Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018
Italy participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. Italian broadcaster RAI announced in October 2017 that the winning performer(s) of the Big Artists section of the Sanremo Music Festival 2018 would earn the right to represent the nation at the Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon, Portugal.
| Eurovision Song Contest 2018 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country |  | |||
| National selection | ||||
| Selection process | Sanremo 2018 | |||
| Selection date(s) | 10 February 2018 | |||
| Selected entrant | Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro | |||
| Selected song | "Non mi avete fatto niente" | |||
| Selected songwriter(s) | Ermal Meta Fabrizio Moro Andrea Febo | |||
| Finals performance | ||||
| Final result | 5th, 308 points | |||
| Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest | ||||
| ||||
Background
Prior to the 2018 Contest, Italy had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest forty-three times since its first entry during the inaugural contest in 1956.[1] Since then, Italy has won the contest on two occasions: in 1964 with the song "Non ho l'età" performed by Gigliola Cinquetti and in 1990 with the song "Insieme: 1992" performed by Toto Cutugno. Italy has withdrawn from the Eurovision Song Contest a number of times with their most recent absence spanning from 1998 until 2010.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 with the song "Madness of Love", performed by Raphael Gualazzi, placed second—their highest result, to this point, since their victory in 1990. In 2017, Francesco Gabbani represented the nation with the song "Occidentali's Karma", placing sixth with 334 points.
The Italian national broadcaster, Radiotelevisione italiana (RAI), broadcasts the event within Italy and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. RAI confirmed Italy's participation in the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest on 15 September 2017.[2] Between 2011 and 2013, the broadcaster used the Sanremo Music Festival 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. For 2014, RAI forwent using the Sanremo Music Festival artist lineup and internally selected their entry. Since 2015, the winning artist of the Sanremo Music Festival is rewarded with the opportunity to represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest, although in 2016 the winner declined and the broadcaster appointed the runner-up as the Italian entrant.
Before Eurovision
Artist selection
On 12 October 2017, Italian broadcaster RAI confirmed that the performer that would represent Italy at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest would be selected from the competing artists at the Sanremo Music Festival 2018.[3] According to the rules of Sanremo 2018, the winner of the Campioni or Big Artists category earns the right to represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest, but in case the artist is not available or refuses the offer, the organisers of the event reserve the right to choose another participant via their own criteria. The competition took place between 6–10 February 2018 with the winner being selected on the last day of the festival.[3]
Twenty artists competed in the Big Artists category of Sanremo 2018. Among the competing artists were former Eurovision Song Contest entrants Riccardo Fogli who represented Italy in the 1983 Contest, Luca Barbarossa who represented Italy in the 1988 Contest, Enrico Ruggeri, frontman of Decibel, who represented Italy in the 1993 Contest and Nina Zilli who represented Italy in the 2012 Contest. The performers in the "Big Artists" category were:[4]
