The Italian entry was selected and confirmed on February 10th
during the annual Sanremo Music Festival, hosted by Claudio Baglioni, Michelle
Hunziker and Pierfrancesco Favino. During the final evening of competition, the
winner was chosen via a combination of a demographic jury (30%) expert jury
(30%) and televoting (40%). As with the last couple of years, the overall
winner of the festival is given first refusal as to whether they want to
represent the country at Eurovision. During the press conference, the winner confirmed
they would go to Lisbon. The winning act was Ermal Meta and Fabrizio Moro with
the song "Non mi avete fatto niente" (You didn’t do anything to me)
The background of this song is a flood of red lights. There
is no video, no background just a basic colouration. The duo stand next to each
other with microphone stands. Ermal is wearing a generic smart-casual buttoned
up suit while Fabrizio’s open jacketed suit is not too dissimilar but has a
slightly more shiny, rock-inspired tinge to it. Ermal’s performance style is
more inward with little movement and small hand gestures. Fabrizio is much more
animated with wide leg stances and lots of pointing. You can tell the two men
are passionate, almost angry, yet show two different ways of portraying that
emotion. Around the 2 minute mark the guys are shown in split screen from
slightly different angles which make for a very interesting viewing position
considering they are actually next to each other.
The song starts off quietly and with very little backing. Ermal’s
voice is well balanced, clear and gentle whilst Fabrizio’s voice is a little
scratchier. The lyrics of the songs are really quick and the tune is
repetitive. Although the song is in Italian you can pick out the odd place name
as well as pick up the tune very easily. After the first chorus, the drums pick
up speed turning the song into a bouncier, syncopated tune which almost sounds
like a country song. There has been some controversy about the song ’borrowing’
its chorus from a song previously entered, but not selected, to Sanremo 2 years
ago. However, the Sanremo committee said that no rules, as far as they were
concerned, had been broken but the EBU might have a different view. As it
stands the song is also about 25 seconds too long and I would not like to the
be the person given the job of streamlining this one down.
This was the big favourite before the final and it was no surprise
that it won. I personally like the tune and its repetitive nature. I like the
combination of the 2 voices and styles and I feel that you are bound to like or
enjoy one of the singers if not both of them. The official video of the song
shows more of the meaning and feeling behind the story (there are motions
during the song of places that have been the subject of terrorist attacks or
war) and something like this on a video screen would have worked but as this won’t
be happening this year they may have to be creative about how to get this
message across. There is also the possibility, albeit it small, that some of
the song might be sung in English – this might help with getting its message to
more viewers but might cutup the flow of the song. If you like Italian song
this will be right up your street, otherwise if might be a bit Marmite. A good
song but I don’t see this one battling for the win
ARTIST – Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro
SONG – Non mi avete fatto niente (You didn’t do anything to
me)
MUSIC - Ermal Meta, Fabrizio Moro
LYRICS - Andrea Febo, Ermal Meta, Fabrizio Moro
(RAI Uno place Sanremo songs on youtube but they are not embeddable so here's a link)
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