Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

has participated in the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

47 times since making its debut at the first contest in . It was one of the seven countries that competed at the first contest, which took inspiration from the

Sanremo Music Festival The Sanremo Music Festival, officially the Italian Song Festival () and commonly known as just (), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria. It is the longest-running annua ...

. Italy competed at the contest without interruption until , discontinuing its participation on a number of occasions during the 1980s and 1990s. After a 13-year absence starting in , the country returned to the contest in . Italy has won the contest three times, along with an additional 15 top-five finishes. Italy hosted the contest in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adm ...

(),

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

() and

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

(). In ,

Domenico Modugno Domenico Modugno (; 9 January 1928 – 6 August 1994) was an Italian singer, actor and, later in life, a member of the Italian Parliament. He is known for his 1958 international hit song " Nel blu dipinto di blu", for which he received Grammy ...

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 Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

s at its

first edition The bibliographical definition of an edition includes all copies of a book printed from substantially the same setting of type, including all minor typographical variants. First edition According to the definition of ''edition'' above, a b ...

. Emilio Pericoli also finished third in , before Italy won for the first time in with Gigliola Cinquetti and " Non ho l'età". Cinquetti returned to the contest in and finished second with the song " Sì", losing to

ABBA ABBA ( , , formerly named Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid or Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida) are a Swedish supergroup formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The grou ...

. 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 Umberto Antonio Tozzi (; born 4 March 1952) is an Italian pop and rock singer and composer. Over the course of his career, he has sold over 70 million records in different languages internationally, and his biggest international hits are: "Stel ...

and Raf finishing third in . Italy's second victory in the contest came in with

Toto Cutugno Salvatore "Toto" Cutugno (; born 7 July 1943) is an Italian pop singer-songwriter and musician. He is best known for his worldwide hit song, " L'Italiano", released on his 1983 album of the same title. Cutugno also won the Eurovision Song Con ...

and the song " Insieme: 1992". Other good 1990s results were

Mia Martini Mia Martini (; born Domenica Rita Adriana Bertè ; 20 September 1947 – 12 May 1995) was an Italian singer, songwriter and musician.James Christopher MongerMia Martini allmusic.comJalisse in , who both finished fourth. After 1997, Italy withdrew from the competition. On 31 December 2010, the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who are members of the C ...

(EBU) announced that Italy would be returning to the contest as part of the " Big Five", thereby granting the country automatic qualification for the final. Italy's return to the contest has proved to be successful, finishing in the top ten in nine of the last eleven contests (2011–22), including second places for Raphael Gualazzi () and Mahmood (), and third place for

Il Volo Il Volo (; Italian for "The Flight") is an Italian operatic pop trio, consisting of baritone Gianluca Ginoble, and tenors Piero Barone and Ignazio Boschetto. They describe their music as "popera". Having won the Sanremo Music Festival 2015, t ...

(). 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 , 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 , when RAI stated that interest had diminished in the country. This absence continued through , before Italy returned in . Italy again withdrew in when RAI decided not to enter the contest. From to , Italy withdrew again, with RAI citing a lack of interest in participating. Italy returned in , before withdrawing again without explanation, and the country did not participate again until . 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 Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...

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 because their competing song, sung by Gigliola Cinquetti, coincided with the intense political campaigning for the

1974 Italian divorce referendum An abrogative referendum on the divorce law was held in Italy on 12 May 1974.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p1048 Voters were asked whether they wanted to repeal a government law passed three year ...

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 Subliminal stimuli (; the prefix ' literally means "below" or "less than") are any sensory stimuli below an individual's threshold for conscious perception, in contrast to stimuli (above threshold). A 2012 review of functional magnetic resonance ...

and a form of

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

to influence the Italian voting public to vote 'yes' in the referendum (thus to repeal the law that allowed divorce). The song thus remained censored on most Italian state TV and radio stations for over a month. At the contest in

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

, Cinquetti finished second, losing to

. "Sì" went on to be a UK top ten hit, peaking at number eight. It also reached the German top 20.