| Artist | Song (English translation) | Composer(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Annalisa | "Il mondo prima di te" (The world before you) | Annalisa Scarrone, Davide Simonetta, Alessandro Raina |
| Decibel | "Lettera dal Duca" (Letter from the Duke) | Silvio Capeccia, Enrico Ruggeri, Fulvio Muzio |
| Diodato & Roy Paci | "Adesso" (Now) | Antonio Diodato |
| Elio e le Storie Tese | "Arrivedorci"1 | Sergio Conforti, Stefano Belisari, Davide Luca Civaschi, Nicola Fasani |
| Enzo Avitabile feat. Peppe Servillo | "Il coraggio di ogni giorno" (The courage of every day) | Pacifico, Enzo Avitabile, Peppe Servillo |
| Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro | "Non mi avete fatto niente" (You didn't do anything to me) | Ermal Meta, Fabrizio Moro, Andrea Febo |
| Giovanni Caccamo | "Eterno" (Eternal) | Cheope, Giovanni Caccamo |
| Le Vibrazioni | "Così sbagliato" (So wrong) | Francesco Sarcina, Andrea Bonomo, Luca Chiaravalli, Davide Simonetta |
| Lo Stato Sociale | "Una vita in vacanza" (A life in vacation) | Lodovico Guenzi, Alberto Gazzola, Francesco Draicchio, Matteo Romagnoli, Alberto Guidetti, Enrico Roberto |
| Luca Barbarossa | "Passame er sale"2 | Luca Barbarossa |
| Mario Biondi | "Rivederti" (Seeing you again) | Mario Biondi, Giuseppe Furnari, Fisicaro |
| Max Gazzè | "La leggenda di Cristalda e Pizzomunno" (The legend of Cristalda and Pizzomunno) | Francesco Gazzè, Max Gazzè, Francesco De Benedettis |
| Nina Zilli | "Senza appartenere" (Without belonging) | Giordana Angi, Antonio Iammarino, Nina Zilli |
| Noemi | "Non smettere mai di cercarmi" (Never stop looking for me) | Diego Calvetti, Massimiliano Pelan, Veronica "Noemi" Scopelliti, Fabio De Martino |
| Ornella Vanoni feat. Bungaro & Pacifico | "Imparare ad amarsi" (Learn to love each other) | Bungaro, Pacifico, Cesare Chiodo, Antonio Fresa |
| Red Canzian | "Ognuno ha il suo racconto" (Everyone has his story) | Red Canzian, Michele Porru |
| Renzo Rubino | "Custodire" (Preserving) | Renzo Rubino |
| Roby Facchinetti & Riccardo Fogli | "Il segreto del tempo" (The secret of time) | Pacifico, Roby Facchinetti |
| Ron | "Almeno pensami" (At least think about me) | Lucio Dalla |
| The Kolors | "Frida (mai, mai, mai)" (Frida (never, never, never)) | Davide Petrella, Dario Faini, Alessandro Raina, Antonio "Stash" Fiordispino |
- 1.^ "Arrivedorci" is an intentional misspelling of the word "arrivederci" which translates to "goodbye".
- 2.^ "Passame er sale" comes from Romanesco dialect and translates to "Give me the salt"
Final
On 10 February 2018, Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro were declared the winners of the "Big Artist" category with their entry "Non mi avete fatto niente". During the press conference that followed the final, it was announced that they had accepted to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest.[5]
| First Round – 10 February 2018 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Draw | Artist | Song | Expert Jury (20%) |
Press Jury (30%) |
Televote (50%) |
Average | Place |
| 1 | Luca Barbarossa | "Passame er sale" | 3 | 11 | 4 | 6.83% | 7 |
| 2 | Red Canzian | "Ognuno ha il suo racconto" | 13 | 16 | 13 | 2.06% | 15 |
| 3 | The Kolors | "Frida (mai, mai, mai)" | 10 | 8 | 5 | 5.99% | 9 |
| 4 | Elio e le Storie Tese | "Arrivedorci" | 16 | 19 | 19 | 1.14% | 20 |
| 5 | Ron | "Almeno pensami" | 1 | 7 | 7 | 7.13% | 4 |
