"Grande amore" (; English: Great love) is a song performed by Italian

operatic pop Operatic pop, pop-opera or popera is a subgenre of pop music that is performed in an operatic singing style or a song, theme or motif from classical music stylized as pop. The subgenre is often performed by classical crossover singers and acts, ...

trio

Il Volo Il Volo (; ) is an Italians, Italian operatic pop Trio (music), trio, consisting of Gianluca Ginoble, Piero Barone, and Ignazio Boschetto. They describe their music as "popera". Having won the Sanremo Music Festival 2015, they represented Italy ...

–Piero Barone, Ignazio Boschetto, and Gianluca Ginoble–, with music composed and Italian lyrics written by Francesco Boccia and Ciro "Tommy" Esposito. The song won the

Sanremo Music Festival 2015 The Sanremo Music Festival 2015 (), officially the 65th Italian Song Festival (), was the 65th annual Sanremo Music Festival, a television song contest held at the Teatro Ariston in Sanremo, Liguria, between 10 and 14 February 2015 and broadcast ...

and in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2015 The Eurovision Song Contest 2015 was the 60th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Vienna, Austria, following the country's victory at the with the song "Rise Like a Phoenix" by Conchita Wurst. Organised by the European Broa ...

where it placed third –winning the televoting and coming sixth with the juries–. Il Volo also released the song in Spanish and English versions.

Background

Composition

The song was written in 2003 by the singer Francesco Boccia, and composed by Ciro "Tommy" Esposito (member of the Italian band

Il Giardino dei Semplici Il Giardino dei Semplici (also spelled just as Giardino dei Semplici and often referred as GDS) are an Italian pop-rock music group, mainly successful in the 1970s and 1980s. Formed in late 1974, throughout various decades they have released 17 stu ...

), with an idea to make it performed by classical music

singers Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

. It was performed by Boccia himself and proposed for the

Sanremo Music Festival The Sanremo Music Festival ( ), officially the Italian Song Festival (), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria, organized and broadcast by (RAI). It is the longest-running ...

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

, but it was rejected because it was considered too old-fashioned. Boccia, along with Gianfranco Caliendo, former frontman and lead vocalist of

, had already penned and scored an international hit with the popular song "Turuturu" (2001), which sold over 1.2 million copies in the world in its various versions. "Grande amore" was shelved for ten more years, and again proposed for the "Newcomers" section in the

, to be performed by duo Operapop –formed by Francesca Carli and Enrico Giovagnoli–, but their participation was denied due to festival's age restriction. It was also proposed to be performed by

Orietta Berti Orietta Galimberti (born 1 June 1943), known professionally as Orietta Berti, is an Italian folk-pop singer and television personality. Biography Born in Cavriago, Berti began her career in 1962 and had her first success in 1965 with the s ...

, who although praised the song, refused because she wasn't available to participate in the festival.

Carlo Conti Carlo Natale Marino Conti (born 13 March 1961), simply known as Carlo Conti, is an Italian television presenter. Life and career Born in Florence, Conti graduated in accountancy, then he was a bank teller from 1981 to 1986.. After some exper ...

, artistic director and main presenter of that 65th edition of the festival, was not satisfied with the first proposed song by the trio

, and after hearing the song "Grande amore", recommended to the song's editor Pasquale Mammaro (manager of Operapop) to contact manager Michele Torpedine and assign it to them.

Lyrics

The song lyrics were not supposed to be changed, but on the behalf and desires by the trio, two verses were changed; "regina dei giorni miei" (queen of my days) became "respiro dei giorni miei" (breath of my days), and "sotto al tuo portone" (under your doorway) became "senza più timore" (without more fear). The lyrics were changed because as the original version refers to the

serenade In music, a serenade (; also sometimes called a serenata, from the Italian) is a musical composition or performance delivered in honour of someone or something. Serenades are typically calm, light pieces of music. The term comes from the Ital ...

singing by a lover under the balcony to his lady, the trio felt it was too old style for their young age. The song is not addressed to an actual person, but it's an idea of declaration of always valid love.

