Italy was represented at the

Eurovision Song Contest 2014 The Eurovision Song Contest 2014 was the 59th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, following the country's victory at the with the song "Only Teardrops" by Emmelie de Forest. Organised by the European B ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

, Denmark. Their entry was selected internally by the Italian broadcaster

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). Emma represented Italy with the song "La mia città". In the final, Italy placed 21st, scoring 33 points.

Background

Prior to the 2014 contest, Italy had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest forty times since its first entry during the inaugural contest in 1956. Since then, Italy has won the contest on two occasions: in

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

with the song "

Non ho l'età Non, non or NON can refer to: * ''Non'', a negatory word in French, Italian and Latin People * Non (given name) * Non Boonjumnong (born 1982), Thai amateur boxer * Rena Nōnen (born 1993), Japanese actress who uses the stage name "Non" since J ...

" performed by

Gigliola Cinquetti Gigliola Cinquetti (; born Giliola Cinquetti on 20 December 1947) is an Italian singer, songwriter and television presenter. Life and career Gigliola Cinquetti was born into a wealthy family in Verona, Italy. At the age of 16, she debuted at ...

and in

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

with the song " Insieme: 1992" performed by

Toto Cutugno Salvatore "Toto" Cutugno (; 7 July 1943 – 22 August 2023) was an Italian Italian popular music, pop singer-songwriter, musician, and television presenter. He was best known for his worldwide hit song, "", released on his 1983 album of the sam ...

. Italy has withdrawn from the Eurovision Song Contest a number of times with their most recent absence spanning from 1998 until 2010. Their return in

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

with the song "

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", performed by

Raphael Gualazzi Raffaele Gualazzi (born 11 November 1981), better known as Raphael Gualazzi (), is an Italian singer and pianist. He was born in Urbino. Biography ''Love Outside the Window'' On 16 September 2005, Gualazzi released his first studio album, titled ...

, placed second—their highest result, to this point, since their victory in 1990. The nation saw further success in

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

and

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 ...

, placing ninth and seventh, respectively. The Italian broadcaster for the 2014 Contest, who broadcast the event in Italy and organised the selection process for its entry, was

RAI (), 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 a ...

. Italy has previously organised national finals and internal selections to select their Eurovision entry. Between 2011 and 2013, the broadcaster used 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 ...

as an artist selection pool where a special committee would select one of the competing artist, independent of the results in the competition, as the Eurovision entrant. The selected entrant was then responsible for selecting the song they would compete with. This method was again used for 2014.

Before Eurovision

Internal selection

On 22 January 2014, RAI announced that they had internally selected

Emma Marrone Emmanuela "Emma" Marrone (; born 25 May 1984), known professionally as simply Emma, is an Italian singer-songwriter and actress. After working with several bands, she won the Italian talent show ''Amici di Maria De Filippi'' in March 2010, and ...

to represent Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014. On 24 January 2014, RAI revealed that Emma would perform "La mia città" at the Eurovision Song Contest 2014.

At Eurovision

As a member of the "Big Five", Italy automatically qualified for a place in the final, held on 10 May 2014. In addition to their participation in the final, Italy was assigned to vote in the second semi-final on 8 May 2014. During the Italian delegation's press conference on 6 May 2014, Italy was allocated to compete in the second half of the final. In the final, the producers of the show decided that Italy would perform 16th, following

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

and preceding

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

. Italy placed 21st in the final out of 26, scoring 33 points. This represented one of the lowest placements in Italy's Eurovision Song Contest history – its lowest ever by absolute finishing position, but not its lowest relative finish or score (having previously finished 17th and joint-last with 0 points in the 1966 contest with

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 the fir ...

's " Dio, come ti amo"). On stage, Emma was joined by two guitarists, one keyboard player, one drummer and one backing vocalist, Arianna Mereu. The Italian performance is based on a concept of glam rock from the 70s combined with futuristic elements. In Italy, the broadcast of the first and second semi-finals aired on

Rai 4 Rai 4 ("RAI Quattro") is an Italian free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana. Launched on 14 July 2008 with the film ''Elephant'', Rai 4 targets youths with films, TV s ...

with commentary by Marco Ardemagni and Filippo Solibello, while the final 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 ...

with commentary by Linus and Nicola Savino. The Italian spokesperson revealing the result of the Italian vote in the final was Linus.

Voting

Points awarded to Italy

Points awarded by Italy

Detailed voting results

The following members comprised the Italian jury: * (jury chairperson)Vice president Talent & Music of

MTV Italy MTV is an Italian pay television network, owned by Paramount Networks EMEAA. History Prior to the launch of a 24-hour Italian speaking MTV, MTV viewers in Italy received the pan-European version of MTV Europe, MTV. Regionalization of MTV in Eur ...

* Andrea Laffranchijournalist * singer * songwriter, composer, musician * Francesco Pasqueromusic manager

References

{{Emma Marrone

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014

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 ...

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