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

expressed their sorrow at Italy's non-participation and called for the country to return to the contest. Contestants from the , starting with the winner Dima Bilan appeared on the Italian show ''Carramba! Che fortuna'', hosted by

Raffaella Carrà Raffaella Maria Roberta Pelloni (18 June 1943 – 5 July 2021), better known as Raffaella Carrà (), was an Italian singer, dancer, television presenter, actress and model. She was well known in Europe and Latin America as a result of her many ...

on Rai Uno. Whether this was an initiative by Carrà (who presented three shows in

TVE TVE may stand for: Television * Televisión Española, a Spanish state-owned public-service television broadcaster ** TVE HD, a high-definition channel run by Televisión Española * Televisão Educativa, a defunct Brazilian TV network * TV Eduk ...

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." Shortly after revealing the list of participants for the , the EBU announced that they would work harder to bring Italy back into the contest, along with former participants

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

and

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

Successful return (2011–present)

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 The Sanremo Music Festival, officially the Italian Song Festival () and commonly known as just (), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria. It is the longest-running annual ...

, as in previous years. On 2 December 2010, it was officially announced by the EBU that Italy had applied to compete in the 2011 contest. Their participation was further confirmed on 31 December with the announcement of the official participant list. Italy's return to the contest after a 13-year absence has been successful, finishing in the top ten in nine of the last eleven contests (2011–22). 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 Maria Chiara Fraschetta (born 2 February 1980), better known by her stage name Nina Zilli (), is an Italian singer-songwriter. After releasing her debut single "50mila", she achieved commercial success with the album '' Sempre lontano'', released ...

in 2012 and

Marco Mengoni Marco Mengoni (; born 25 December 1988) is an Italian pop singer-songwriter who rose to fame in 2009, after winning the third season of Italian talent show ''X Factor''. Since that he has sold over 2.8 million records in Italy, peaking the I ...

in 2013 placed in the top ten (ninth and seventh, respectively); the latter scored 126 points, exactly doubling the points total of the other "Big Five" countries that year. This trend had a stop in 2014, when internally-selected Emma Marrone finished in 21st place. In 2015,

finished third with 292 points, behind winner Sweden and runner-up Russia, placing first in the televote 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 Francesca Michielin (, ; born 25 February 1995) is an Italian singer and songwriter. She rose to fame after winning the fifth season of the Italian talent show ''X Factor''. Her first single, " Distratto", debuted atop the Italian FIMI Top Dig ...

, selected among the competitors of Sanremo 2016 after the waiver of the winners

Stadio Stadio (literally, ''Stadium'') is an Italian pop rock band formed in 1977. The members are Giovanni Pezzoli (drums), Roberto Drovandi (bass guitar), Andrea Fornili (guitar), and Gaetano Curreri (vocals and keyboard). Formation and early rec ...

, ended in 16th place.

Francesco Gabbani Francesco Gabbani (born 9 September 1982) is an Italian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He rose to fame after winning the newcomers' section of the Sanremo Music Festival 2016 with the song "Amen". The next year, he went on to win th ...

, a fan-favourite with "

Occidentali's Karma "Occidentali's Karma" () is a song performed by Italian singer Francesco Gabbani. The song was released as a digital download on 10 February 2017 through BMG Rights Management as the lead single from his third studio album '' Magellano'' (2017). ...

", came in sixth place in 2017. The year after, although not initially a big favourite with the bookmakers, Ermal Meta and

Fabrizio Moro Fabrizio Mobrici (born 9 April 1975), known by his stage name Fabrizio Moro, is an Italian singer-songwriter. He released his debut album in 2000 and he achieved commercial success in 2007, after winning the Newcomers' Section of the Sanremo Musi ...

returned Italy to the top five with "

Non mi avete fatto niente "Non mi avete fatto niente" (English: "You haven't done anything to me") is a song performed by Italian singers Ermal Meta and Fabrizio Moro. The song was released as a digital download on 7 February 2018 as the lead single from the respective al ...

