Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

As Mahmood has been announced as one of the co-hosts for the Sanremo 2025 fourth night this is as good as any excuse to have a some Friday night nostalgia and a closer look to his Sanremo participation history that is quite remarkable indeed. 2016 Placed 4th in Newcomer's with Dimentica  (behind certain Francesco Gabbani and Ermal Meta) 2018 Winner of Sanremo Giovani with Gioventú bruciata (won Critic's award) 2019 Winner of Sanremo with Soldi  (won awards for best performance and was voted the best by other artists) 2020 Author for Elodie's Andromeda (7th) 2021 Guest appearance           Author for Francesca Michielin & Fedez's Chiamami per nome (2nd)          Author for Noemi's Glicine (14th) 2022 Winner of Sanremo with Brividi together with Blanco          Author for Noemi's Ti amo non lo so dire (15th) 2023 Guest appearance 2024 Placed 6th with Tuta gold but had the biggest hit of the fe...

I can't quite believe yet that Saturday night two of my favorite singers are both on Liverpool Eurovision stage: Marco Mengoni in competition and Mahmood performing in the interval act Liverpool songbook with several other Eurovision stars. He has just announced also an European tour for 2024 and is writing songs for his new album and says this time he's taking his time until he's totally satisfied with them. For those who don't know he's also a succesful songwriter for other artists including Mengoni ( Hola ), Elodie, Michele Bravi & Gué Pequeno ( Nero Bali ), Francesca Michielin ( Cheyenne and Chiamami per nome ), Noemi ( Glicine ), Giorgia ( Normale ). Elodie ( Andromeda ) and many many more. And of course we remember him from two Sanremo wins and two Eurovisions:

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. Alessandro Mahmoud aka Mahmood caused quite an outcry in Italy after winning Sanremo, mostly a very racistic one. Nut Europe loved his clap clap Soldi and he missed the Eurovision victory only by 26 points, that's just a bit over 5% Duncan Laurence's winning points. This said he placed 2nd out of 41. This Egyptian-Sardinian Milan based tried his luck first at X Factor 2012 and made it all the way to the judge's houses but didn't make it until he made a comeback as a wildcard and lasted three episodes. In 2013 he released first song Falling rain and in 2016 he was in Sanremo's Newcomers with Dimentica , placing 4th with Francesco Gabbani and Ermal Meta ahead of him. He soon became a hitmaker for other artists like ...

Mahmood keeps delivering and announces an album to be released later this year. Meanwhile here's the latest single and video Inuyasha , that obviously refers to the Japanese cartoon.  Inuyasha is already fifth post- Soldi non album single following Barrio (#4), Rapide (#5), Moonlight popolare (#3) and Dorado (#19) besides #1 Calipso collaboration. 

He did it. Soldi has been streamed over 122 million times beating Loreen's Euphoria and Måns Zelmerlöw's Heroes and has become the most streamed Eurovision entry ever. Another record to the already very long list of record broken.  And Italy also holds the top of Youtube views with Francesco Gabbani's Occidentali's Karma , followed by Il Volo's Grande amore so one could say Italy rules! Let's see if in time Mahmood will catch up on them, too.  Meanwhile Mahmood is getting ready for the European tour and besides his chart topper Barrio he has recently co-written and performed with Gemitaiz and MadMan in Karate , re-recorded Barrio with Lalo Ebratt and co-written Marco Mengoni's latest hit Duemila volte , Parolaccie for Sergio Sylvestre and written and performed  Fa paura perche è vero  with Myss Keta....

Mahmood's new video Barrio had over one million views in 48 hours and has already passed 1,5 million mark. He's proving to be the most exciting export in music from Italy in years, and has convinced also the critics with this song again managing to mix the Latin influences with a hint of  Arab exotism with the Italian melodic pop and his unique voice. And did you notice there's also a gimmick hand choreography just like in Soldi , and it fits like a glove? Meanwhile his Europa Good Vibes Tour is selling well with sold out dates and added gigs in London  and Paris, and now a new date in Tel Aviv as well. On October 4 he will be performing in Malta in Radio Italia Live concert as well besides a few dates in Italy still to come. Update 6.9: New date in Madrid Update 10.9: Friedns of Music event in Strasbourg, European Parliament 3.10 Tel Aviv - Israel *22.10 Strasbourg - European Parliament* 23.10 Lugano - Switzerland 24.10 Zurich - Switzerland (sold out) ...