Sanremo Music Festival

Il Volo performed the song for the first time during the Sanremo Music Festival on 11 February 2015. During the final night of the song contest, held on 14 February 2015, "Grande amore" finished in first place, receiving 39.05% of votes on the last round of the competition, beating the remaining top three entries, "Fatti avanti amore" by

Nek Filippo Neviani (born 6 January 1972), known by his stage name Nek, is an Italian singer-songwriter and musician. Nek is popular in Italy and throughout the Spanish-speaking world, and has performed and released most of his albums in both Italia ...

(35.38%) and "Adesso e qui (nostalgico presente)" by

Malika Ayane Malika Ayane (; born 31 January 1984) is an Italian pop singer. Early life Malika Ayane was born in Milan, Italy, on 31 January 1984, to a Moroccan father, Ahmed, and an Italian mother. She grew up in the Zone 2 of Milan, the most multi-ethni ...

(25.66%). According to the final voting results, Il Volo won mostly thanks to the televotes (40% of the final voting results share), receiving 56.1878% of votes, while only 22.9167% of votes by the experts jury (3rd), and 32.3333% of votes by the popular jury (2nd). During Il Volo's performances, the Sanremo Festival Orchestra was directed by Carolina Bubbico. As the festival was used by

Radiotelevisione italiana (), commercially styled as since 2000 and known until 1954 as (RAI), is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance (Italy), Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many terrestrial ...

(RAI) to select its song and performer for the of the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

, Il Volo became the performers for the contest. On 19 February 2015, RAI confirmed "Grande amore" as for Eurovision.

Eurovision Song Contest

On 23 May 2015, the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest was held in the

Wiener Stadthalle Wiener Stadthalle (; English: ''Viennese City Hall'') is a multi-purpose indoor arena and convention center located in the 15th district of Vienna, Austria. Austrian architect Roland Rainer designed the original halls which were constructed b ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

hosted by (ORF) and broadcast live throughout the continent. Since Italy was part of the " Big Five", it automatically qualified for the final. Il Volo performed "Grande amore" as the last song in the running order. For the song to participate in the contest, it was necessary to shorten it to fit into three minutes. Al the close of voting, the song came first on televoting and third overall. It also won the Marcel Bezençon Press Award for Best Song, awarded by the accredited international press.

Aftermath

On 12 May 2022, in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2022 The Eurovision Song Contest 2022 was the 66th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Turin, Italy, following the country's victory at the with the song "" by Måneskin. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and h ...

held in

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) 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 from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

, Il Volo performed "Grande amore" as an interval act at the second semi-final.

Personnel

Celso Valli Celso Valli (born 14 May 1950) is an Italian composer, conductor, arranger and record producer. Born in Bologna, Valli studied at the Conservatorio Giovanni Battista Martini. He made his official debut collaborating with Drupi in his 1978 albu ...

Arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestr ...

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

orchestra conductor Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or choral concert. It has been defined as "the art of directing the simultaneous performance of several players or singers by the use of gesture." The primary duties o ...

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

, keyboards * Mattia Tedesco -

guitars The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

* Cesare Chiodo -

electric bass The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an electric but with a longer neck and scale leng ...

* Paolo Valli -

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

* Stefano Bussoli -

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion instrument, percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a Membranophone, membrane called a drumhead, ...

Versions

Il Volo released two additional versions of the song: a Spanish-language version on 10 July 2015, and an English-language version titled as "You Are My Everything (Grande Amore)" on 11 May 2022.

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Use dmy dates, date=March 2024 2014 songs 2015 singles Eurovision songs of 2015 Eurovision songs of Italy Il Volo songs Sanremo Music Festival songs of 2015 Number-one singles in Greece Sony Music singles