ITALY

The Italian act for Eurovision was chosen as part of the annual San Remo Festival at the Ariston Theatre, whose final was on the 19th February.
The entry for Eurovision was chosen by a special jury from the songs in the final, so the song that won San Remo would not necessarily be the song selected for Eurovision.

The Eurovision entry chosen was “Follia d'amore” sung and written by Raphael Gualazzi. He had also won the Mia Martini critics award with this performance and song and most importantly he won the Televote for the Newcomers section of this year’s San Remo, meaning that he has the jury's and the public's support.

The song is a laid back jazzy number in the style of Jamie Cullum or Michael Buble. The song is very classy and feels very well thought out and professional and the song grows as it progresses. Raphael is quite a good singer, although his performance style is very insular it is one of the songs that immediately does not feel catchy but does feel familiar. The final 30 seconds is quite epic and makes the ending quite spectacular. The addition of the trumpeter at the side is very clever. A concern I do have it that the song is about 40 second over the Eurovision time limit. I would be very interested to hear what they do to try and shorten the song. There is quite a long instrumental part, which shows off Raphael’s piano playing skills but apart from that there is very little I would like to see be taken out.

There are two further things one must take into account, which can be linked together.
Firstly, San Remo has the advantage of a live orchestra, which Eurovision does not. The orchestra also helps to engage the audience and make the performance richer in sound. It will be interesting to hear who the backing track sounds like.
Secondly, there currently only 2 people on stage. I can image the addition of some ‘big band members’ or even possibly some dancers. Raphael, although playing the piano, seems to be a very inward performer and the song could be helped with adding some more performance qualities to it.

A very classy return by Italy but is it worthy of any points?


SINGER – Raphael Gualazzi
SONG – Follia d’amore (Madness of Love)
MUSIC – Raphael Gualazzi
WORDS - Raphael Gualazzi