Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024
| Eurovision Song Contest 2024 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country |  Italy | |||
| National selection | ||||
| Selection process | Sanremo Music Festival 2024 | |||
| Selection date(s) | 10 February 2024 | |||
| Selected entrant | Angelina Mango | |||
| Selected song | "La noia" | |||
| Selected songwriter(s) |
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| Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest | ||||
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Italy is set to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 in Malmö, Sweden. Angelina Mango, the winning performer of the Sanremo Music Festival 2024, organised by Italian broadcaster RAI, earned the right to represent the nation at the contest with her winning entry "La noia".
As a member of the "Big Five", Italy automatically qualifies to compete in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Background[edit]
Prior to the 2024 contest, Italy has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest forty-seven times since its first entry at the inaugural contest in 1956.[1] Since then, Italy has won the contest on three occasions: in 1964 with the song "Non ho l'età" performed by Gigliola Cinquetti, in 1990 with "Insieme: 1992" by Toto Cutugno, and in 2021 with "Zitti e buoni" by Måneskin. Italy has withdrawn from the Eurovision Song Contest a number of times, with their most recent absence spanning from 1998 until 2010. Italy made its return in 2011, and their entry "Madness of Love", performed by Raphael Gualazzi, placed second—their highest result, to that point, since their victory in 1990. A number of top 10 placements followed in the next editions, culminating with their victory in 2021. In 2023, Italy placed fourth with "Due vite" performed by Marco Mengoni.[1]
The Italian national broadcaster, Radiotelevisione italiana (RAI), broadcasts the event within Italy and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. Between 2011 and 2013 and since 2015, the Sanremo Music Festival has regularly been used to select the Italian entrant to the contest, at first through an intermediate stage of internal selection among the contestants, and after 2014 (when a full internal selection took place), the winner of the festival has always earned the right of first refusal to represent Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Before Eurovision[edit]
Sanremo Music Festival 2024[edit]
Italian broadcaster RAI organised the Sanremo Music Festival 2024, the 74th edition of the event, between 6 and 10 February 2024.[2] On 10 July 2023, the broadcaster published the rules of the competition, confirming that its winner would earn the right to represent the country at the Eurovision Song Contest.[3]
30 artists competed in the festival over the course of five consecutive nights; three contestants directly qualified from the selection Sanremo Giovani on 19 December 2023, while the other 27 were selected by the artistic director Amadeus by direct invitation and from submissions received by the deadline of 27 November 2023, and were announced on 3 December 2023.[3][4][5][6][7] The titles of the competing entries were revealed during Sanremo Giovani.[8] Four former Eurovision Song Contest entrants were among the competing artists: Ricchi e Poveri (1978), Emma (2014), Il Volo (2015), and Mahmood (2019 and 2022), in addition to Diodato, who was set to represent Italy in 2020 before the contest's cancellation.[9]
Final[edit]
The final of the festival took place on 10 February 2024. All of the artists performed their songs one final time, with a public televoting being summed up to the results obtained in the previous nights to determine five qualifiers for the superfinal round. The score was then reset and a combination of public televoting (34%), radio jury voting (33%) and press jury voting (33%) selected the winner, Angelina Mango with the song "La noia".[10] The following morning, Mango confirmed her participation in the contest.[11]
| Draw | Artist | Song | Press jury rank | Radio jury rank | Televote score | Total score | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Irama | "Tu no" | 5 | 4 | 7.5% | 6.9% | 5 |
| 2 | Ghali | "Casa mia" | 3 | 3 | 8.3% | 10.5% | 4 |
| 3 | Angelina Mango | "La noia" | 1 | 1 | 16.1% | 40.3% | 1 |
| 4 | Geolier | "I p' me, tu p' te" | 4 | 5 | 60.0% | 25.2% | 2 |
| 5 | Annalisa | "Sinceramente" | 2 | 2 | 8.0% | 17.1% | 3 |
Preparations and promotion[edit]
Discussing her participation in Eurovision shortly after her Sanremo victory, Mango commented that she and the songwriting team were considering the possibility to change part of the lyrics to English or Spanish ahead of the contest.[14][15] On 6 March 2024, RAI released an official statement of participation, confirming that the song had been reworked to comply with Eurovision regulations requiring that entries do not exceed a length of 3 minutes,[16] and shortly after Mango confirmed that the lyrics would remain in Italian.[17]
As part of the promotion of her participation in the contest, Mango attended the PrePartyES in Madrid on 30 March 2024, the Barcelona Eurovision Party on 6 April 2024, the London Eurovision Party on 7 April 2024 and the Eurovision in Concert event in Amsterdam on 13 April 2024.[18][19][20][21] On 20 April 2024, she made an appearance on the Croatian TV show Zvijezde pjevaju, broadcast on HRT 1.[22][23] In addition, she performed at the Eurovision Village in Malmö on 7 May 2024.[24]
At Eurovision[edit]
The Eurovision Song Contest 2024 is taking place at the Malmö Arena in Malmö, Sweden, and consists of two semi-finals held on the respective dates of 7 and 9 May and the final on 11 May 2024. All nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete in the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. As a member of the "Big Five", Italy automatically qualifies to compete in the final on 11 May 2024, but is also required to broadcast and vote in one of the two semi-finals. This was decided via a draw held during the semi-final allocation draw on 30 January 2024, when it was announced that Italy would be voting in the second semi-final.[25][26] The draw, broadcast live on the official Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel, was also aired by RAI via its streaming platform RaiPlay.[27] Despite being an automatic qualifier for the final, the Italian entry was also performed during the semi-final.[28] On 4 May 2024, a draw was held to determine which half of the final each "Big Five" country would perform in; Italy drew "producer's choice", meaning that the country will perform in the half decided by the contest's producers.[29]
In May 2023, Claudio Fasulo, deputy head of primetime entertainment at RAI (as well as member of the EBU's Eurovision reference group), discussed the possibility of expanding Eurovision-related programming on Rai 1, including moving the broadcast of the semi-finals from Rai 2 to Rai 1.[30] However, the broadcaster ultimately confirmed that the semi-finals would air on Rai 2 and the final on Rai 1; all three shows are also being broadcast on Rai Radio 2 and are available on RaiPlay.[31][32] The television broadcasts is accompanied with commentary by Gabriele Corsi and Mara Maionchi, while Diletta Parlangeli and Matteo Osso commentate the radio broadcast.[33]
Image leaks[edit]
Images from Italy's stand-in rehearsal, which preceded Angelina Mango's first rehearsal, were leaked online. During its press conference of presentation of the contest, RAI asked not to further share the content, as it was only meant for internal usage among the members of the delegation, and said it had alerted the EBU about potential cybersecurity issues.[34]
Performance[edit]
Angelina Mango took part in technical rehearsals on 2 and 4 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 10 and 11 May.[35] Her performance of "La noia" at the contest is choreographed by Mecnun Giasar and will include five supporting dancers[36] as well as a throne elevating from the ground. The graphics of the staging and costumes, which include a corset or bodysuit for Mango, are based on a pattern of intertwined twigs and flowers, meant to evoke a "psychedelic forest". The performance ends with cascading pyrotechnics in the background.[37][38][39]
Voting[edit]
The spokesperson for the Italian jury at the final will be Mario Acampa, who hosted the allocation draw and the opening "Turquoise Carpet" of the 2022 contest.[40]
Points awarded by Italy[edit]
On 9 May, Italian broadcaster RAI released the televoting results from the second semi-final in breach of the contest's regulations.
Detailed voting results[edit]
References[edit]
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