Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016
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Italy| Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eurovision Song Contest 2016 | ||||
| Participating broadcaster | Radiotelevisione italiana (RAI) | |||
| Country | Italy | |||
| Selection process | Selection among Sanremo Music Festival 2016 entries | |||
| Selection date | 14 February 2016 | |||
| Competing entry | ||||
| Song | "No Degree of Separation" | |||
| Artist | Francesca Michielin | |||
| Songwriters |
| |||
| Placement | ||||
| Final result | 16th, 124 points | |||
| Participation chronology | ||||
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Italy was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with the song "No Degree of Separation" written by Federica Abbate, Francesca Michielin, Cheope, Fabio Gargiulo, and Norma Jean Martine, and performed by Michielin herself. The Italian participating broadcaster, Radiotelevisione italiana (RAI), announced in October 2015 that the winning performer(s) of the Big Artists section of the Sanremo Music Festival 2016 would have the right to represent the country at the contest. The selected performer would also be given the right to choose their own song to compete with at Eurovision. The group Stadio ended up winning the Big Artists section, however they declined the opportunity to represent Italy in Stockholm. RAI then appointed the runner-up, Francesca Michielin, as the Italian entrant. Michielin performed a bilingual Italian and English version of her Sanremo runner-up entry "Nessun grado di separazione", which was titled "No Degree of Separation" at Eurovision.
As a member of the "Big Five", Italy automatically qualified to compete in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. Performing in position 6, Italy placed sixteenth out of the 26 participating countries with 124 points.
Prior to the 2016 contest, Radiotelevisione italiana (RAI) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Italy forty-one times since its first entry during the inaugural contest in 1956.[1] Since then, Italy has won the contest on two occasions: in 1964 with the song "Non ho l'età" performed by Gigliola Cinquetti and in 1990 with the song "Insieme: 1992" performed by Toto Cutugno. RAI has withdrawn from the Eurovision Song Contest a number of times with their most recent absence spanning from 1998 until 2010. Its return in 2011 with the song "Madness of Love", performed by Raphael Gualazzi, placed second—their highest result, to this point, since their victory in 1990. In 2015, Il Volo represented the nation with the song "Grande amore", obtaining third place.
As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, RAI organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. The broadcaster confirmed its participation in the 2016 contest on 15 September 2015.[2] Between 2011 and 2013, RAI used the Sanremo Music Festival as an artist selection pool where a special committee would select one of the competing artist, independent of the results in the competition, as the Eurovision entrant. The selected entrant was then responsible for selecting the song they would compete with. For 2014, it forwent using the Sanremo Music Festival artist lineup and internally selected its entry. In 2015, RAI announced that the winning artist of the Sanremo Music Festival 2015 would be rewarded with the opportunity to represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest, a method that the broadcaster continued for 2016.
Before Eurovision
Sanremo Music Festival 2016
On 2 October 2015, Italian broadcaster RAI confirmed that the performer that would represent Italy at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest would be selected from the competing artists at the Sanremo Music Festival 2016.[3] According to the rules of Sanremo 2016, the winner of the Campioni or Big Artists category earns the right to represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest, but in case the artist is not available or refuses the offer, the organisers of the event reserve the right to choose another participant via their own criteria. The competition took place between 9–13 February 2016 with the winner being selected on the last day of the festival.[4]
Twenty artists competed in the Big Artists category of Sanremo 2016. Among the competing artists was former Eurovision Song Contest entrant Enrico Ruggeri who represented Italy in 1993. The performers in the "Big Artists" category were:[5]
| Artist | Song | Songwriter(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Alessio Bernabei | "Noi siamo infinito" | Ivan Amatucci, Roberto Casalino, Dario Faini |
| Annalisa | "Il diluvio universale" | Annalisa Scarrone, Diego Calvetti |
| Arisa | "Guardando il cielo" | Giuseppe Anastasi |
| Bluvertigo | "Semplicemente" | Marco Castoldi |
| Clementino | "Quando sono lontano" | Clemente Macarro, Vincent Stein, Konstantin Scherer |
