Italy will once again be using Sanremo to select their entry, with the winner given the first opportunity to travel to Kyiv. Il Volo accepted in 2015 but of course we had the mini drama of Stadio refusing the offer this year, making way for (the much superior) Francesca Michielin! More details of the Sanremo dates are below (and in Adam's very own calendar!):
https://escxtra.com/2016/09/16/italy-confirm-participation-for-eurovision-2017/
One act that wants to take part is Italian 1997 representatives Jalisse, we shall see if they are in the final line-up which is due fairly soon I believe! I think I read a rumour that one Italian representative since their 2011 comeback is also going to return to Sanremo - if so it'll probably be a Nina Zilli or a Raphael Gualazzi.
'Fiumi di parole' is the best Italian entry I'm aware of so I would very much welcome a Jalisse return.
The 22 acts for the big artists section have been revealed, the only real interesting selections are Giusy Ferreri and Chiara. I'd assume the former has a big chance to win.
Al Bano
Elodie
Paola Turci
Samuel Umberto Romano
Fiorella Mannoia
Nesli feat. Alice Paba
Michele Bravi
Fabrizio Moro
Giusy Ferreri
Gigi D'Alessio
Raige feat. Giulia Luzi
Ron
Ermal Meta
Michele Zarrillo
Lodovica Comello
Sergio Sylvestre
Clementino
Alessio Bernabei
Chiara
Francesco Gabbani
Bianca Atzei
Marco Masini
Giusy was bottom 3 in the vote of her "heat" on Tuesday when half performed their Sanremo songs so I presume she won't have a chance during the re-vote on Saturday. Apparently Fiorella is a clear favourite although I wonder if she would want to do Eurovision...
Fiorella has tour dates throughout the Eurovision period including the dates of the final and both semis so if she does win it'll end up going to the runner up.
Apparently she's said that she'd perhaps be interested still and could try and move tour dates around, I'm hoping not though as she's probably my least favourite of all the apparent contenders!
Ah I find Giusy's voice quite and miss so I'm glad she's not such a cert as I thought Fiorella is massive in Italy, I find her a bore though and nothing special and amusingly m'annoia means "bores me" in Italian so her name is at least fitting. I suppose it depends how practical her moving her tour dates around is and whether she prefers doing that or missing out on Eurovision but I wouldn't be fussed if she just toured instead
Giusy has been eliminated, and to many people's surprise so has Al Bano! He was 2nd favourite at the beginning of the week
This now looks to be the most likely winner/ESC representative if Fiorella doesn't go:
(He's gained hype just because he has a gorilla on stage...)
After a couple of listens I can get on board with that actually, the studio version at least!
Scrap that, after seeing the live performance I am TOTALLY on board!
http://www.raiplay.it/video/2017/02/Francesco-Gabbani---aposOccidentaliaposs-Karmaapos---Sanremo--Quarta-serata-e82dc0fc-5a51-4b2e-9713-3d2fe46a7254.html
Fiorella would have to cancel/reschedule 8 tour dates to do Eurovision, she only has about 20-22 in total. Francesco has "no shows" on his website however!
Ooh I like that! That many dates is quite a lot for Fiorella to cancel tbf and in that event I'd be fine with that song. It's the sort of staging that could stand out and be a bit of a meme so could be a solid choice.
Please give us Italian gorillas. I don't care what the competition is, that HAS to go.
Bit of a banging musical tune too.
I prefer Wednesday's original performance when Francesco was wearing the orange jumper... I find him even more charming. And, I LOVE his sparkling eyes - very rare.
http://www.raiplay.it/video/2017/02/Francesco-Gabbani---Occidentaliaposs-Karma---Sanremo--556a6501-fbfd-4fb0-98fa-86359fc8ae2a.html
Oh it's got to be the dancing gorilla, that's legit be in the top 5 Italian entries ever!
Running order edited in above!
Sigh. Francesco and the dancing gorilla to win of the final three remaining then (the only one like of the last 3). Samuel 10th 😕, Alessio 15th 😡.
I imagine Fiorella will still win, hoping Francesco can beat Ermal to 2nd so he can go to Eurovision in the event Fiorella is busy touring. I do like Ermal's song too, but Francesco would be a perfect entry!
In a major shock, Francesco Gabbani wins Sanremo 2017!
Wow. Francesco also won Premio TIM, which is the most streamed Sanremo Campioni track??
I presume he won't reject, what a fantastically uplifting song that is perfect for Eurovision! A little bit of novelty and fun with the staging but an insanely catchy and high quality song.
This is the most I've ever been on board with Italy *.*
I'm happy he won as he was my favourite of the final three!!
Good song but Christ I want to shoot him.
He has accepted the Eurovision offer!
Very glad he's confirmed, I was waiting for that.
Fantastic fun entry, I'm going to be really on board with this for the rest of the season I can tell.
RAI have already confirmed on Twitter that Francesco won't be changing song and will be performing 'Occidentali's Karma' in Kyiv!
Poor Fiorella. But oh well when there is such a SUPER DEFINITE!!!1 winner, we are always in for a shock.
I think it could do ok in Kiev.
This is very good, quite different for Italy, surprised such a contemporary song won Sanremo! It has shades of Chasing The Sun by The Wanted in places.
The performance looks like it will be a moment too
I don't know if I like it or not! Does the gorilla make sense in context of the lyrics?
There's stuff in there about how the naked monkey dances (something something evolution) so I guess so.
I want it to make occidental as mainstream a word as oriental.
I think the gorilla might be to represent the sort of devolution or block in progressing as a species in Westerners that he's singing about, the lyrics seem to be bemoaning the fact that we're obsessed with selfies, celebrities and financial/material gain and we should learn from Buddhism, if what I can make out from my Italian is right He definitely says "evolution stumbles".
