Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest

Italy
Member station	RAI
National selection events	National final Sanremo Music Festival 1956–1966 1967-1969 (artist) 1972 1997 2011–2013 2015–2022 Canzonissima 1970-1971 (artist) 1973-1975 (artist) Internal selection 1976–1980 1983–1985 1987–1993 2014
Participation summary
Appearances	46
Host	1965, 1991, 2022
First appearance	1956
Highest placement	1st: 1964, 1990, 2021
Nul points	1966
External links
Official RAI website for ESC
Italy's page at Eurovision.tv
For the most recent participation see Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022

Italy has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 46 times since making its debut at the first contest in 1956. It was one of the seven countries that competed at the first contest, which took inspiration from the Sanremo Music Festival.^[1] Italy competed at the contest without interruption until 1980, discontinuing its participation on a number of occasions during the 1980s and 1990s. After a 13-year absence starting in 1998, the country returned to the contest in 2011. Italy has won the contest three times, along with an additional 15 top-five finishes. Italy hosted the contest in Naples (1965) and Rome (1991), and will host the 2022 contest in Turin.

In 1958, Domenico Modugno finished third with the song "Nel blu, dipinto di blu". Renamed "Volare", the song became a huge international hit, topping the US Billboard Hot 100 and winning two Grammy Awards at its first edition. Emilio Pericoli also finished third in 1963, before Italy won for the first time in 1964 with Gigliola Cinquetti and "Non ho l'età". Cinquetti returned to the contest in 1974 and finished second with the song "Sì", losing to ABBA. Italy then finished third in 1975 with Wess and Dori Ghezzi and the song "Era". The country's best result of the 1980s was Umberto Tozzi and Raf finishing third in 1987. Italy's second victory in the contest came in 1990 with Toto Cutugno and the song "Insieme: 1992". Other good 1990s results were Mia Martini in 1992 and Jalisse in 1997, who both finished fourth. After 1997, Italy withdrew from the competition.

On 31 December 2010, the EBU announced that Italy would be returning to the contest as part of the "Big Five", meaning that it automatically qualified for the final.^[2] Italy's return to the contest has proved to be successful, finishing in the top ten in eight of the last ten contests (2011–21), including second places for Raphael Gualazzi (2011) and Mahmood (2019), and third place for Il Volo (2015). Il Volo won the televote, receiving votes from all countries, but came sixth with the juries. This was the first time since the introduction of the mixed jury–televote system in 2009 that the televote winner did not end up winning the contest. Italy achieved its third victory at the contest in 2021, with the rock band Måneskin and the song "Zitti e buoni".

History[]

Absences[]

Italy has withdrawn from the Eurovision Song Contest a number of times. The first withdrawal was in 1981, when RAI stated that interest had diminished in the country.^[3] This absence continued through 1982, before Italy returned in 1983. Italy again withdrew in 1986 when RAI decided not to enter the contest.^{[citation needed]} From 1994 to 1996 Italy withdrew again, with RAI citing a lack of interest in participating. Italy returned in 1997, before withdrawing again without explanation, and the country did not participate again until 2011.^[4]

None of the 20th century Eurovision-winning songs were particularly successful in the Italian charts. "Non ho l'età" by Gigliola Cinquetti was a hit in February 1964 when the song won the 1964 contest, but according to the official "Hit Parade Italia" website, "Waterloo", "Ding-a-dong", "Puppet on a String", "Save Your Kisses for Me" and even Italy's own winning entry of 1990, "Insieme: 1992", all failed to enter the top ten of the records sales charts. A notable exception to this rule was the 1984 entry "I treni di Tozeur" by Alice and Franco Battiato, which shared 5th place in the final, but still became a #3 hit in Italy and also placed at #20 on the chart of the best-selling Italian singles in 1984.

