Italy was represented at the

Eurovision Song Contest 2013 The Eurovision Song Contest 2013 was the 58th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Malmö, Sweden, following the country's victory at the with the song "Euphoria (Loreen song), Euphoria" by Loreen. Organised by the Europea ...

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. The Italian entry was selected through an internal selection with the artist being selected by a special committee from the participants of the

Sanremo Music Festival 2013 The Sanremo Music Festival 2013 (), officially the 63rd Italian Song Festival (), was the 63rd annual Sanremo Music Festival, a televised song contest held at the Teatro Ariston in Sanremo, Liguria, between 12 and 16 February 2013 and broadcast ...

and the song selection being carried out by the artist.

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

represented Italy with the song " L'essenziale", which placed 7th and scored 126 points in the final.

Internal selection

Artist selection

On 24 January 2013, Italian broadcaster RAI confirmed that the performer that would represent Italy at the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest would be selected by a special committee from the competing artists at the

. The competition took place between 12–16 February 2013 with the winner being selected on the last day of the festival. The competing artists in the "Big Artists" and "Newcomers" category were:

"Big Artists" category

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* Chiara *

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* Elio e le Storie Tese *

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* Maria Nazionale *Marta sui Tubi *

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* Simona Molinari and

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"Newcomers" category

*Andrea Nardinocchi *

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*Blastema *

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*Ilaria Porceddu *Irene Ghiotto *Paolo Simoni * Renzo Rubino During the final evening of the Sanremo Music Festival 2013,

was announced as the artist that would represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013. Mengoni was also selected as the winner of the festival with the song " L'essenziale".

Song selection

On 18 March 2013, RAI confirmed that Marco Mengoni would perform his Sanremo Music Festival 2013 winning song "L'essenziale" at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013.

At Eurovision

As a member of the "Big Five", Italy automatically qualified for a place in the final, to be held on 18 May 2013. In addition to their participation in the final, Italy was assigned to vote in the first semi-final on 14 May 2013. During the Italian delegation's press conference on 15 May, Italy was allocated to perform in the second half of the final. In the final, the producers of the show decided that Italy would perform 23rd, following

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

and preceding

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. Italy placed 7th in the final and scored 126 points. In Italy, only the first semi-final was aired on

Rai 5 Rai 5 ("RAI Cinque") is an Italian free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana. It was launched on 26 November 2010 replacing Rai Extra. Its programming deals with cultur ...

, commentated by Federica Gentile, while the final was aired on

Rai 2 Rai 2 is an Italian free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana. It is the company's second television channel, and is known for broadcasting '' TG2'' news bulletins, ta ...

and

Rai HD (), 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. RAI operates many terrestrial and subscription television channels and ...

, with commentary by Filippo Solibello, Marco Ardemagni and Natascha Lusenti. The national jury that provided 50% of the Italian vote in the first semi-final and the final consisted of five journalists: Paolo Giordano, Gianni Sibilla, Luca Dondoni, Fabrizio Basso and Luigi Bolognini. The Italian spokesperson in the grand final was Federica Gentile.

Voting

Points awarded to Italy

Points awarded by Italy

References

External links

Sanremo 2013 – Official site
{{Marco Mengoni

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013

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