Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  After this exhausting and exciting Eurovision season it's time to take a break of it.  First off to my spiritual home,  Rome  and therefor here comes a series of songs celebrating Rome in its lyrics and/or videos.  After that at some point I'll relaunch the  #FinPop  series with all the goodies that have been released since January 2026. Have a good one !

  After this exhausting and exciting Eurovision season it's time to take a break of it.  First off to my spiritual home,  Rome  and therefor here comes a series of songs celebrating Rome in its lyrics and/or videos.  After that at some point I'll relaunch the  #FinPop  series with all the goodies that have been released since January 2026. Have a good one !

  After this exhausting and exciting Eurovision season it's time to take a break of it.  First off to my spiritual home,  Rome  and therefor here comes a series of songs celebrating Rome in its lyrics and/or videos.  After that at some point I'll relaunch the  #FinPop  series with all the goodies that have been released since January 2026. Have a good one !

  After this exhausting and exciting Eurovision season it's time to take a break of it.  First off to my spiritual home,  Rome  and therefor here comes a series of songs celebrating Rome in its lyrics and/or videos.  After that at some point I'll relaunch the  #FinPop  series with all the goodies that have been released since January 2026. Have a good one !

  After this exhausting and exciting Eurovision season it's time to take a break of it.  First off to my spiritual home,  Rome  and therefor here comes a series of songs celebrating Rome in its lyrics and/or videos.  After that at some point I'll relaunch the  #FinPop  series with all the goodies that have been released since January 2026. Have a good one !

  After this exhausting and exciting Eurovision season it's time to take a break of it.  First off to my spiritual home,  Rome  and therefor here comes a series of songs celebrating Rome in its lyrics and/or videos.  After that at some point I'll relaunch the  #FinPop  series with all the goodies that have been released since January 2026. Have a good one !

  After this exhausting and exciting Eurovision season it's time to take a break of it.  First off to my spiritual home,  Rome  and therefor here comes a series of songs celebrating Rome in its lyrics and/or videos.  After that at some point I'll relaunch the  #FinPop  series with all the goodies that have been released since January 2026. Have a good one !

After this exhausting and exciting Eurovision season it's time to take a break of it.  First off to my spiritual home, Rome and therefor here comes a series of songs celebrating Rome in its lyrics and/or videos.  After that at some point I'll relaunch the #FinPop series with all the goodies that have been released since January 2026. Have a good one !

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...

The Italian legend, ultimate television diva, singer, dancer, presenter, actress, hostess, icon and all around showgirl like they don't make them anymore sadly left us last Monday at the age of 78 after an illness she kept hidden from her fans. In fact, Rai was planning to have her collaborate in both Sanremo 2022 and the next Eurovision song contest in Italy. She could have been an excellent green room host for example! News of her death took Italians and Rai by surprise causing a general shock in the country and not anly Italy. Her success and fame is also immense in Spain and in the Latin America, who are mourning the Lady of television along with Italians. Her body was taken from her home in Via Nemea to Rome's city hall Campidoglio in a funeral procession passing by all important places in her career in the capital from Rai's studios and headquarters to Teatro delle Vittorie. Her burial chamber in Sala Protomoteca in Campidoglio . Her funeral takes place at midday on F...

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...

  "Siamo fuori di testa, ma diversi da loro"  they wrote in Instagram already in May 2017. The street musicians from Rome have gone a long via X Factor to Sanremo and to Eurovision in a short time. As I didn't do any artist presentations this year, and to be honest I'm not so familiar with Måneskin, let's do a short biography who they are and what they have been up to in the past few years. The band is made of lead singer Damiano David (21), Victoria De Angelis (20) in bass, Thomas Raggi (19) in guitar and Ethan Torchio (20) in drums.  Novembre 2015. Damiano asked Victoria to form a band, she brought in her friend and school mate from Monteverde Thomas. Ethan was found after an ad in Facebook. The year after they took part in a competition Pulse - High school band contest and won it.  The same year they had their official concert and usually they were found playing in the streets of Rome, their hometown.  2017. They took part in X Factor when they all were j...

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...

  I got to know Amedeo Minghi late 80's and discovered also his back catalogue, even if he really hit on me in the 90's, with collaboration with Mietta being the real turning point. I may have lost him in the 2010's but he has written some beautiful music over the decades, I ricordi del cuore being one of my all time favorite songs that still gives me goosebumps every time. And there's OGAE Song contest winner Vattene amore with Mietta. And a majestic hymn to his hometown, Rome.  Check out also

Eurovision veterans Marco Mengoni and Emma were awarded as the Best male and Best female singer in Italy when Francesco Gabbani presented the Tim MTV Music awards in Rome's Piazza del Popolo.  Sadly both were absent - Emma in another channel with Amici final and Mengoni still having his holidays and break from the show m´business somewhere in the world, but he promised an international surprise shortly in his video message. Maybe the workaholic is already ready to return? The final match was won by Michele Bravi as the Best Performance beating Francesco Gabbani himself.  Benji & Fede was voted the Best band and the Web star award, Marco Mengoni won also Best fan award and Ermal Meta got the Best new artist award... after 12 years in spotlight.....

Tonight's the night of Francesco Gabbani's debut as a show host as he presents the Tim MTV Music Awards 2017 live from Piazza del Popolo in Rome. He will also perform with another Eurovision veteran Nina Zilli who has just made a comeback with a new single , Sanremo 2017 revelations Michele Bravi and Paola Turci, Fabri Fibra, Samuel, Levante, Sanremo newcomers winner Lele, Elodie and Gabry Ponte feat. Danti.  Manchester is in everyone's mind but he has stated: "Manchester has been so sad and an absolutely unjustifiable situation, but the fact that we will be out in the square on May 27 is the demonstration that we will continue to have the sense of freedom to share the joy and emotions of music!" Besides hosting and performing Gabbani is also nominated as the Best Male artist along with another Eurovision veteran Marco Mengoni, Tiziano Ferro and Michele Bravi. Two more Eurovision stars are nominated for the Best Female artist; Emma and Francesca Michiel...

Francesco Gabbani is not only hosting the Tim MTV Music Awards Italy in Rome in the end of May but he's also niminated as the best male artist alongside another Eurovision veteran, global star Tiziano Ferro and Sanremo 2017 revealtion Michele Bravi. But that's not all: two Eurovision veterans Emma and Francesca Michielin are nominated as the best female artist with Alessandra Amoroso and Levante. Marco Mengoni gets also another nomination in the best fans category. You can vote your favorites here

After Sanremo, multiplatinum selling single, Eurovision victory in sight and new album coming out next week, tour selling out fast for next summer Francesco Gabbani is taking on another challenge: He will be hosting the Italian MTV Music awards, taking place this year in Rome! The date is May 27 and that's all we know so far..... but do we know more? He's there. Meanwhile Occidentali's karma is at 96 million......

In the Gabbani News today: Francesco Gabbani will be headlining the annual Primo Maggio aka First of May concert in Rome. And it's not just an outdoor concert, it's a guhe one! Organized every year since 1990 this long and huge concert, also known as Concertone (wich literally means something beyond huge) in Rome's Piazza di San Giovanni Laterano gathers together hundreds of thousends of people, up to one million at times it seems..... Now imagine this crowd doing the Gorilla Dance shouting Alè! Namaste!!  I. Just. Can't. Wait.  PS. Occidentali's karma is over 88 million....