", aided significantly by finishing third in the televote, which heavily counterbalanced the 17th place by the jury, finishing fifth overall. In 2019, Mahmood with "

Soldi "Soldi" (; ) is a song recorded by Italian singer Mahmood. It was released on 6 February 2019, as the fifth single from his debut studio album, '' Gioventù bruciata'' (2019). Mahmood co-wrote the song with Dario "Dardust" Faini and Charlie C ...

" placed second with 472 points, Italy's best result since 2011, until Måneskin with " Zitti e buoni" won the contest in 2021 with 524 points. Måneskin's victory marked the band's breakthrough on the international music scene. Mahmood returned in 2022 as the host entrant alongside Blanco, placing sixth with "

Brividi "" (; ) is a song by Italian singers Mahmood and Blanco, released by Island Records and Universal Music on 2 February 2022. It is the winner of the Italian Sanremo Music Festival 2022 and Italy's entry at . "" broke the record for the most str ...

Sanremo Music Festival

The Sanremo Music Festival is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo,

Liguria Liguria (; lij, Ligûria ; french: Ligurie) is a Regions of Italy, region of north-western Italy; its Capital city, capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennine Mountains, Apennines Mountain chain, mountain range and is ...

. First held in 1951 and itself the basis and inspiration for the Eurovision Song Contest, the festival has often been used as a method of choosing the Italian entry for the European contest, with some exceptions over the years. Since 2015, the winner of the festival has been given the right of first refusal to represent Italy in the contest.

Italy and the "Big Five"

Since 1999, four countries – , , and the – have automatically qualified for the Eurovision final regardless of their results in previous contests. 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 Stig Svante Stockselius (; born 31 December 1955) is a Swedes, Swedish journalist and television executive. He was the executive supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest from 2004 to 2010 and the Junior Eurovision Song Contest from 2003 to 2010. ...

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". 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. On 31 December 2010, it was announced that Italy would take part in the and confirmed that the country would automatically qualify for the final as part of the "Big Five". 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 nine of the last eleven contests (2011–22), including a victory for Måneskin (), second places for Raphael Gualazzi () and Mahmood (), and third place for

(). They are one of the only two countries of the Big Five – since it was introduced – to have won, the other being Germany in .

Participation overview

''Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest''

Hostings

Awards

Marcel Bezençon Awards

Winner by OGAE members

Related involvement

Conductors

Heads of delegation

Commentators and spokespersons

Other shows

Photogallery

File:Eurovision Song Contest 1958 - Domenico Modugno.png,

in Hilversum () File:Eurovision Song Contest 1965 - Bobby Solo.jpg,

Bobby Solo Roberto Satti better known as Bobby Solo (born 18 March 1945) is an Italian singer, musician and film actor. Singing career In 1964, Solo participated in the Sanremo Music Festival with the song " Una lacrima sul viso" ("A Tear on your Face", w ...

in Naples () File:Eurovision Song Contest 1976 rehearsals - Italy - Al Bano & Romina Power 4.png, Al Bano and Romina Power in The Hague () File:Raphael Gualazzi cropped.jpg, Raphael Gualazzi in Düsseldorf () File:ESC2013 - Italy 07.jpg,

in Malmö () File:Emma Marrone, ESC2014 Meet & Greet 12 (crop).jpg, Emma in Copenhagen () File:20150520 ESC 2015 Il Volo 8866.jpg,

in Vienna () File:ESC2016 - Italy 13.jpg,

in Stockholm () File:Francesco Gabbani Eurovision 2017.jpg,

in Kyiv () File:Ermal Meta and Fabrizio Moro (Italy 2018).jpg, Ermal Meta and

in Lisbon () File:Mahmood at the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final Dress Rehearsal (3).jpg, Mahmood in Tel Aviv () File:ESC 2021 Rotterdam 1st Semi Jury Show Italy2.jpg, Måneskin in Rotterdam ()

Notes and references

Notes

References

External links

Italian Eurovision Website

Esc-Time.com – Italian website daily updated about Eurovision

''eurovisioncovers.co.uk'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Italy In The Eurovision Song Contest Music competitions in Italy Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest