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. Rarely there's been such a clear pre-contest favorite than in 2017. Ever since Francesco Gabbani won Sanremo with Occidentali's karma it was The One. The video broke records in Youtube and the hype was real. So much that I remember him saying he had one day off between Sanremo and Eurovision; the rest was promotion and  gigs in Italy and sadly it was evident at the Eurovision stage; in Sanremo he was the quirky flirty himself, at Eurovision he looked tired and somewhat bored to perform the song for the 1000th time...... The uninspired staging didn't help. And Occidentali's karma dropped to sixth out of 42. A shocker. Francesco Gabbani (39) shot to the fame in Sanremo 2016 Newcomers that he won. The year after he won t...

Sanremo winner and Italy's Eurovision song contest 2017 entry Occidentali's Karma by Francesco Gabbani has passed the 200 million views mark on Youtube. It could also become the most viewed Italian video on Youtube ever as the most viewed one Pulcino Pio has 234 million views and the second Roma-Bangkok 223 million and he has reached already 3rd place. And not only, it's also by far the most watched Eurovision entry on Youtube! PS. This year's winner Netta stands at 91 million, Måns Zelmerlöw's Heroes at 30 and Loreen's Euphoria at 38 while Salvador Sobral at 17 and Jamala even less....  Another Italian act is riding high as well: Il Volo's Grande amore at 130 (making it the second most watched Eurovision Youtube ever) while Mengoni stands at 55, Francesca Michielin at 31, this year's MetaMoro at 25 and the rest far far behind.... while Alexander Rybak's Fairytale completes the top-3 of Eurovision Youtubes with 97 million views. 

Francesco Gabbani has revealed what his new release will be about: A special edition of his latest album Magellano  + Sudore, fiato, cuore , a live CD recorded during his tour. There are rumors also of possible new songs on the album, but maybe that will be a Christmas surprise? Release daye November 17, 2017. Besides that he announced a special concert in Florence on January 20, 2018 to celebrate together his incredible year.  How's your collection? Will you have Magellano in all its colors? (Yellow being the international verison including Amen )

Francesco Gabbani has had an amazing year. His success adventure started already in Sanremo 2016 when he won the Newcomers with Amen and released his second album. But that was just calm before the storm. Step by step he made himself better known  with Eternamente ora , In equilibrio and Foglie al gelo and it all exploded in Sanremo this year when he won ahead of some other names that were more papable. Occidentali's Karma become an international phenomenom with 160 million Youtube views and the early announced Eurovision song contest winner. Not winning has been the only hicup in his career so far but it didn't stop him. Instead he released a new album and Tra le granite e le granate became the #1 hit of summer 2017 in Italy. Recently he released Pachidermi e pappagalli , already another hit to his credit while he is finishing his triunphant sold out tour all over Italy. In between he has done all major festivals and television shows, been nominated and won a few award...

Five times platinum in sales. 150 million views on Vevo. Francesco Gabbani's Occidentali's karma is on its way to become the most watched Italian video ever.  Still some click to have befofe beating Baby K feat. Giusy Ferreri's Roma-Bangkok but .... let's wait and see :-)

Tra le granite e le granate proves to be The summerhit of 2017 in Italy. It has now been certified platinum following the incredible success Francesco Gabbani is enjoying in radios and on his sold out tour. The single made it to #19 in official charts but keeps selling steadily after hitting #1 in Italian Airplay (four weeks and counting....). The video counts over 32 million views. The album Magellano  has sold already gold and made it to #1 in albums chart.  The Sanremo winner and Italy's Eurovision entry Occidentali's Karma sold four times platinum after hitting #1 in both official charts and Airplay (and San Marino) and #10 in Europe. The video is close to 148 million views... It's already the 4th most watched Italian video ever.   And let's not forget his very first platinum selling single, Amen .  UPDATE AUGUST 7:

Francesco Gabbani's follow up single to multiplatinum selling Occidentali's Karma Tra le granite e le granate has hit number one in the Italian radio chart thus becoming THE summer hit. To celebrate this Gabbani has decided to release the single in vinyl, good old seven incher! It's colorful and very limited, numbered affair - only 1000 copies!  While at it you can also get Occidentali's Karma 7" in blue, and the Magellano  LP in white vinyl :-). This man loves color! Get yours here while you can

Well, not in the official singles chart but in the official Download chart, week 20/2017. But he's not the only Eurovision song contest act as also Blanche's City lights from Belgium enter the Top-10 at #10 and Italy's Francesco Gabbani's Occidentali's Karma appear at #17.  The downoad chart is the fastest moving chart so one can expect there's no trace of any of them next week..... sadly.  In Radio play chart Amar pelos dois enters at #55 and no sign of any other Eurovison songs in the Top-100..... 