| Dear Jack | "Mezzo respiro" | Roberto Balbo, Stefano Paviani, Leiner Riflessi, Claudio Corradini |
| Dolcenera | "Ora o mai più (le cose cambiano)" | Emanuela Trane, Alessandro Finazzo |
| Elio e le Storie Tese | "Vincere l'odio" | Stefano Belisari, Sergio Conforti, Davide Civaschi, Nicola Fasani |
| Enrico Ruggeri | "Il primo amore non si scorda mai" | Enrico Ruggeri |
| Francesca Michielin | "Nessun grado di separazione" | Federica Abbate, Francesca Michielin, Cheope, Fabio Gargiulio |
| Giovanni Caccamo and Deborah Iurato | "Via da qui" | Giuliano Sangiorgi |
| Irene Fornaciari | "Blu" | Irene Fornaciari, Diego Calvetti, Giuseppe Dati, Marco Fontana |
| Lorenzo Fragola | "Infinite volte" | Lorenzo Fragola, Rory Di Benedetto, Rosario Canale, Fabrizio Ferraguzzo, Antonio Filippelli |
| Neffa | "Sogno e nostalgia" | Giovanni Pellino |
| Noemi | "La borsa di una donna" | Marco Masini, Marco Adami, Antonio Iammarino |
| Patty Pravo | "Cieli immensi" | Fortunato Zampaglione |
| Rocco Hunt | "Wake Up" | Rocco Pagliarulo, Vicenzo Catanzaro, Simone Benussi |
| Stadio | "Un giorno mi dirai" | Saverio Grandi, Gaetano Curreri, Luca Chiaravalli |
| Valerio Scanu | "Finalmente piove" | Fabrizio Moro |
| Zero Assoluto | "Di me e di te" | Thomas De Gasperi, Matteo Maffucci, Antonio Filippelli, Luca Vicini |
Final
During the final evening of the Sanremo Music Festival 2016, the group Stadio was selected as the winner with the song "Un giorno mi dirai". Afterwards, RAI announced through social media that Stadio would not represent Italy in Stockholm.[6] However, RAI later confirmed during the closing press conference for the Sanremo Music Festival on 14 February 2016 that they were still waiting for Stadio's final decision on whether they would participate at Eurovision.[7][8] The band ultimately declined the opportunity to represent Italy and stated: "We would love to participate, but we have a tour already planned. If we were young men we'd just be happy".[9] An announcement was made shortly afterwards that Sanremo 2016 runner-up Francesca Michielin would represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016.[9][10]
| R/O | Artist | Song | Jury (30%) |
Demoscopic Poll (30%) |
Televote (40%) |
Total | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Francesca Michielin | "Nessun grado di separazione" | 6.88% | 9.72% | 8.17% | 8.25% | 2 |
| 2 | Alessio Bernabei | "Noi siamo infinito" | 0.00% | 3.12% | 8.05% | 4.16% | 14 |
| 3 | Clementino | "Quando sono lontano" | 3.75% | 4.22% | 7.80% | 5.51% | 7 |
| 4 | Patty Pravo | "Cieli immensi" | 3.75% | 5.98% | 8.23% | 6.21% | 6 |
| 5 | Lorenzo Fragola | "Infinite volte" | 2.50% | 5.93% | 9.40% | 6.29% | 5 |
| 6 | Noemi | "La borsa di una donna" | 4.38% | 8.03% | 4.12% | 5.37% | 8 |
| 7 | Elio e le Storie Tese | "Vincere l'odio" | 4.38% | 6.13% | 2.66% | 4.22% | 12 |
| 8 | Arisa | "Guardando il cielo" | 3.13% | 7.20% | 3.73% | 4.59% | 10 |
| 9 | Stadio | "Un giorno mi dirai" | 45.00% | 10.57% | 10.30% | 20.79% | 1 |
| 10 | Annalisa | "Il diluvio universale" | 0.63% | 6.52% | 5.45% | 4.32% | 11 |
| 11 | Rocco Hunt | "Wake Up" | 1.25% | 6.00% | 7.43% | 5.15% | 9 |
| 12 | Dolcenera | "Ora o mai più (le cose cambiano)" | 1.88% | 6.38% | 2.39% | 3.43% | 15 |
| 13 | Enrico Ruggeri | "Il primo amore non si scorda mai" | 8.75% | 7.52% | 3.62% | 6.33% | 4 |
| 14 | Giovanni Caccamo and Deborah Iurato | "Via da qui" | 10.63% | 6.32% | 7.85% | 8.22% | 3 |
| 15 | Valerio Scanu | "Finalmente piove" | 0.00% | 2.95% | 8.20% | 4.17% | 13 |
| 16 | Irene Fornaciari | "Blu" | 3.13% | 3.42% | 2.60% | 3.00% | 16 |
| R/O | Artist | Song | Jury (30%) |
Demoscopic Poll (30%) |
Televote (40%) |
Total | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Giovanni Caccamo and Deborah Iurato | "Via da qui" | 25.00% | 29.39% | 26.43% | 26.89% | 3 |
| 2 | Francesca Michielin | "Nessun grado di separazione" | 27.08% | 34.72% | 29.58% | 30.37% | 2 |
| 3 | Stadio | "Un giorno mi dirai" | 47.92% | 35.89% | 43.99% | 42.74% | 1 |
Song selection
On 14 March 2016, RAI confirmed that Francesca Michielin would perform a bilingual Italian and English version of her Sanremo Music Festival 2016 runner-up song "Nessun grado di separazione", which would be titled "No Degree of Separation" at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016.[11][12]
Promotion
Francesca Michielin made several appearances across Europe to promote "No Degree of Separation" as the Italian Eurovision entry. On 9 April, Michielin performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Hera Björk.[13] On 17 April, Michielin performed at the London Eurovision Party, which was held at the Café de Paris venue in London, United Kingdom and hosted by Nicki French and Paddy O'Connell.[14] In the week prior to arriving in Stockholm, Michielin made promotional appearances in Vienna, Warsaw, Berlin and Copenhagen.[15]
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