🇮🇹 Road to Basel: Italy

The Eurovision Song Contest is celebrating its 70th anniversary. That is a wonderful milestone. We at Eurovision Universe love diving into the history of the contest. That is why we are taking a closer look at the contests of the past 70 years. 2021 After the cancellation of Eurovision 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Song Contest finally returned in 2021. The host city was Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The city that had been ready to welcome Europe a year earlier. Edselia Rombley, Chantal Janzen, Jan Smit, and Nikkie de Jager presented the event. Strict COVID measures were in place, but the organisation managed to fill the Rotterdam Ahoy arena with a live audience during all three shows. A true feat. Belarus was excluded by the EBU due to political circumstances following the disputed presidential election and the violent crackdown on protesters. Armenia withdrew because of its involvement in the Nagorno-Karabakh war.  The songs Many of the artists who were supposed to participate in 2020 were given the chance to try their luck in 2021 after all. It would be too much to name them all. However, the Estonian Uku Suviste is worth mentioning. He had not been given carte blanche, but managed to win the national final. Natalia Gordienko had already competed for Moldova in 2006. Composer Philipp Kirkorov incurred the wrath of the entire fan community during the presentation of Natalia’s song “Sugar” by saying about Conchita Wurst: “IT can sing”. And then there was Senhit: unsuccessful for San Marino in 2011, she did reach the final this time, but not alone. Rapper Flo Rida accompanied her on stage. We will see Senhit again this year, now with another global star: Boy George. Due to the strict COVID-19 rules, Australian singer Montaigne was not allowed to travel to Rotterdam. During one of the press conferences, this became too much for her and she burst into tears. The final A big name represented Belgium: Hooverphonic. Unfortunately, their song “The Wrong Place” did not finish very high. Maltese singer Destiny, a former winner of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, was considered one of the favorites. She won the semi-final, but finished seventh in the final. Not bad, but a disappointment given the expectations. Daði & Gagnamagnið performed for Iceland, or rather, they didn’t. The year before, they were the top favorites; their “10 Years” was well-received, but not as the expected winner. One of the group members tested positive for Corona, meaning the group was not allowed to perform and a video of one of the rehearsals was shown instead. Then there was Jendrik from Germany. His entry was seen as having no chance. But the act did stand out, with a large walking middle finger on stage. The Roop for Lithuania did well. But it was the Ukrainian group Go-A that made the biggest impression. Both the music, which was very modern, and the act featuring an entire cardboard forest on stage ensured the group finished fifth. The Norwegian Tix also stood out. Not so much because of his enormous fur coat and his angel wings, but rather because of his story: Tix suffered from Gilles de la Tourette syndrome and had tics (Tix, that is). At the end of the performance, he took off his sunglasses, revealing his tics. Final Showdown It was the Swiss Gjon’s Tears who won the jury vote. With the high-pitched vocals in his “Tout l’univers,” he effortlessly received the highest number of points. Ultimately, he finished third. Because he mattered so much in the final showdown, poor Gjon couldn’t go to the toilet. With his legs squeezed together, he followed the scoring, pretending to relax every time the camera was focused on him. Barbara Pravi from France was also a favorite for the final victory. Although her “Voila”, more French than French, narrowly missed winning the Eurovision Song Contest, Pravi managed to turn her song into a true Eurovision classic in a short time. It is one of the most covered Eurovision songs of recent years. Måneskin The Roman rock band Måneskin had won Sanremo. When the results at Eurovision came in, it quickly became clear that the televoters were wild about them. Frontman Damiano David was accused of drug use after the final. Cameras had caught a suspicious movement near the table in the green room. He denied everything, offered to take a drug test, and was cleared. The controversy only seemed to boost the band’s profile. For Måneskin, it was just the beginning. Within months, they were performing sold-out shows across the United States. “Zitti e buoni” and especially “Beggin’”, an older track, became global streaming hits. Eurovision had rarely produced a winner with this kind of international commercial trajectory. 2022 For the first time since 1991, Italy hosted the Eurovision Song Contest. The Pala Olimpico arena in Turin was the venue. Laura Pausini, Alessandro Cattelan, and Mika hosted the event. Laura Pausini caught attention by suddenly disappearing during the final. Just as suddenly, she came back. Pausini didn’t feel well. To be honest, the organization was a mess. The large sun in the middle of the stage, in particular, drew attention. Not because it was so beautiful, but because it didn’t work. The context of the 2022 contest was dominated by one event: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The EBU expelled Russia from the contest shortly after the invasion began. There was also a debate about whether Belarus should be expelled as well, given its role in the conflict. It had already been excluded in 2021. Ukraine participated, and the contest quickly took on an emotional and political dimension that was impossible to ignore. The songs Mahmood, who had previously finished second, performed as half of a duo for host country Italy. Together with Blanco, he sang “Brividi”. It sounded good on the record, but live it didn’t. For the third time, the group Zdob și Zdub represented Moldova. The band finished seventh with a song about a train journey