  After hitting number one in every possible chart in Italy, breaking also a few all time records what comes to streaming (most streamed Italian song ever with 81 milion) and such, selling multiple platinum at home, platinum in Switzerland and gold in Spain, hitting number on in Israel and Greece and making the official singles charts in over 20 countries the success has no end: the live video from Eurovision song contest has become the most watched Italian entry ever on official Eurovision channel (over 12 milion), and the video itself has reached and passed 100 million mark becoming the fifth (and soon 4th) most watched Eurovision entry ever.  While the winner Duncan Laurence is appearing here and there while prepairing his fall/winter tour around Europe, Mahmood is touring Italy and making appearances in Sweden (also a first!) and Spain where he apparently right now recording a new single. Soon he will be also in Switzerland. Check below his tour dates that have regu...

Surprise! Two new versions of Mahmood's Soldi have been released. One with Finnish teenage star Isac Elliot, the other with Spanish Maikel Delacalle. Isac Elliot's version includes lyrics in Italian and English with Mahmood joining in. The Maikel version has him rapping the way Guè Pequeno did in Sanremo with some added Spanish.  Check out the previous remixes here

Good and bad news from Italy. Good ones first: Mahmood's Sanremo 2019 winner and Italy's Eurovision song contest entry Soldi has been certified Triple Platinum for its sales! The bad news is he's gotten ill. He's got fever at 39,5C and serious infection in throat, it is reported tonight. This made him cancel his participation in a television programme tomorrow, but he's due to arrive in Tel Aviv as planned on Thursday ahead of his first rehearsal on Friday evening 18.20 local time. His second rehearsal will be on Sunday morning just before The Red Carpet and Welcome Party. Italy has been firmly in Top-5 in the betting odds and is at #3 when writing this.

After the Benny Benassi remix here comes another one by Denis First. Enjoy!

Benny Benassi remix. Run time 3'00

Historic triple for Mahmood and his Soldi and debut album Gioventù bruciata . Soldi sits another week at #1 in official singles charts and his album went straight to #1 in album chart, while Soldi is still the most played song in Italian radios and it has already gone Platinum. Previously Soldi broke the Italian record on Spotify becoming the most streamed song ever within 24h with 1.676.481 streamings on February 11. In week 7-14 February he got almost 9 million streams.  Meanwhile on Youtube Soldi has been watched over 35 million times...

Those who said Mahmood's victory in Sanremo with Soldi was unfair and manipulated political effort and that people wouldn't buy it have been proven wrong greatly. Soldi has topped all streaming platforms from Spotify to iTunes and Apple Music and most importantly the official Italian singles charts and the radio play charts. Now it has reached platinum status. It's also #25 in Switzerland. His debut album Gioventú bruciata was released last Friday and is already selling gold . Meanwhile the video on Youtube has over 30,5 million views already. At the moment he's on promotion tour all around Italy meeting & greeting fans in music stores besides being on radio or tv almost daily in various programmes. 

Alessandro Mahmoud aka Mahmood (26) has won the 69th Sanremo festival and  represants Italy in the 2019 Eurovision song contest in Tel Aviv Israel with his  Soldi . Confirmed in the press conference. The song includes also some lyrics in Arabic, as his father is Egyptian (and mother Sardinian). He got a ticket to the festival by winning Sanremo Giovani aka Newcomers in December. He started in X Factor 2012 but didn't go too far, and then Sanremo Newcomers 2016 but was left 4th behind likes of Francesco Gabbani and Ermal Meta. Since then he has started writing songs to others, including megahit Nero Bali for Michele Bravi and Elodie, and several songs on Marco Mengoni's latest platinum selling album. Check out his previous music videos: He has also co-written these great songs: Mahmoud 2013.... Amazing vocals already then!