TV censorship of the 1974 contest[]

RAI refused to broadcast the 1974 contest because their competing song, sung by Gigliola Cinquetti, coincided with the intense political campaigning for the 1974 Italian divorce referendum which was to be held a month later in May. Despite the Eurovision Song Contest taking place more than a month before the planned vote, Italian censors refused to allow the contest and song to be shown or heard. RAI censors felt that the song, titled "Sì" (Yes), and contained lyrics constantly repeating the aforementioned word could be subject to accusation of being subliminal messaging and a form of propaganda to influence the Italian voting public to vote 'yes' in the referendum ('yes' to repeal the law that allowed divorce).^[5] The song thus remained censored on most Italian state TV and radio stations for over a month. At the contest in Brighton, Cinquetti finished second, losing to ABBA. "Sì" went on to be a UK top ten hit, peaking at number eight. It also reached the German top 20.^{[citation needed]}

The 2008–2010 period[]

In 2008, two notable Italian musicians, Vince Tempera (who was the conductor for Malta in 1975 and had helped San Marino take part in the ESC in 2008) and Eurovision winner Toto Cutugno expressed their sorrow at Italy's non-participation and called for the country to return to the contest.^[6][7]

Contestants from the 2008 contest, starting with the winner Dima Bilan appeared on the Italian show Carramba! Che fortuna, hosted by Raffaella Carrà on Rai Uno. Whether this was an initiative by Carrà (who presented three shows in TVE concerning the event) to try to bring Eurovision back to Italy is not clear, but Sietse Bakker, then-Manager Communications & PR of the Eurovision Song Contest, reiterated that "Italy is still very much welcome to take part in the competition."^[8][9]

Shortly after revealing the list of participants for the 2009 contest, the EBU announced that they would work harder to bring Italy back into the contest, along with former participants Monaco and Austria.^[10]

Successful return to the contest[]

At a press conference presenting the fourth edition of the Italian X Factor, Rai 2 director Massimo Liofredi announced that the winner of the competition might advance to represent Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest, rather than participate in the Sanremo Festival, as in previous years. On 2 December 2010, it was officially announced by the Eurovision Song Contest official website that Italy had applied to compete in the 2011 contest.^[11] Their participation was further confirmed on 31 December with the announcement of the official participant list.^[2]

Italy's return to the contest after a 13-year absence has been successful, finishing in the top ten in eight of the last ten contests (2011–21). In 2011, Raphael Gualazzi finished second, then Italy's best result since 1990. Italy came first with the jury vote, but only 11th in the televote to place second overall behind eventual winner Azerbaijan. Nina Zilli in 2012 and Marco Mengoni in 2013 were able to achieve a top 10 position (9th and 7th respectively); the latter, gathered 126 points, exactly doubling the points total of the other "Big Five" countries that year. This trend had a stop in 2014 when Emma Marrone, selected internally, ended in 21st place, worst placing ever for an Italian entry. In 2015, Sanremo winners Il Volo finished third with 292 points, behind Sweden and Russia. Italy placed first in the televote with 366 points, but sixth in the jury vote. Since the introduction of the 50/50 split voting system, this was the first time that the televote winner did not win the contest overall. Francesca Michielin, selected among the competitors of Sanremo 2016 after the waiver of the winners Stadio, ended in 16th place. Francesco Gabbani, a fan-favourite with "Occidentali's Karma", came in 6th place in 2017. The year after, although not initially a big favourite with the bookmakers, Ermal Meta and Fabrizio Moro returned Italy to the top 5 with "Non mi avete fatto niente", aided significantly by finishing third in the televote, which heavily counterbalanced the 17th place of the jury, finishing fifth overall. In 2019, Mahmood placed second with 472 points, Italy's best result since 2011, until Måneskin won the contest in 2021 with 524 points. Måneskin's victory marked the band's breakthrough on the international music scene.^[12]

The video for "Occidentali's Karma" by Francesco Gabbani is the first Eurovision song to reach more than 200 million views on YouTube, while "Zitti e buoni" by Måneskin and "Soldi" by Mahmood are the second and third most-streamed Eurovision song on Spotify, respectively. In addition, the live performance of "Zitti e buoni" is the most viewed live performance on the Eurovision YouTube channel.^[13]

Italy and the "Big Five"[]