| 6 | Max Gazzè | "La leggenda di Cristalda e Pizzomunno" | 5 | 4 | 6 | 6.93% | 6 |
| 7 | Annalisa | "Il mondo prima di te" | 6 | 6 | 3 | 8.31% | 3 |
| 8 | Renzo Rubino | "Custodire" | 17 | 12 | 11 | 2.69% | 13 |
| 9 | Decibel | "Lettera dal Duca" | 17 | 15 | 15 | 1.99% | 16 |
| 10 | Ornella Vanoni feat. Bungaro & Pacifico | "Imparare ad amarsi" | 2 | 4 | 8 | 7.07% | 5 |
| 11 | Giovanni Caccamo | "Eterno" | 11 | 13 | 10 | 2.99% | 10 |
| 12 | Lo Stato Sociale | "Una vita in vacanza" | 8 | 1 | 2 | 10.50% | 2 |
| 13 | Roby Facchinetti & Riccardo Fogli | "Il segreto del tempo" | 17 | 19 | 12 | 1.70% | 18 |
| 14 | Diodato & Roy Paci | "Adesso" | 6 | 2 | 9 | 6.78% | 8 |
| 15 | Nina Zilli | "Senza appartenere" | 11 | 17 | 18 | 1.94% | 17 |
| 16 | Noemi | "Non smettere mai di cercarmi" | 17 | 14 | 16 | 2.09% | 14 |
| 17 | Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro | "Non mi avete fatto niente" | 4 | 3 | 1 | 16.56% | 1 |
| 18 | Mario Biondi | "Riederti" | 9 | 17 | 20 | 1.69% | 19 |
| 19 | Le Vibrazioni | "Così sbagliato" | 13 | 8 | 17 | 2.82% | 11 |
| 20 | Enzo Avitabile feat. Peppe Servillo | "Il coraggio di ogni giorno" | 13 | 10 | 14 | 2.79% | 12 |
| Second Round – 10 February 2018 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Draw | Artist | Song | Jury (50%) |
Televote (50%) |
Total | Place |
| 1 | Annalisa | "Il mondo prima di te" | 23.69% | 23.49% | 26.94% | 3 |
| 2 | Lo Stato Sociale | "una vita in vacanza" | 38.0% | 22.1% | 28.4% | 2 |
| 3 | Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro | "Non mi avete fatto niente" | 38.31% | 54.41% | 44.66% | 1 |
At Eurovision
The Eurovision Song Contest 2018 took place at the Altice Arena in Lisbon, Portugal and consisted of two semi-finals on 8 and 10 May and the final on 12 May 2018.[6] According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. As a member of the "Big 5", Italy automatically qualified to compete in the final. In addition to their participation in the final, Italy was also required to broadcast and vote in one of the two semi-finals.
Points awarded to Italy
| Points awarded to Italy (final) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Televote | ||||
| 12 points | 10 points | 8 points | 7 points | 6 points |
| 5 points | 4 points | 3 points | 2 points | 1 point |
| Jury | ||||
| 12 points | 10 points | 8 points | 7 points | 6 points |
| 5 points | 4 points | 3 points | 2 points | 1 point |
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Points awarded by Italy
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Split voting results
The following five members comprised the Italian jury:[7]
- Silvia Gavarotti – Chairperson – singer
- Antonella Nesi – journalist
- Sandro Comini – conductor
- Matteo Catalano – author
- Barbara Mosconi – journalist
| Split voting results from Italy (Semi-final 2) | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Draw | Country | Jury | Televote | |||||||
| A. Nesi | S. Comini | S. Gavarotti | M. Catalano | B. Mosconi | Average Rank | Points | Rank | Points | ||
| 01 |  | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 12 | 10 | 1 |
| 02 |  | 12 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 13 | 16 | 1 | 12 | |
| 03 |  | 13 | 9 | 6 | 14 | 7 | 10 | 1 | 7 | 4 |
| 04 |  | 5 | 6 | 9 | 3 | 11 | 6 | 5 | 15 | |
| 05 |  | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 4 | 7 |
| 06 |  | 6 | 12 | 12 | 18 | 18 | 14 | 9 | 2 | |
| 07 |  | 3 | 10 | 5 | 8 | 17 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 10 |
| 08 |  | 14 | 18 | 4 | 12 | 4 | 8 | 3 | 11 | |
