Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  Here are the Sanremo 2026 music videos in one place for your enjoyment....

The 75th festival della canzone italiana di Sanremo kicks of its five night long adventure tonight. Carlo Conti returns as the main host and the artistic director after five years of Amadeus. Conti did the job already back in 2015, 2016 and 2017 and is set to return also for 2026. This year he will have a string of co-hosts during the five nights and tonight they are Antonella Clerici and Gerry Scotti - both popular household names and Rai's veteran tv-hosts and presenters and media personalities for decades already.  The voting for the first night is by the media jury or the jury of Press room, TV and web. A total of 1.487 of them. The Top-5 will be announced by the end of the night in random order. How the betting odds were after the media heard the songs you can check here . The songs are in Italian of course or not quite as we will have some Napoletan and Roman dialects thrown in as well.  The guest acts are Jovanotti, Raf (Eurovision 1987) and Mira Awad & Noa (Eurovis...

  Remember Nathalie?  The X Factor winner 2010 who was heavily tipped to be The One for Eurovision (or was I the only one spreading these rumors?)  as Italy announced its comeback. In punta di piedi would have been great, as would have been her Sanremo 2011 entry as well, Vivo sospesa that she brought to the final and placed 8th. However, Rai decided to sent Newcomers winner Raphael Gualazzi and the rest is history! Nathalie has released collaborations with Eurovision veterans Raf and Franco Battiato, and she has continued to produce music but these two songs are her only singles chart appearance.

After the list of those who made it to the festival the media is announcing the ones who didn't make it this time around, among them Eurovision veterans Jalisse who were not taken for the 26th year in a row! Now that's a record to beat. But they are not alone. The list of excluded ones includes names like Mietta, Paola Turci, Syria, Dolcenera and Marcella Bella, for the zillionth time. But also names like Elettra Lamborghini, Francesca Michielin, Michele Bravi, Annalisa and Eurovision veterans Francesco Gabbani, Raf, Fausto Leali, Ricchi e Poveri, Alan Sorrenti and Albano. Add names like Eiffel 65, that would have filled the nostalgy slot nicely. Without further notes here's the list combined from various sources of names that didn't make it this year: Alan Sorrenti, Albano, Alex Wyse, Andrea Sannino, Annalisa, Antonino, Auroro Boreolo, Baby K, Beba, Bresh, Bugo, Chadia Rodriguez, Clementino, Daniele Silvestri,  Ditonellapiaga, Dolcenera, Drusilla Foer, Eiffel 65, Elett...

  Another set of of tormentoni wannabes like Eurovision veteran Raf's latest, those that made it and a nostalgia trip with Righeira, a real classic! Vamos a la playa, it's almost Ferragosto! Raf - Cherie Jovanotti / Sixpm - I love you baby Gionnyscandal - Boom Righeira - Vamos a la playa

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. Umberto Tozzi (69) won Sanremo 1987 with Gianni Morandi and Enrico Ruggeri with Si puó dare di piú , co-written by Raf or Raffaele Riefoli. Morandi had already done Eurovision and Ruggeri would do it later so Tozzi took along Raf (in the beginning of his career spelled Raff) with another song they wrote together, Gente di mare . It also marked Raf's debut singing in Italian. They placed 3rd out of 22. Umberto Tozzi is one of the most selling Italian artists abroad in the 1970's/1980's with songs like Gloria , Ti amo , Tu , Stella stai . Laura Branigan made both Ti amo and Gloria global hist in English. Over 80 million records sold he's still active today. Four Sanremos with that one victory, 17 studio albums and 60 s...

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. Enrico Ruggeri (64) took his second Sanremo win with Mistero , the first and only rock song to win Sanremo until Måneskin. His first one was in 1987 in Trio Morandi-Ruggeri-Tozzi wherefrom Umberto Tozzi went on to Eurovision with Raf instead. However he didn't bring Mistero but Europe inspired Sole d'Europa but Europe wasn't shining too much love on him and he placed 12th out of 25. Ruggeri is one of the Big names and has been around in music business since early 1970's, first in I Decibel band with whom he does his first Sanremo in 1980. After 22 studio albums and over 50 singles he's also writer, tv and radio host and the president of Italian artists football club. After this presence Italy stayed home for three y...

  One month to go before Amadeus will announce one by one the chosen artists for the 70th Sanremo festival to be held in February 2020. The number of the artists rumored to have been selected, or having submitted a song, or wanting to be there or just wistful thinking by anyone i turn gets longer day by day. Here's the round up the latest rumors (the previous ones are here and here ): Francesco Gabbani could be returning. He has released two singles off his album in the making and could aim for a Sanremo launch. Al Bano desperately wants to be there, with or without Romina Power who apparently doesn't want to live it all again at all. Also Massimo Ranieri has been thrown into the gossiping again. More Eurovision veterans could come in form of Umberto Tozzi & Raf who have been touring and working together again with success. Marco Masini could be there to celebrate the 30th anniversary of him winning the Newcomers and rocker Piero Pelú could make his debut, a...

  Laura Branigan had her biggest hits with covers of Raf's ( Self control ) and Umberto Tozzi's ( Gloria , Ti amo ) songs and she also recorded songs made hits by someone else later ( I found someone by Cher for example) but her own repertoire is respectable as well. I found her thanks to Self control of course, and then followed and searched back her previous career and was a fan until the end. When I heard the news of her death in a car radio I was maybe a bit more shaken as I should have been....  she's still missed.  Check out also

Several Eurovision stars seem to be aiming for a Sanremo comeback. As the Sanremo rumors are running wilder and wilder when the day of announcement is getting closer out of the blue come whispers that Il Volo have a song ready and they are willing to spread some grande amore in Sanremo again. Could the 2015 Sanremo winners and Eurovision song contest televoting winners really be willing to do it all again? We'll see! But if Il Volo scored 3rd place in Eurovision Raphael Gualazzi did even better placing 2nd in 2011 when Italy made its grand return to the contest. He has been twice to Sanremo since winning the Newcomers in 2011 placing 5th and 2nd, so can't be ruled out if he does participate.  The 1988 Sanremo winner and 1971 and 1973 Eurovision entrant Massimo Ranieri is apparently on Claudio Baglioni's wishlist but seems not so eager to take part again. If he does it's his 7th time since 1968. Another name, causing some controversy, is Anna Oxa . 1989 and 1991...

After Alice & Battiato joined forces after 30 years with new recordings and a highly succesful tour in 2016 another Italian Eurovision couple returns after 30 years, too: Umberto Tozzi and Raf have released a new song, Come una danza , re-recorded Gente di mare and remastered their other hits in a double-CD to be released late November and hit the road next spring in Italy and Europe. 

Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro are already Italy's 8th duo in the Eurovision song contest over the years. That counts also then happily married Al Bano & Romina Power who did it twice, and another stilL happily married couple, Alessandra Drusian and Fabio Ricci aka Jalisse, while the other duos have been formeD for Sanremo, or Eurovision song contest in mind. And the interesting fact is they all ended up in top-10! This is as good an eXcuse to relisten and watch all these beauties.... 1975 - Wess & Dori Ghezzi - Era - 3rd 1976 - Al Bano & Romina Power - We'll live it all again - 7th 1984 - Alice & Franco Battiato - I treni di Tozeeur - 5th 1985 - Al Bano & Romina Power - Magic oh magic - 7th 1987 - Umberto Tozzi & Raf - Gente di mare - 3rd 1989 - Anna Oxa & Fausto Leali - Avrei voluto - 9th 1997 - Jalisse - Fiumi di parole - 4th 2018 - Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro - Non mi avete fatto niente - ?