Since 1999, four countries – France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom – have automatically qualified for the Eurovision final regardless of their results in previous contests.^[14] These countries earned this special status by being the four biggest financial contributors to the EBU, and subsequently became known as the "Big Four". In a meeting with OGAE Serbia in 2007, then-Executive Supervisor of the Contest Svante Stockselius stated that, if Italy were to return to the contest in the future, the country would also automatically qualify for the final, becoming part of a "Big Five".^[15][16] However, with the official announcement of the return of Italy, it was not confirmed whether the country would compete in one of the two semi-finals or be part of the "Big Five", as RAI, third largest contributor to the EBU, had not applied for "Big Five" membership.^[17] On 31 December 2010, it was announced that Italy would take part in the 2011 contest and confirmed that the country would indeed automatically qualify for the final as part of the "Big Five".^[2]

Italy is currently the most successful Big Five country in the Eurovision Song Contest following the introduction of the rule, finishing in the top ten in eight of the last ten contests (2011–21), including a victory for Måneskin (2021), second places for Raphael Gualazzi (2011) and Mahmood (2019), and third place for Il Volo (2015). They are one of the only two countries of the Big Five – since it was introduced – to have won, the other being Germany in 2010.

Participation overview[]

Table key

1	Winner
2	Second place
3	Third place
◁	Last place
X	Entry selected but did not compete
†	Upcoming

Year	Entrant	Song	Language	Place	Points	Semi	Points
1956	Franca Raimondi	"Aprite le finestre"	Italian	2[a]	N/A	No semi-finals
	Tonina Torrielli	"Amami se vuoi"	Italian	2[a]
1957	Nunzio Gallo	"Corde della mia chitarra"	Italian	6	7
1958	Domenico Modugno	"Nel blu, dipinto di blu"	Italian	3	13
1959	Domenico Modugno	"Piove (Ciao, ciao bambina)"	Italian	6	9
1960	Renato Rascel	"Romantica"	Italian	8	5
1961	Betty Curtis	"Al di là"	Italian	5	12
1962	Claudio Villa	"Addio, addio"	Italian	9	3
1963	Emilio Pericoli	"Uno per tutte"	Italian	3	37
1964	Gigliola Cinquetti	"Non ho l'età"	Italian	1	49
1965	Bobby Solo	"Se piangi, se ridi"	Italian	5	15
1966	Domenico Modugno	"Dio, come ti amo"	Italian	17 ◁	0
1967	Claudio Villa	"Non andare più lontano"	Italian	11	4
1968	Sergio Endrigo	"Marianne"	Italian	10	7
1969	Iva Zanicchi	"Due grosse lacrime bianche"	Italian	13	5
1970	Gianni Morandi	"Occhi di ragazza"	Italian	8	5
1971	Massimo Ranieri	"L'amore è un attimo"	Italian	5	91
1972	Nicola Di Bari	"I giorni dell'arcobaleno"	Italian	6	92
1973	Massimo Ranieri	"Chi sarà con te"	Italian	13	74
1974	Gigliola Cinquetti	"Sì"	Italian	2	18
1975	Wess and Dori Ghezzi	"Era"	Italian	3	115
1976	Al Bano and Romina Power	"We'll Live It All Again"	English, Italian	7	69
1977	Mia Martini	"Libera"	Italian	13	33
1978	Ricchi e Poveri	"Questo amore"	Italian	12	53
1979	Matia Bazar	"Raggio di luna"	Italian	15	27
1980	Alan Sorrenti	"Non so che darei"	Italian	6	87
1983	Riccardo Fogli	"Per Lucia"	Italian	11	41
1984	Alice and Battiato	"I treni di Tozeur"	Italian	5	70
1985	Al Bano and Romina Power	"Magic Oh Magic"	Italian, English	7	78
1987	Umberto Tozzi and Raf	"Gente di mare"	Italian	3	103
1988	Luca Barbarossa	"Vivo (Ti scrivo)"	Italian	12	52
1989	Anna Oxa and Fausto Leali	"Avrei voluto"	Italian	9	56
1990	Toto Cutugno	"Insieme: 1992"	Italian	1	149
1991	Peppino di Capri	"Comme è ddoce 'o mare"	Neapolitan	7	89
1992	Mia Martini	"Rapsodia"	Italian	4	111
1993	Enrico Ruggeri	"Sole d'Europa"	Italian	12	45	Kvalifikacija za Millstreet
1997	Jalisse	"Fiumi di parole"	Italian	4	114	No semi-finals
2011	Raphael Gualazzi	"Madness of Love"	Italian, English	2	189	Member of the "Big 5"
2012	Nina Zilli	"L'amore è femmina (Out of Love)"	English, Italian	9	101
2013	Marco Mengoni	"L'essenziale"	Italian	7	126
2014	Emma	"La mia città"	Italian	21	33
2015	Il Volo	"Grande amore"	Italian	3	292
2016	Francesca Michielin	"No Degree of Separation"	Italian, English	16	124
2017	Francesco Gabbani	"Occidentali's Karma"	Italian	6	334
2018	Ermal Meta and Fabrizio Moro	"Non mi avete fatto niente"	Italian	5	308
2019	Mahmood	"Soldi"	Italian[b]	2	472
2020	Diodato	"Fai rumore"	Italian	Contest cancelled[c] X
2021	Måneskin	"Zitti e buoni"	Italian	1	524	Member of the "Big 5"
2022	Mahmood and Blanco	"Brividi"	Italian	Upcoming †		Member of the "Big 5" and host country

Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest[]

Entrant	Language	Song	At Congratulations				At Eurovision
			Final	Points	Semi	Points	Year	Place	Points
Domenico Modugno	Italian	"Nel blu, dipinto di blu"	2	267	2	200	1958	3	13

Hostings[]

Year	Location	Venue	Presenters
1965	Naples	[it]	Renata Mauro
1991	Rome	Teatro 15 di Cinecittà	Gigliola Cinquetti and Toto Cutugno
2022	Turin	PalaOlimpico	Alessandro Cattelan, Laura Pausini and Mika

Awards[]

Marcel Bezençon Awards[]

Year	Category	Song	Performer	Final	Points	Host city	Ref.
2015	Press Award	"Grande amore"	Il Volo	3	292	Vienna	[18]
2017	Press Award	"Occidentali's Karma"	Francesco Gabbani	6	334	Kyiv	[19]
2019	Composer Award	"Soldi"	Mahmood	2	465	Tel Aviv	[20]

Winner by OGAE members[]

Year	Song	Performer	Final result	Points	Host city	Ref.
2015	"Grande amore"	Il Volo	3	292	Vienna	[21]
2017	"Occidentali's Karma"	Francesco Gabbani	6	334	Kyiv	[22]
2019	"Soldi"	Mahmood	2	465	Tel Aviv	[23]

Related involvement[]

Conductors[]

Year	Sanremo Conductor[d]	Eurovision Conductor	Musical Director	Notes	Ref.
1956	Gian Stellari		N/A		[24]
1957	Armando Trovajoli
1958	Alberto Semprini
1959	[it]
1960	Cinico Angelini
1961	Gianfranco Intra
1962	Cinico Angelini
1963	[it]
1964	[it]
1965	Gianni Marchetti	Gianni Ferrio		[e]
1966	Unknown	[it]	N/A	[f]
1967	N/A	Giancarlo Chiaramello
1968
1969		Ezio Leoni
1970		[it]			[25]
1971		[it]
1972	Gian Franco Reverberi
1973	N/A	Enrico Polito
1974		Gianfranco Monaldi
1975		[it]
1976		Maurizio Fabrizio
1977
1978		Nicola Samale
1979		No conductor		[g]
1980		Del Newman			[26]
1983		Maurizio Fabrizio
1984		Giusto Pio
1985		Fiorenzo Zanotti
1987		[it]
1988		No conductor		[h]
1989		Mario Natale
1990		Gianni Madonini
1991		Bruno Canfora
1992		[it]	N/A
1993		Vittorio Cosma
1997	Lucio Fabbri
2011	Ferdinando Arnò	No orchestra
2012	N/A[i]
2013	Fabio Gurian
2014	N/A			[j]
2015	[it]
2016	[it]
2017	[it]
2018	[it]
2019	Dario Faini
2020	[it]			[k]
2021	[it]
2022	Carmelo Patti (nights 1, 3 and 5) Michele Zocca (night 4)

Heads of delegation[]

Year	Head of delegation	Ref.
2011–2019	Nicola Caligiore	[27]
2020–	Simona Martorelli	[28]

Commentators and spokespersons[]

