop Vienna , then Warzaw , Berlin and finally Copenhagen before Stockholm . On the way she will be having her pockets full of seeds she will leave to people on the road to share and grow, the idea that will be also the theme of her staging in Stockholm.  She has arrived to cold, cold Vienna.... In Austria she met with Zoe and they even sung together.... And she's in Warzaw. Got a nice balloon, too!

Rockart design may not ring a bell but if I say they have taken care of the stagings for Conchita Wurst (winner 2014), The Common Linnets (runner up 2014) and Aminata (6th 2015) we are into something special. All those three acts are remembered for the outstanding but simple staging that lifted the song to unexpected heights and then for success. Italy may have suffered from non exisiting (read: Sanremo based) stagings since their return - except for experimenting with Emma and we all remember how that ended... Maybe we are in for a change this year? Nicoline Lindeborg Refsing, a Dane is in charge for Michielin. The staging will be apparently green, maybe both in color and idea as in trees and other green stuff. Francesca will be on stage alone, but she will have two backing singers hiding somewhere in the bushes out of sight. Sounds good.... Italy just got serious! Oh, and btw, Nessun grado di separazione has sold platinum in Italy after topping both sales and radio play charts...

Francesca's latest adventure is the theme song for the new season of Power Puff Girl cartoon on Cartoon Network. "When I was little I dreamed of being a superhero, or a Power Puff Girl! I had t-shirts, pins, dolls, notebooks with the characters because I loved them. They were like me, went to school every day, they were simple yet special, funny and colorful just like me. And in the evening we saved the world! In the afternoon after school we sat in our living room with my friends dreaming and eating candy. I can't believe that now I'm singing the new theme song of #PPG. But it's all true!"

It's fnally here, Italy's entry Nessun grado di separazione , retitled for the occasion as No degree of separation , cut to three minutes and with the added English lyrics. Enjoy!

Italy has finally confirmed that Francesca Michielin will indeed sing Nessun grado di separazione , her runner up in Sanremo 2016 festival, and the biggest hit from the festival so far in the charts and radios - she's been #1 already 3 weeks. The song will be cut to three minutes and the last chorus will be in English, and the whole affair is retitled No degree of separation . This new version will be released in coming days.... She explains in her FB: "I'm excited and honored to represent my country in Europe. I wanted to enter with my song fro Sanremo as it is a song that wants to cancel all geographical and cultural divisions and invites us all to embrace the one and only direction. We are Italians, we are French, German, Lithuanian, Swedish... We are blonds, brunettes, redheads... No! We are people with hopes and joys, dreams and delusions. We are all the same. In love and freedom. And I want to sing this in Italian because it's my language and it's a beaut...