Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest

Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest
Participating broadcaster	Radiotelevisione italiana (RAI)
Participation summary
Appearances	49
First appearance	1956
Highest placement	1st: 1964, 1990, 2021
Host	1965, 1991, 2022
Participation history 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 – 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Related articles
Sanremo Music Festival Canzonissima
External links
RAI page
Italy's page at Eurovision.tv
For the most recent participation see Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024

Italy has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 48 times since making its debut as one of only seven countries to compete at the first contest in 1956, which took inspiration from the Sanremo Music Festival.^[1] The Italian participant broadcaster in the contest is Radiotelevisione italiana (RAI). It competed at the contest without interruption until 1980, discontinuing its participation on a number of occasions during the 1980s and 1990s. After a 13-year absence starting in 1998, the country returned to the contest in 2011. Italy has won the contest three times, along with an additional 16 top-five finishes. Italy hosted the contest in Naples (1965), Rome (1991), and Turin (2022).

In 1958, "Nel blu, dipinto di blu" performed by Domenico Modugno finished third. Commonly known as "Volare", the song became a huge international hit, topping the US Billboard Hot 100 and winning two Grammy Awards at its first edition. "Uno per tutte" by Emilio Pericoli also finished third in 1963, before Italy won for the first time in 1964 with "Non ho l'età" by Gigliola Cinquetti. Cinquetti returned to the contest in 1974 and finished second with "Sì", losing to "Waterloo" by ABBA. Italy then finished third in 1975 with "Era" by Wess and Dori Ghezzi. The country's best result of the 1980s was "Gente di mare" by Umberto Tozzi and Raf finishing third in 1987. Italy's second victory in the contest came in 1990 with "Insieme: 1992" by Toto Cutugno. Other good 1990s results were "Rapsodia" by Mia Martini in 1992 and "Fiumi di parole" by Jalisse in 1997, who both finished fourth. After 1997, Italy withdrew from the competition.

On 31 December 2010, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced that Italy would be returning to the contest as part of the "Big Five", thereby granting the country automatic qualification for the final.^[2] Italy's return to the contest has proved to be successful, finishing in the top ten in 11 of the last 13 contests (2011–24), including second places for "Madness of Love" by Raphael Gualazzi (2011) and "Soldi" by Mahmood (2019), and third place for "Grande amore" by Il Volo (2015). "Grande amore" won the televote, receiving votes from all countries, but came sixth with the juries. This was the first time since the introduction of the mixed jury/televote system in 2009 that the televote winner did not end up winning the contest. Italy achieved its third victory in the contest in 2021, with "Zitti e buoni" by the rock band Måneskin.

Radiotelevisione italiana (RAI) is a full member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), thus eligible to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest. It has participated in the contest representing Italy since its first edition in 1956.

Italy has withdrawn from the Eurovision Song Contest a number of times. The first withdrawal was in 1981, when RAI stated that interest had diminished in the country.^[3] This absence continued through 1982, before Italy returned in 1983. Italy again withdrew in 1986 when RAI decided not to enter the contest.^[4] From 1994 to 1996, Italy withdrew again, with RAI citing a lack of interest in participating. Italy returned in 1997, before withdrawing again without explanation, and the country did not participate again until 2011.^[5]

None of the 20th century Eurovision-winning songs were particularly successful in the Italian charts. "Non ho l'età" by Gigliola Cinquetti was a hit in February 1964 when the song won the 1964 contest, but according to the official "Hit Parade Italia" website, "Waterloo", "Ding-a-dong", "Puppet on a String", "Save Your Kisses for Me" and even Italy's own winning entry of 1990, "Insieme: 1992", all failed to enter the top ten of the records sales charts. A notable exception to this rule was the 1984 entry "I treni di Tozeur" by Alice and Franco Battiato, which shared fifth place in the final, but still became a #3 hit in Italy and also placed at #20 on the chart of the best-selling Italian singles in 1984.