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Year	Final commentator	Semi-final commentator	Spokesperson	Ref.
1956	Bianca Maria Piccinino	No semi-finals	No spokesperson
1957			Nunzio Filogamo
1958			[it]
1959			Enzo Tortora
1960	Giorgio Porro
1961	Corrado Mantoni
1962	[it]
1963
1964			Rosanna Vaudetti
1965			Daniele Piombi
1966			Enzo Tortora
1967			Mike Bongiorno
1968
1969
1970			Enzo Tortora
1971			No spokesperson
1972
1973
1974	Rosanna Vaudetti		[it]
1975	Silvio Noto
1976			Rosanna Vaudetti
1977			[it]
1978	Rosanna Vaudetti
1979			[it]
1980	Michele Gammino		Mariolina Cannuli
1981–1982	No broadcast		Did not participate
1983	[it]	No semi-finals	Paola Perissi
1984	Antonio De Robertis		Mariolina Cannuli
1985	Rosanna Vaudetti		Beatrice Cori
1986	No broadcast		Did not participate
1987	Rosanna Vaudetti	No semi-finals	Mariolina Cannuli
1988	Daniele Piombi
1989	[it]		[it]
1990	Nicoletta Orsomando		Paolo Frajese
1991	No commentator		Rosanna Vaudetti
1992	Peppi Franzelin		Nicoletta Orsomando
1993	[it]	Ettore Andenna	Peppi Franzelin	[29]
1994–1996	No broadcast		Did not participate
1997	Ettore Andenna	No semi-finals	Peppi Franzelin
1998–2002	No broadcast		Did not participate
2003	Fabio Canino [it] and Paolo Quilici	No semi-finals		[30]
2004–2005	No broadcast
2006	Unknown			[31]
2007–2010	No broadcast
2011	Raffaella Carrà and Bob Sinclar	Raffaella Carrà	Raffaella Carrà
2012	[it] and  [it]	[it]	[it]
2013	Filippo Solibello, Marco Ardemagni and  [it]		Federica Gentile	[32][33]
2014	Linus and  [it]	Marco Ardemagni and Filippo Solibello	Linus
2015	Federico Russo and  [it] (TV) Marco Ardemagni and Filippo Solibello (radio)		Federico Russo
2016	Flavio Insinna and Federico Russo		Claudia Andreatti
2017		[it] and  [it]	Giulia Valentina
2018	Serena Rossi and Federico Russo (TV) Carolina Di Domenico and  [it] (radio)	Carolina Di Domenico and
2019	Flavio Insinna and Federico Russo (TV) Ema Stokholma and  [it] (radio)	Federico Russo and Ema Stokholma	Ema Stokholma	[34]
2021	[it] and Cristiano Malgioglio (TV) Ema Stokholma and Gino Castaldo (radio)	Ema Stokholma and Saverio Raimondo	Carolina Di Domenico	[35]

Other shows[]

Show	Commentator	Channel	Ref.
Eurovision: Europe Shine a Light	Flavio Insinna and Federico Russo	Rai 1	[36]
	[it] and  [it]	Rai 4 Rai Radio 2

Photogallery[]

• 

  Domenico Modugno in Hilversum (1958)

• 

  Bobby Solo in Naples (1965)

• 

  Al Bano and Romina Power in The Hague (1976)

• 

  Raphael Gualazzi in Düsseldorf (2011)

• 

  Marco Mengoni in Malmö (2013)

• 

  Emma in Copenhagen (2014)

• 

  Il Volo in Vienna (2015)

• 

  Francesca Michielin in Stockholm (2016)

• 

  Francesco Gabbani in Kyiv (2017)

• 

  Ermal Meta and Fabrizio Moro in Lisbon (2018)

• 

  Mahmood in Tel Aviv (2019)

• 

  Måneskin in Rotterdam (2021)

See also[]

• Italy in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest – Junior version of the Eurovision Song Contest.
• Italy in the Eurovision Young Dancers – A competition organised by the EBU for younger dancers aged between 16 and 21.
• Italy in the Eurovision Young Musicians – A competition organised by the EBU for musicians aged 18 years and younger.

Notes and references[]

Notes[]

References[]

External links[]

• Italian Eurovision Website
• Esc-Time.com – Italian website daily updated about Eurovision
• Points to and from Italy eurovisioncovers.co.uk
• 'Rock and roll never dies': Italy wins Eurovision after 30 years at Wikinews