Introduction: Italy 2019
Mahmood was born in Milan in 1992. His mother comes from Sardinia and his father from Egypt. With his participation at the X Factor in 2012 Mahmood started his career. In 2016 he was nominated in the category “newcomer” with the song “Dimentica” Mahmood made the 4th place. In 2017 Mahmood released “Luna” together with Fabri Firbra and in 2018 “Nero Bali” has become a summer hit, in this case Mahmood has composed the song, but it was sung by Elodie, Michele Bravi and Guè Pequeno.
Introduction
- Participant(s): Mahmood
- Song: "Soldi"
- Writer(s): Dardust, Mahmood
- Composer(s): Dardust, Mahmood, Charlie Charles
In the traditional San Remo Festival a young singer could win this prestigious festival. It’s Alessandro Mahmoud or just Mahmood with the contemporary and sociocritical called “Soldi” which means money. This song went #1 in Italy in all different kind of charts like airplay, single charts, iTunes, Spotify, etc. and became a mega hit. Even the first EP “Gioventù bruciat” went number one in Italy as well. These are all good preconditions for participating in the Eurovision Song Contest. He is probably the candidate with one of the winning chances this year.
Mahmood was born in Milan in 1992. His mother comes from Sardinia and his father from Egypt. With his participation at the X Factor in 2012 Mahmood started his career. In 2016 he was nominated in the category “newcomer” with the song “Dimentica” Mahmood made the 4th place. In 2017 Mahmood released “Luna” together with Fabri Firbra and in 2018 “Nero Bali” has become a summer hit, in this case Mahmood has composed the song, but it was sung by Elodie, Michele Bravi and Guè Pequeno.
The Italian song for Tel Aviv “Soldi” is a cool and catchy entry, which does not go out of your head. The song is about a young father who lives in a suburb and abandoned his family as he lives another way of life. He sings about how it felt to be betrayed by him. At the end it's all about money what counts. “Soldi” will be sung in Italian and Arabic language. A top favourite this year!
History
- Debut: 1956
- Participations: 46
- Victories: 2
- Finals: 46
- Top 10: 33
- Chances for Top 10: 72%
- Chances for Grand Final: 100%
For Italy it’s the 46th time participating in the Eurovision Song Contest! The original idea of the ESC resulted from the Italian music festival “San Remo Festival” which started in 1951 for the first time and it’s still exciting and is very popular, a lot of popular Italian singers appear as well as international top stars. The winners have often been the representatives for Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest. The original concept came up to do a similar contest on an international level, which has become reality in 1956. Normally one of the winners of the San Remo festival has been chosen to be the Italian representative for the ESC, or the runner up. Surprisingly, Italy has only won twice “Non Ho L'étà” by Gigliola Cinquetti in 1964 and “Insieme: 1992” by Toto Cutugno in 1990, but always shaped up quite well, especially in the recent years. With this good quality of songs it should have done much better.
Over the years many of the Italian contributions became hits or even evergreens worldwide and these are strongly connected with typical Italian music like “Per Lucia” by Riccardo Fogli in 1983 (11th), “Gente di Mare” by Umberto Tozzi & Raff in 1987 (3rd) and “Fiumi di Parole” by Jalisse in 1997 (4th) and lately the tenor trio Il Volo with “Grand Amore” (3rd). Furthermore there were many Top 10 rankings for Italy – 4 times 2nd and 5 times 3rd -, so it’s one of the most successful countries in Eurovision. The chances for a Top10 placing are enormously high with 72%. Maybe it’s also due to the fact that Italian music is very popular in general, and the Italian entries show the Italian music at its best and it is appreciated everywhere around the world.
Italy has paused for twelve years (1998 – 2010) until the Italian broadcaster RAI has decided to return in 2011, this has been highly appreciated internationally, as Italy is known for high quality music. Luckily, Italy shaped up very well in Düsseldorf with “Follia D’Amore” by Raphael Gualazzi who came 2nd. One year later with “L’Amore E Femina” by Nina Zilli a 9th rank could be reached. Another year later Marco Mengoni could even make a respectable 7th place in Malmö, while the 2014 entry "La Mia Città" by Emma Marrone reached the 21st place in Copenhagen only, but therefore Il Volo could make the Italians proud again with “Grande Amore” and a 3rd place! In 2017 Franceco Gabbani, who was one of the big favourites to win the ESC came 6th and last year Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro made a brilliant 5th place in Lisbon!