RAI refused to broadcast the 1974 contest live because their competing song, sung by Gigliola Cinquetti, coincided with the intense political campaigning for the 1974 Italian divorce referendum which was to be held a month later in May. Despite the Eurovision Song Contest taking place more than a month before the planned vote, Italian censors refused to allow the contest and song to be shown or heard. RAI censors felt that the song, titled "Sì" (Yes), and contained lyrics constantly repeating the aforementioned word could be subject to accusation of being subliminal messaging and a form of propaganda to influence the Italian voting public to vote 'yes' in the referendum (thus to repeal the law that allowed divorce).^[6] The song thus remained censored on most Italian state TV and radio stations for over a month. At the contest in Brighton, Cinquetti finished second, losing to ABBA. "Sì" went on to be a UK top ten hit, peaking at number eight. It also reached the German top 20.^{[citation needed]} The contest was broadcast in June.

In 2008, two notable Italian musicians, Vince Tempera (who was the conductor for Malta in 1975 and had helped San Marino take part in the ESC in 2008) and Eurovision winner Toto Cutugno expressed their sorrow at Italy's non-participation and called for the country to return to the contest.^[7][8]

Contestants from the 2008 contest, starting with the winner Dima Bilan appeared on the Italian show Carramba! Che fortuna, hosted by Raffaella Carrà on Rai Uno. Whether this was an initiative by Carrà (who presented three shows in TVE concerning the event) to try to bring Eurovision back to Italy is not clear, but Sietse Bakker, then-Manager Communications & PR of the Eurovision Song Contest, reiterated that "Italy is still very much welcome to take part in the competition."^[9][10]

Shortly after revealing the list of participants for the 2009 contest, the EBU announced that they would work harder to bring Italy back into the contest, along with former participants Monaco and Austria.^[11]

At a press conference presenting the fourth edition of the Italian X Factor, Rai 2 director Massimo Liofredi announced that the winner of the competition might advance to represent Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest, rather than participate in the Sanremo Festival, as in previous years. On 2 December 2010, it was officially announced by the EBU that Italy had applied to compete in the 2011 contest.^[12] Their participation was further confirmed on 31 December with the announcement of the official participant list.^[2]

Italy's return to the contest after a 13-year absence has been successful, finishing in the top ten in 11 of the last 13 contests (2011–24). In 2011, Raphael Gualazzi finished second, then Italy's best result since 1990. Italy came first with the jury vote, but only 11th in the televote to place second overall behind eventual winner Azerbaijan. Nina Zilli in 2012 and Marco Mengoni in 2013 placed in the top ten (ninth and seventh, respectively); the latter scored 126 points, exactly doubling the points total of the other "Big Five" countries that year. This trend had a stop in 2014, when internally-selected Emma Marrone finished in 21st place. In 2015, Il Volo finished third with 292 points, behind winner Sweden and runner-up Russia, placing first in the televote but sixth in the jury vote. Since the introduction of the 50/50 split voting system, this was the first time that the televote winner did not win the contest overall. Francesca Michielin, selected among the competitors of Sanremo 2016 after the waiver of the winners Stadio, ended in 16th place. Francesco Gabbani came in sixth place in 2017. The year after, although not initially a big favourite with the bookmakers, Ermal Meta and Fabrizio Moro returned Italy to the top five, aided significantly by finishing third in the televote, which heavily counterbalanced the 17th place by the jury, finishing fifth overall. In 2019, Mahmood placed second with 472 points, Italy's best result since 2011, until Måneskin won the contest in 2021 with 524 points. Måneskin's victory marked the band's breakthrough on the international music scene. Mahmood returned in 2022 as the host entrant alongside Blanco, placing sixth, followed by Mengoni returning in 2023, placing fourth, and Angelina Mango finishing in seventh place in 2024.

The Sanremo Music Festival is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria. First held in 1951 and itself the basis and inspiration for the Eurovision Song Contest, the festival has often been used as a method of choosing the Italian entry for the European contest, with some exceptions over the years. Since 2015, the winner of the festival has been given the right of first refusal to represent Italy in the contest.^[1][13]

Since 1999, four countries – France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom – have automatically qualified for the Eurovision final regardless of their results in previous contests.^[14] The participant broadcasters from these countries earned this special status by being the four biggest financial contributors to the EBU, and subsequently became known as the "Big Four". In a meeting with OGAE Serbia in 2007, then-Executive Supervisor of the Contest Svante Stockselius stated that, if Italy were to return to the contest in the future, the country would also automatically qualify for the final, becoming part of a "Big Five".^[15][16] However, with the official announcement of the return of Italy, it was not confirmed whether the country would compete in one of the two semi-finals or be part of the "Big Five", as RAI, third largest contributor to the EBU, had not applied for "Big Five" membership.^[17] On 31 December 2010, it was announced that Italy would take part in the 2011 contest and confirmed that the country would automatically qualify for the final as part of the "Big Five".^[2]

Italy is currently the most successful Big Five country in the Eurovision Song Contest following the introduction of the rule, finishing in the top ten in 10 of the last 12 contests (2011–23), including a victory for Måneskin (2021), second places for Raphael Gualazzi (2011) and Mahmood (2019), and third place for Il Volo (2015). It is one of the only two countries of the Big Five – since it was introduced – to have won, the other being Germany in 2010.