| 09 | .svg.png){kind=small} | 7 | 2 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 12 | |
| 10 |  | 15 | 7 | 7 | 11 | 9 | 11 | 17 | ||
| 11 |  | 11 | 17 | 10 | 15 | 6 | 12 | 8 | 3 | |
| 12 |  | 8 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 3 | 8 | 13 | |
| 13 |  | 9 | 15 | 18 | 10 | 10 | 15 | 5 | 6 | |
| 14 |  | 16 | 8 | 13 | 7 | 14 | 13 | 16 | ||
| 15 |  | 4 | 13 | 15 | 9 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 14 | |
| 16 |  | 18 | 16 | 17 | 13 | 16 | 18 | 18 | ||
| 17 |  | 17 | 5 | 11 | 5 | 12 | 9 | 2 | 6 | 5 |
| 18 |  | 10 | 14 | 16 | 16 | 15 | 17 | 3 | 8 | |
| Split voting results from Italy (final) | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Draw | Country | Jury | Televote | |||||||
| A. Nesi | S. Comini | S. Gavarotti | M. Catalano | B. Mosconi | Average Rank | Points | Rank | Points | ||
| 01 | | 24 | 24 | 20 | 25 | 24 | 25 | 3 | 8 | |
| 02 |  | 16 | 17 | 10 | 13 | 12 | 16 | 17 | ||
| 03 | | 23 | 18 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 22 | ||
| 04 |  | 9 | 15 | 9 | 15 | 15 | 14 | 13 | ||
| 05 |  | 22 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 15 | |
| 06 |  | 11 | 2 | 4 | 16 | 22 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| 07 | | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 12 | 19 | |
| 08 |  | 21 | 21 | 23 | 14 | 21 | 23 | 25 | ||
| 09 |  | 10 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 21 | |
| 10 | | 20 | 13 | 15 | 23 | 18 | 19 | 10 | 1 | |
| 11 |  | 1 | 7 | 16 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 8 | 3 |
| 12 |  | 19 | 12 | 6 | 17 | 25 | 15 | 1 | 12 | |
| 13 |  | 4 | 16 | 17 | 6 | 7 | 11 | 16 | ||
| 14 |  | 12 | 20 | 18 | 18 | 17 | 18 | 12 | ||
| 15 | | 8 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 8 | 3 | 8 | 7 | 4 |
| 16 | | 7 | 6 | 19 | 12 | 11 | 12 | 23 | ||
| 17 |  | 15 | 22 | 22 | 20 | 13 | 21 | 20 | ||
| 18 |  | 14 | 23 | 13 | 24 | 19 | 20 | 11 | ||
| 19 | | 13 | 19 | 14 | 11 | 20 | 17 | 2 | 10 | |
| 20 | | 5 | 14 | 24 | 21 | 2 | 10 | 1 | 24 | |
| 21 | | 18 | 25 | 25 | 19 | 14 | 22 | 9 | 2 | |
| 22 |  | 3 | 8 | 11 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 2 | 4 | 7 |
| 23 | | 17 | 11 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 13 | 18 | ||
| 24 |  | 25 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 14 | |
| 25 |  | 6 | 5 | 12 | 5 | 16 | 8 | 3 | 6 | 5 |
| 26 | | |||||||||
References
- "Italy Country Profile". EBU. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
- "Italy: RAI confirms participation in Eurovision 2017". esctoday.com. Esctoday.com. 15 September 2017. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
- Weaver, Jessica (12 October 2017). "Italy: Changes introduced as Sanremo 2018 rules released". esctoday.com. Esctoday.com. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
- Lombardini, Emanuele (16 December 2017). "Sanremo 2018, ecco i 20 big: fra loro il rappresentante italiano all'Eurovision". eurofestivalnews.com. Eurofestival NEWS. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
- Farren, Neil (11 February 2018). "Italy: Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro Confirmed for Eurovision 2018". eurovoix.tv. Eurovoix. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
- Jordan, Paul (25 July 2017). "Lisbon revealed as Host City of the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest!". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 17 November 2017.
- Groot, Evert (30 April 2018). "Exclusive: They are the expert jurors for Eurovision 2018". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 30 April 2018.