Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Let's continue the series and kill some time having a look at the last decade and see who were the Top-10 best scoring countries in the Eurovision song contest in the past ten years. The ways to calculate are many and here I have used the simple average placement method (and it's not all so serious). Next up is Italy at n.o 2. Italy made a comeback to Eurovision in 2011 with a bang and a 2nd place finish. And Mahmood secured yet another 2nd place for Italy last year. Add Il Volo's 3rd place and four other Top-10s and you're left with one 16th place and one 21st place. And that 21st being the only one not linked to Sanremo but an internal selection. Five entries were Sanremo winners. one a runner up and one a Newcomers winner. Three of the entries among the most watched Youtubes ever on Eurovision platform, and also breaking Italian streaming records. Each and every artist still present and succesful, as most every one was already back then! Other countries take exa...

Tonight's the night: the 70th Festival della Canzone Italiana di Sanremo kicks off its five nights marathon of music, guests, comic and everything in between. Come Saturday we have a winner and most likely the Italian entry for the 65th Eurovision song contest in May in Rotterdam, too.  Amadeus is this year's host and artistic director and by his side he will have every night also singer Tiziano Ferro and comic Fiorello. And a string of ladies that keep changing every night. Tonight they are Rula Jebreal, is an Israeli Arab foreign policy analyst, journalist, novelist and screenwriter with dual Israeli and Italian citizenship, and Diletta Leotta. a (sports) television presenter.  Tonight's guests include Eurovision veteran Emma and the cast of film Gli anni piú belli , a film directed by Gabriele Muccino where also Emma makes her acting debut in a feature film. We will also have Eurovision veterans Albano e Romina Power and Jessica Notaro with Antonio Maggio....

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...

If we think back Italian entries since their return they have made best with yet rather unknown jazz singer Raphael Gualazzi with a song that was pretty much as far from a typical Eurovision entry dreamed by typical Euroboys as can be and placed 2nd to their horror. Then we have televote winners and overal 3rd placed Il Volo, an operatic trio somewhat looked down in Italy by most.  Now we have a fusion of them in our hands, a Sicilian tenor that can do jazzy swing and pop rock with ease and mix them all together if needed. Despite winning X Factor last year his career hasn't quite exploded yet. Italy has sent their biggest stars with the highest expectations and failed (according themselves only). Why not trying someone known but not yet big, with something typically Italian according Europeans (like Il Volo) and not trying too hard to be modern, international and hip? It doesn't seem to work for you.... Listen to Italia , Who wants to live forever , Million reasons , Like...

Should Sanremo festival 2019 act also as the Italian national selection for Eurovision song contest next year ( and we have no reason to believe it wouldn't) there's a major change in rules coming up. Claudio Baglioni, man in charge for the second year in a row hoping to repeat his succesful 2018 edition aims to separate the newcomers and the Big artists totally. That means that the Newcomers, or Nuove proposte aka Giovani will be held already in December instead of along the festival in February. The winner gets a freebie for the Big category. Update: The dates for Sanremo Giovani are December 16-21, with four pre-shows before the two nights primetime shows on 20 and 21. The top-2 will join the cast of the Big in February festival (dates might yet change, btw). All this is also due to all these reality and talent shows; placing the winners and artists to Sanremo has become a very tricky task the past few years - who's big enough for a Big? There are some rules based ...

Francesco Gabbani proved it's slippery when wet  when he almost fell off the stage after the summer rain wet the stage in Verona's amphitheatre. But the tens of thousends of people inside didn't mind the occasional rain and the fabulousness of the best of Italian pop continues tonight on Rai1! Watch the last night's show here  (with Giorgia (0'49), Eros Ramazzotti (0'54), Il Volo (1'50), Ermal Meta (2'18) and Raphael Gualazzi (2'24) among the stars :-) ) The show continued on Tuesday night with Emma, Riccardo Fogli with i Pooh, Massimo Ranieri, Umberto Tozzi (2'09) and Il Volo again, this time under pouring rain with Grande amore (0'57) , among others like Nek (0'23) Watch the whole show here

  Wind Music Awards is the annual Italian affair where music industry awards the best selling artists of the past season. Broadcasted live from Arena di Verona, the Roman amphitheatre build in the first century, in Rai1 on June 5 and 6. Carlo Conti and Vanessa Incontrada are hosting as Eurovision veterans Francesco Gabbani, ( Occidentali's Karma 4x platinum, Magellano  album gold) Il Volo (platinum album and tour) , Emma (Adesso tour) , Raphael Gualazzi, (Love life peace album gold) Massimo Ranieri, (live shows) Enrico Ruggeri   (with Decibel a speacil award for an album from the past) and Umberto Tozzi (special award FIMI)  get up on stage to perform and pick up awards either for their resent sales or other awards for their live performances etc. The two night affair really has the best of Italian music gathered in one place as the other artists present are Ligabue, J-Ax, Fedez, i Pooh, Giorgia, Renato Zero, Ermal Meta, Zucchero, Alessandra Amoroso, ...

Salvador Sobral might be the jazzy singer who did win Eurovision but Italy's Raphael Gualazzi, the runner up in 2011 is the one who has managed to make it an international career. And after last year's summer hit L'Estate di John Wayne he's again flirting heavily with pop for the summer: La fine del mondo is just that: summer pop song. It's off his international release of Love. Life. Peace. album.  Gualazzi is also touring Italy all summer with his tour and various (jazz) festivals.

Salvador Sobral came, sung and won with his simplicity and emotional performance ahead of the pre-contest favorites and gave Portugal its first win in 53 years. But who is he? "I hope my victory makes a change not only in Eurovision but also in pop music," he said. "If I can bring some sort of change to the pop music in the world in general, because people only listen to the music that is thrown at us from the radio stations, I’ll be more than happy."  "I never wrote  a song to be played on the radio stations, I released an album last fall nobody gave a shit about it. After this festival and this beautiful song people got to know me better, I guess it works this way and I’m happy the way it’s happened." Salvador Sobral was born to a former noble family on December 28, 1989 in Lisbon. He has a sister, Luisa who wrote the winning song Amar pelos dois for him after being invited by RTP as a composer, thanks to her own flourishing music career....