Year	Category	Song	Performer	Final	Points	Host city	Ref.
2015	Press Award	"Grande amore"	Il Volo	3	292	Vienna	[19]
2017	Press Award	"Occidentali's Karma"	Francesco Gabbani	6	334	Kyiv	[20]
2019	Composer Award	"Soldi"	Mahmood	2	465	Tel Aviv	[21]
2023	Composer Award	"Due vite"	Marco Mengoni	4	350	Liverpool	[22]

Year	Song	Performer	Final result	Points	Host city	Ref.
2015	"Grande amore"	Il Volo	3	292	Vienna	[23]
2017	"Occidentali's Karma"	Francesco Gabbani	6	334	Kyiv	[24]
2019	"Soldi"	Mahmood	2	465	Tel Aviv	[25]

Year	Eurovision Conductor	Musical Director	Notes	Ref.
1956	Gian Stellari	N/A		[26]
1957	Armando Trovajoli
1958	Alberto Semprini
1959	William Galassini [it]
1960	Cinico Angelini
1961	Gianfranco Intra
1962	Cinico Angelini
1963	Gigi Chichellero [it]
1964	Gianfranco Monaldi [it]
1965	Gianni Ferrio		[c]
1966	Angelo Giacomazzi [it]	N/A	[d]
1967	Giancarlo Chiaramello
1968
1969	Ezio Leoni
1970	Mario Capuano [it]			[27]
1971	Enrico Polito [it]
1972	Gian Franco Reverberi
1973	Enrico Polito
1974	Gianfranco Monaldi
1975	Natale Massara [it]
1976	Maurizio Fabrizio
1977
1978	Nicola Samale
1979	No conductor		[e]
1980	Del Newman			[28]
1983	Maurizio Fabrizio
1984	Giusto Pio
1985	Fiorenzo Zanotti
1987	Gianfranco Lombardi [it]
1988	No conductor		[e]
1989	Mario Natale
1990	Gianni Madonini
1991	Bruno Canfora
1992	Marco Falagiani [it]	N/A
1993	Vittorio Cosma
1997	Lucio Fabbri

Each participating broadcaster in the Eurovision Song Contest assigns a head of delegation as the EBU's contact person and the leader of their delegation at the event. The delegation, whose size can greatly vary, includes a head of press, the performers, songwriters, composers, and backing vocalists, among others.^[29]

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• 
  Domenico Modugno in Hilversum (1958)
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  Bobby Solo in Naples (1965)
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  Gianni Morandi in Amsterdam (1970)
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  Al Bano and Romina Power in The Hague (1976)
• 
  Raphael Gualazzi in Düsseldorf (2011)
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  Marco Mengoni in Malmö (2013)
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  Emma in Copenhagen (2014)
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  Il Volo in Vienna (2015)
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  Francesca Michielin in Stockholm (2016)
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  Francesco Gabbani in Kyiv (2017)
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  Ermal Meta and Fabrizio Moro in Lisbon (2018)
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  Mahmood in Tel Aviv (2019)
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  Måneskin in Rotterdam (2021)
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  Marco Mengoni in Liverpool (2023)
• 
  Angelina Mango in Malmö (2024)

• Italy in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest – Junior version of the Eurovision Song Contest.
• Italy in the Eurovision Young Dancers – A competition organised by the EBU for younger dancers aged between 16 and 21.
• Italy in the Eurovision Young Musicians – A competition organised by the EBU for musicians aged 18 years and younger.

• Italian Eurovision Website
• Esc-Time.com – Italian website daily updated about Eurovision
• Points to and from Italy (until 2015) eurovisioncovers.co.uk
• 'Rock and roll never dies': Italy wins Eurovision after 30 years at Wikinews