Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019
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Italy| Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eurovision Song Contest 2019 | ||||
| Participating broadcaster | Radiotelevisione italiana (RAI) | |||
| Country | Italy | |||
| Selection process | Sanremo Music Festival 2019 | |||
| Selection date | 9 February 2019 | |||
| Competing entry | ||||
| Song | "Soldi" | |||
| Artist | Mahmood | |||
| Songwriters | ||||
| Placement | ||||
| Final result | 2nd, 472 points | |||
| Participation chronology | ||||
| ||||
Italy was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with the song "Soldi", written by Charlie Charles, Dario "Dardust" Faini, and Alessandro Mahmoud, and performed by Mahmoud himself under his stage name Mahmood. The Italian participating broadcaster, Radiotelevisione italiana (RAI), announced in November 2018 that the winning performer(s) of the Sanremo Music Festival 2019 would earn the right to represent Italy at the contest.
Prior to the 2019 contest, Radiotelevisione italiana (RAI) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Italy forty-four times since its first entry during the inaugural contest in 1956.[1] Since then, it has won the contest on two occasions: in 1964 with the song "Non ho l'età" performed by Gigliola Cinquetti, and in 1990 with "Insieme: 1992" by Toto Cutugno. RAI has withdrawn from the contest a number of times with its most recent absence spanning from 1998 until 2010. Their 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 2018, "Non mi avete fatto niente" performed by Ermal Meta and Fabrizio Moro, placed fifth with 308 points.
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 2019 contest on 5 October 2018.[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, RAI forwent using the Sanremo Music Festival artist lineup and internally selected its entry. Since 2015, the winning artist of the Sanremo Music Festival is rewarded with the opportunity to represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest, although in 2016 the winner declined and RAI appointed the runner-up as the Italian entrant.
