ITALY

The Italian entry was selected and confirmed on February 12^th, two days after the annual Sanremo Music Festival. Claudio Baglioni was the artistic director of the 5-day long festival, and co-hosted it with Virginia Raffaele and Claudio Bisio. During the final, 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, it was confirmed that the winner would go to Tel-Aviv. The winning act was Mahmood singing “Soldi” (Money)

The Sanremo stage was rather bare and mostly constructed of different lighting patterns and effects rather than LED screens, although some acts did use on screen graphics. This however was very simplistic and actually Mahmood’s stage presence radiated down the camera. Unlike many Italian artists he is very good at finding the camera and engaging with it and I think with a bigger scope of camera angles this could become a very great tv performance. He didn’t really have any choreography on the stage but, for Eurovision, I think quite a few things could be honed and added to make the song more visually memorable.

The song starts off with a strong beat rhythm which sets a pattern for the rest of the song. In the backing track there is very little going on. Most of the time the track is minimalistic in terms of instruments and when instruments are used it merges modern and Middle Eastern rhythms and percussion to create mini crescendos. The lines in the verses are very long and syllabic and follow a similar tune. This then goes into a multi-part bridge where his voice becomes more shrill and higher before going down again for the repetitive chorus. The song is basically these different parts in slightly different orders and repetitions and is VERY earwormy. For a song that is not is a familiar tongue it isn’t half catchy – the hand claps are GENIUS and will be big in the hall.

Sanremo is really the king AND queen of Eurovision shows and this year’s production was really quite epic. Diverse yet totally Italian and could not be confused as being from anywhere else. Italy are on a roll at the moment and I think this is going to continue this run. The song is modern and has a knack of being utterly Italian yet totally relatable. Mahmood himself, and the emotion and drive of the song, gives me Stromae vibes which is right up my street. The tune of the song is mesmerising and his tone of voice is very individual and memorable. There are a few things that need to change. It is currently just under 15 seconds too long which I think is cut-able (?) without gouging its heart out. I think punctuating the hand claps with a more vivid background – or even some dancers – could also work. Having also listened to the studio version I think the addition of the orchestra when sung live added an extra layer of atmosphere. It might be worth him looking again at some parts of the backing track.

I personally think this is an absolute banger of a song and considering he is a relative newcomer to the scene (he only got his place in the main Sanremo show by succeeding in the Giovani - or newcomers - show). Much was made of the fact this did very badly compared to Ultimo and Il Volo in the public vote. A) they are established acts with ready made followings and B) the Italian public can’t vote for the Italian song at Eurovision so it actually doesn’t matter from this perspective. This could be amazing and I really, really hope it is. *clap clap*

                                               

ARTIST – Mahood

SONG – Soldi (Money)

MUSIC -  Charlie Charles, Dario "Dardust" Faini, Alessandro Mahmoud

LYRICS - Charlie Charles, Dario "Dardust" Faini, Alessandro Mahmoud