Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest
This article deals with the history of Italy as participants in the Euro Vision Song Contest.
Regularity of participation
Italy took already in the first edition of the Euro Vision Song Contest in 1956 and from then until 1980 or every year the contest. 1981 and 1982, the country remained due to internal wrangling with the EBU the competition away in 1986 and in 1994 and 1996 lacked the land of lack of interest and low ratings, which was due in part to the popularity of their own annual music festival in Sanremo. Participation in the Euro Vision Song Contest 1997 was supposedly only about because the national television RAI had missed the cancellation deadline and would have had otherwise to pay high penalty fees. By 2010, Italy has not participated. On 2 December 2010, it was announced that Italy again from 2011 would like to participate in the competition.
Languages
Italy has remained its national language over the years, very loyal, almost all posts were sung entirely in Italian. The first exception, there were in 1976, when the contribution of Romina Power and Al Bano was sung in English and Italian. In 1984, sung in German, two lines of the song I treni di Tozeur, in fact it was a movement from Mozart's Magic Flute. The second contribution of Romina Power and Al Bano in 1985 was mainly sung in Italian, but with the English title Magic, oh magic. 1990 ended each refrain of the song Insieme: 1992 unite with the English words, unite, Europe. Linguistically, is also remarkable for the alleged in Neapolitan dialect Comme è ddoce 'o mare of 1991. 2011 Raphael Gualazzi also brought a bilingual song. Madness Of Love was sung each to about 50 % in Italian and in English, as well as L' amore è femmina ( Out Of Love ), 2012. Sang Marco Mengoni 2013 L' essenziale completely in Italian, as well as Emma Marrone La mia città is only sing Italian.
List of posts
Color legend: - Victories. - A tie to the last place. - Contributions finals.
Success in competition
Italy could compete reach twice the first place, in 1964 with Gigliola Non ho l' eta and Cinquetti and Toto Cutugno 1990 and Insieme: 1992 Also in other years, the country has been very successful and also twice reached the second and four third place.. Total landed 23 of the 38 posts, their placement is known in the front half of the scoreboard. Italy also came only once - but with zero points - the last place ( 1966). Immediately upon returning to the ESC 2011 Italy managed completely by surprise at No. 2 and since then every year in the top ten, except for Azerbaijan abolished the no other country.
National preliminaries
Up to and including 1966 and 1972, the winning song of the Sanremo Festival were automatically the Italian contributions in the Euro Vision Song Contest, the artist agreed, as a rule, although some songs during the national festival as duets, were internationally but solo presented. 1956 was, as two entries were submitted, and the runner-up titles represented. In the years 1967 to 1969, the Sanremo Festival was respectively extracted from singing duo, one each was selected as a representative for the Euro Vision Song Contest, but with a new title. Until 1988, the Italian representatives were selected internally in the years 1978 and 1985 there were - more random - the last year's winner of Sanremo. In 1989, the winner of the festival were again the Italian representative at the Grand Prix, but with a new song, as in 1993. 1997 won Jalisse with Rivers di Parole and traveled with this song also to Dublin. In the remaining years was also chosen internally.
After the return of Italy in 2011 all artists up to and including 2013 were ( also the title until 2012) from the participants of the Sanremo festival selected. 2014 Emma Marrone was internally selected to represent the country.
Regardless of the Euro Vision Song Contest also won several other Italian representatives before or after their participation in the Sanremo Festival, led by Iva Zanicchi with a total of two more victories.
Commercial success
Regardless of their performance many Italian contributions were also successful internationally. The best known among them probably Nel blu di dipinto blu ( Volare ), the first place went to Europe and in the USA in the charts and in the same year also won the Grammy for Best song. Other international hits were Piove ( Ciao, ciao, bambina ), which was commercially successful in the original version and sung by Caterina Valente in German reached the second place in the German charts, the first champion title Non ho l' eta and Non so che darei from the year 1980.
Miscellaneous
- Toto Cutugno Insieme: 1992 is the only winning titles in competition with a current in his time political terms: it was the Schengen Agreement.
- In 1974, the contest of the public radio and television broadcaster RAI has not been transferred, as it was feared the interpreted Gigliola Cinquetti contribution ' Si ' ( ' Yes '), could the referendum on the abolition of the old divorce law, which is about five weeks later to be held on May 12, affect towards a positive election result.
- With the return of Italy to the competition in 2011, the " Big Four " Spain, Germany, Great Britain and France to Italy were extended to the " Big Five ". The Italian contribution is thus always qualified for the finals.