I'm definitely on board with this after a few listens, it's a very interesting concept as a song and catchy af <3
What a charming and endearing performance and song!
Totally on board with this!
I'd say there's going to be enough people who aren't into his voice, it's certainly not for everyone (although I'm saying that as someone who normally falls for this type of thing, I certainly didn't expect there to be as many fans of it as this), for it to fall short yet again for Italy. And I really wouldn't say a man in a gorilla suit is enough of a star-stopping gimmick to swing it the win.
And yeah, lyrically the message is a bit crap but at least he's dressed it up in a non-generic package so I can forgive him for that as long as it remains in Italian.
Yeah it would really marr it for me if it was in English Everything just sounds SO much better in a nice foreign language Italian. I don't think the gorilla will be enough to stand out as a winner either, it will obviously be a talking point on the night and maybe a bit of a meme though.
This is majorly good, and the dancing gorilla is dumb as hell but has so much obvious potential to be memorable. I think Italy are comfortably doing the best out of the big 5 this year.
I can't believe my country song doing so good on you tube views and itunes european countries considering Gabbani is pretty new to the big scene..The melody is there also the gorilla routine although I m not a fan of his raspy voice, regarding the meaning of the song is more deep of what you can think
The video has 14 million views already!
THAT'S CRAZY!
3 minute ESC Version
Awkward second chorus. I guess they wanted to cram in as much of the chorus as possible as it's catchy as f*** *.*
I wouldn't mind this winning tbh
I'm just so glad that they kept in the instrumental before the final chorus that I don't care what else they did to it, I think it's a great edit though!
This song is the whole package, I don't see any other viable contender right now.
It's going to clean up on both the jury and televote, surely? Unless his gruff voice is a turnoff for people.
I can imagine it doing surprisingly well (for a foreign language song) on UK iTunes too, of course it won't be touched on streaming so will do nothing officially.
I don't think this is locked on to be the jury winner at all. Televote's a different story but I can easily see this just being top 5 with the juries and something else grabbing the win.
I agree that this probably isn't locked on 100% jury winner but it'll definitely storm the televote and it won't bomb on the juries, so it has the biggest chance for sure atm. I've kept saying "something else will come along randomly" but I haven't got the feeling from anything else so unless Armenia really pulls it off I think it will be this. But then again at this point nobody would've said Conchita or The Common Linnets would have been contenders so this might just be one of those years like that where something comes up at the semi final stage and ends up winning. There's a lot of good songs this year but nothing bar this really feels like it could win. It's so infectious, whenever I hear the instrumental bit I just want to get up and do the dance no matter where I am
The transition from the first chorus is awkward as hell but the song still functions and it's less catastrophic than last year's Italian revamp. As regards winning, I don't really feel like the change will make a difference either way. It's still either this or Sweden realistically.
Grande Amore won the televote in 2015 I don't see why this won't do the same.
Italy FTW!
Agreed that the transition from the first chorus is awkward, but I think that might just be down to me familiarising myself with the original a bit too much!
It's a great edit though, coz it really does capitalise on the chorus, hook and energy of the song!
I can't see Sweden being a contender, as Lex was saying to me the other day 'I Can't Go On' just doesn't have the heart, euphoria or emotional pull winners tend to have. It's so slick and professional that it does lose that emotion. Jamala obviously have TONS of emotion, Mans had his little cute stick figure, Conchita had her whole back story, Emmelie even had her confetti euphoric moment, Loreen's was even called Euphoria.
Liam sums it up perfectly by saying this has THE euphoria moment with the instrumental section, I can pinpoint such a moment in I Can't Go On. Out of the other favourites, Bulgaria falls into the Sweden category of very slick and professional but sacrificing emotion whereas Portugal definitely falls on the Italy side of having that emotional pull, although Salvador of course evokes much different emotion to Francesco.
The original video having 60m+ views already thoughhhhh!
Only just heard this for the first time - yeah, if this wins then well deserved for Italy, even without the "LOL dancing gorilla!!" gimmick it's an awesome pop track, and full credit that they've kept it in Italian as I do miss the old foreign-language winners that fizzled out (for obvious reasons) in the late 90s. One of my friends is part Ukrainian and part Italian, so she'd be over the moon if this won a year after Jamala!
Would finally give Italy a chance to rectify the hilarious chaos that was the 1991 contest too "MR NEFF!!"
This just keeps growing on me, it's one of those foreign language songs where I'm slowly learning all the words regardless (Italian is a bit easier than like Crimean Tatar with 1944 ofc but still) and the instrumental break has to be the best bit in any song this year <3
Also I kind of fancy him but I know I'll be alone on that one (http://www.tuttouomini.it/images/francesco-gabbani-nudo.jpg)
I only really got back into Eurovision in 2018 after a few years away from it so I missed 2017. Going back to youtube coverage of reactions and predictions from various bloggers, there was an overwhelming prediction that this would be the run away winner like Eurphoria or Fairytale. What the hell happened? This is astounding. No City Lights though.
I think the problem there was the staging. It borders the line between weird and charming. In Sanremo it was simple and effective and it managed to charm Italy, however their staging in Eurovision just came across weird - too dark and the gorilla looked random. Shame as it's a very good track and surely deserved more than 6th place!
It's hardly weird in Eurovision terms.
I think what Vülker says is definitely true and one factor in it. There's also something Lex was saying at the time, Sanremo is quite early on in the selection season so this was an early stand-out/favourite that people latched onto and then couldn't see past no matter what else was chosen. And on the night, there wasn't a shortage of fun entries near the top of the scoreboard with Moldova and Romania too - turns out the public were more here for the return of Epic sax guy.
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