The Italian Final was held on February 5th at the at the Ariston Theatre in Sanremo, hosted by Amadeus accompanied by several co-presenters over the week: Ornella Muti, Lorena Cesarini, Drusilla Foer, Maria Chiara Giannetta and Sabrina Ferilli. The Sanremo festival consisted 5 nights of performances with different voting rounds each night such as press vote, demoscopic jury and televoting. On the 5th night: entrants were judged by televoting alone then added up to the results obtained that far. The top 3 from this were put through to a superfinal with a 50/50 split between juries and teletoving. The winners were Mahmood & Blanco with "Brividi" (Shivers)
Mahmood is a returner to Eurovision having come a triumphant second in 2019. He first came to the public eye through X Factor Italy in 2012 but was eliminated in the third live show. Fast forward to 2018 he was chosen to compete in the Giovani section of Sanremo and he gained a spot in the festival proper the next year, which he promptly won. Blanco however is only 18 but already has archived much in his burgeoning career. He has had 6 top 10 songs (7 if you include this song) and his debut album has gone three times platinum. Although Blanco has a pop and rap discography, and Mahmood has more of a R&B lilt, this song is more of a romantic, sensitive ballad.
The song starts with a simple piano intro which prefaces Mahmood singing the first verse. Blanco then joins in for the chorus with some parts sung together, some parts separate. Blanco then sings the second verse followed by another chorus. Next is a stand alone part where Blanco raps and Mahmood sings which then sets up the song for the very last rendition of the chorus. The song is extremely simple in set up but the lyrical and harmonic quality is certainly not.
On stage the duo is joined on stage by a piano and pianist although I am not sure if the performance needs this as the focus of the song should be the two singers. Their voices sound so good together especially when they seem too looks and sound so different initially. The chemistry between the two is amazing and they do a great job of solidifying the meaning of the song without being too over the top. The Sanremo stage is rather small and intimate, which suited the song, but the Eurovision setup will be very different. Making this song 'a moment' will be very important moreover as this song is a beacon for queer visibility. Being lesser known names around Europe they may have to work on their connection down the camera as well as getting the meaning to the song to non-Italian speakers. This is a very beautiful song and its tune is clear, memorable and heartfelt. It is a great host entry and although this probably won't give Italy a back-to-back win, this will hopefully do better than many host entries of late. The main decision point right now is how to get it down to 3 minutes without ruining the flow and ambiance - this may well be a tough call.
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