Italian satirical program Striscia la notizia has awarded Francesco Gabbani with legendary Tapiro d'oro aka Golden tapir for his failure in Eurovision song contest in Kyiv. The show, that is ment to be a parody of real news, literally the news slither, is known to award people who fail the expectations, make mistakes or just make fool of themselves smoehow. Most awarded ones take is with humor (but not always!) as did also Francesco Gabbani commenting "I failed because I wanted this award! And because I am a supporter of the unexpected. In Sanremo I was not given a winner and the situation changed completely. When I left for Kyiv, however, I was given a super favorite and I said 'Yeah guys, we're going to go and sing a song in Ukraine ...' and so it was." He was also asked if he was drunk like suggested by BBC. No, but the gorilla maight have been..... Watch the video here (there's also Luciana Littizzetto and Desmond Morris btw)

Despite disappointing 6th place in the Eurovision song contest 2017 final Francesco Gabbani's Occidentali's karma has went 4 times platinum. The video on Vevo has over 116 million views, the live performance from Sanremo on eurovision-tv has nearly 10 million views and the Eurovision performance has nearly 0,8 million already.

RAI got the best viewing figures since Italy's return to the Eurovision song contest last night when the show was moved back to Rai1 and up to 15,1 million watched the show at least for a minute, and the average of 3,7 million watched it properly, that's +13% to last year! Call it Gabbamania but also RAI was giving bigger effort than ever with advertising the show beforehand.  The most watched moment was the ending of Gabbani's performance when 5,3 million Italians were clued to their television screen, and the biggest share (32,2%) when Portugal was declared the winner. Most importantly, Eurovision beat the worst enemy, Maria De Filippi's Amici! The show was also a social media success with 739.000 interactions on Twitter and Facebook - that's +259% people! And all that by about 200.000 individuals (+600%!).  The Director of Rai1, Andrea Fabiano who was present in Kyiv, declares he's very satisfied with the result and considered Eurovision a priority p...

"Occidentali's Karma" is Best Song according to The Collective voting of the accredited press and wins  Marcel Bezençon Press   Award! Thank you! Portugal's Salvador Sobral won the Artistic award voted by the commentators, and Luisa Sobral the Compose award voted by the other composers. 

Less than 30 hours before the final Italy has lost its number one place in the betting odds for the first time since it was announced the Italian entry after winning Sanremo! Portugal has been close and getting closer the past few days and today finally reached and passed Italy. Barely. Amar pelos dois is also charting in iTunes all over, in 18 countries while Belgium is charting in 17 and Italy only 13. Sweden and Bulgaria chart in 12 as we speak. It's worth mentionin iTunes isn't bible and other platforms like Spotify are much more common in some countries.... Maybe it's due to today's weird rehearsal where he mumbled something like he had to do different stuff as there are so many rehearsals. In a way he has been mocking Eurovision since he arrived, telling he doesn't like the music and that this isn't his place and world. Mind you I love this song, but his attitude irritates me, and we certaily don't need an Eurovision winner who spits at the p...

I Italy is ready to win and Francesco Gabbani's hometown Carrara is ready to celebrate the victorious night out in the opne, in the city's main square Piazza Battisti. The same place welcome him home after Sanremo win with a party for everybody, and a flashmob of the gorille dance to remember

Italy has been reigning all alone the odds for weeks while the runners ups have been changing rapidly but one after another has failed to reach him. Until today. Portugal is nearing fast and indeed it's becoming last minute favorite to indeed march into victory come Saturday. Maybe.  How ironic it is that in a contest where everyone insists singing in English "because other languages don't work" these both two songs are non-English ones? (And may I add Belarus that is also very well received?) They have also another thing in common: both have sudden movements and jerks on stage that make then look a bit weird if you're not prepaired. Whereas they seem to be part of Sobral's being, Gabbani seems to be overdoing those jerks and jumps if you compare to his performance in Sanremo earlier this year. He should calm down and control himself a bit, all this said with all the love and admiration in the world! He's a showman and a stage animal but enough is...

How can we not love him unconditionally? And not to vote him Saturday evening? Simply impossible.  Amen. 

While Francesco Gabbani is busy in Kyiv winning Eurovision song contest with Occidentali's karma (110.400.000 views already on Vevo) at home he is ready to conquer the charts with his new summer hit, Tra le granite and le granate with its very colorful video. It's off his new album Magellano , that went straight to #1 in Italy last week when it was released.

This is the ultimate prove I should maybe change my name? Francesco gets messsed up with the name but no worries, he comes out as a real charmer after all and we can only love him for that! J'adore!

    Italy will perform at the first half of the final Scimmia nuda balla. What can we say that hasn't been said yet? This is fun, catchy, a winner. It has all the ingredients and in right proportions. Francesco is such a stahe animal as they say, and his dancing & goofind around looks spontaneous enough and vocally he delivers always. The gorilla is a fun addition and the choir in their colorful Gabbani jumpers, well. I hope they won't show them too much as they don't really add anything to the whole. I'm almost thinking they could have hidden them after all as everyone in the audience knows the dance routine already and will do it anyways without them showing it. I just can't wait to see this full arena dancing and shouting Alè!

  The moment everyone has been waiting for arrived today: Francesco Gabbani and his gorille took the stage and they didnt disappoint. As we already knew the staging was pretty much the same as in Sanremo, except for the four backing singers on stage that engaged in the choreography and wearing those colorful jumpers Gabbani made famous during Sanremo in red, bluem orange and yellow while francesco himself was in white shirt and dark suit and as energetic as ever. He's a true showman and camera loves him. It's fun, colorful, feelgood happy and the backdrop fits the message besides looking good.  Italy is here to win and apparently nothing can stop them. Right?