Grande amore

"Grande amore" (pronounced [ˈɡrande aˈmoːre]; English: Great love) is a song performed by Italian operatic pop trio Il Volo, and written by Francesco Boccia and Ciro "Tommy" Esposito. The song won the Sanremo Music Festival 2015 and represented Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 where it won the televoting from viewers, came sixth from the juries so and came third overall. The song was also covered with releases in other languages.

"Grande amore"
Single by Il Volo
from the album Sanremo grande amore & Grande Amore
Released	12 February 2015
Recorded	2014
Genre	Operatic pop pop
Length	3:45 (Original Version) 3:00 (ESC Version)
Label	Sony Music Italy
Songwriter(s)	Francesco Boccia Ciro Esposito
Producer(s)	Celso Valli Michele Torpedine
Il Volo singles chronology
"El Triste" (2013) "Grande amore" (2015) "L'amore si muove" (2015)
Music video
"Grande amore" on YouTube
Eurovision Song Contest 2015 entry
Country	Italy
Artist(s)	Il Volo
Language	Italian
Composer(s)	Francesco Boccia, Ciro "Tommy" Esposito
Lyricist(s)	Francesco Boccia, Ciro "Tommy" Esposito
Finals performance
Final result	3rd
Final points	292
Entry chronology
◄ "La mia città" (2014)
"No Degree of Separation" (2016) ►

Origin and recording

Composition

The song was written in 2003 by the singer Francesco Boccia, and composed by Ciro "Tommy" Esposito (member of the Italian band Il Giardino dei Semplici), with an idea to make it performed by classical music singers.[1] It was performed by Boccia himself and proposed for Sanremo Music Festival in 2005, but it was rejected because it was considered too old-fashioned.[1]

It was shelved for twelve years, and again proposed for the "Newcomers" section in the Sanremo Music Festival 2015, to be performed by duo Operapop (formed by Francesca Carli and Enrico Giovagnoli), but their participation was denied due to festival's age restriction.[1][2] It was also proposed to be performed by Orietta Berti, who although praised the song, refused because she wasn't available to participate in the festival.[3]

Carlo Conti, artistic director and main presenter of the 65th edition of the festival, was not satisfied with the first proposed song by the trio Il Volo,[2] and after hearing the song "Grande amore", recommended to the song's editor Pasquale Mammaro (manager of Operapop) to contact manager Michele Torpedine and assign it to the operatic trio Il Volo.[1][2]

Lyrics

The song lyrics were not supposed to be changed, but on the behalf and desires by the trio, two verses were changed; "regina dei giorni miei" (queen of my days) became "respiro dei giorni miei" (breath of my days), and "sotto al tuo portone" (under your doorway) became "senza più timore" (without more fear).[1] The lyrics were changed because as the original version refers to the serenade singing by a lover under the balcony to his lady, the trio felt it was too old style for their young age.[1]

The song is not addressed to an actual person, but it's an idea of declaration of always valid love.[1]

Song contests

Sanremo Music Festival

Il Volo performed the song for the first time during the 65th Sanremo Music Festival on 11 February 2015. During the final night of the song contest, held on 14 February 2015, "Grande amore" finished in first place, receiving 39.05% of votes on the last round of the competition, beating the remaining top three entries, Nek's "Fatti avanti amore" (35.38%) and Malika Ayane's "Adesso e qui (nostalgico presente)" (25.66%).[4] According to the final voting results, Il Volo won mostly thanks to the televotes (40% of the final voting results share), receiving 56.1878% of votes, while only 22.9167% of votes by the experts jury (3rd), and 32.3333% of votes by the popular jury (2nd).[4]

During Il Volo's performances, the Sanremo Festival Orchestra was directed by Carolina Bubbico.[5]

Eurovision Song Contest

On 19 February 2015, Italian broadcaster RAI confirmed "Grande amore" as the song to be performed by Il Volo during the Eurovision Song Contest 2015.

Since Italy is part of the "Big Five", Il Volo automatically qualified for the final of the competition in Vienna, Austria, on 23 May 2015, where they performed as the last song in the running order. The song came first on televoting and third overall. It also won the Marcel Bezençon Press Award for Best Song, awarded by the accredited international press.

Covers

Il Volo released a Spanish-language version on 10 July 2015.[6]

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts Chart (2015) Peak position Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)[7] 5 Belgium (Ultratip Flanders)[8] 1 Belgium (Ultratop 50 Wallonia)[9] 44 Finland (Suomen virallinen lista)[10] 25 France (SNEP)[11] 145 Germany (Official German Charts)[12] 54 Greece (Greece Digital Songs)[13] 1 Iceland (RÚV)[14] 7 Italy (FIMI)[15] 1 Slovenia (SloTop50)[16] 40 Spain (PROMUSICAE)[17] 24 Sweden Heatseekers (Sverigetopplistan)[18] 1 Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[19] 19 US Classical Digital Songs (Billboard)[20] 6

Year-end charts Chart (2015) Position Italy (FIMI)[21] 34 Certifications Region Certification Certified units/sales Italy (FIMI)[22] 2× Platinum 100,000 sales+streaming figures based on certification alone

References

1. Aprile, Gabriele (19 February 2015). "Il Volo, 'Grande Amore': parla Francesco Boccia, l'autore del testo" (in Italian). Rockol.it. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
2. "Sanremo: Grande amore, una canzone nata 12 anni fa" (in Italian). ANSA. 16 February 2015. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
3. Scarpone, Cristian (31 January 2015). "Il Volo: dopo il festival arriva l'album "Sanremo grande amore" (copertina e tracklist)" (in Italian). aLLMusicitalia. Archived from the original on 22 February 2015. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
4. Gagliardi, Claudia (15 February 2015). "Classifica Big Sanremo 2015, risultati definitivi: il dettaglio di televoto e giurie" (in Italian). Optima Italia. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
5. "Bubbico, a 25 anni dirigo a Sanremo" (in Italian). Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata. 6 February 2015. Archived from the original on 10 February 2015. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
6. "Il Volo – Grande Amore (Spanish Version) – Single (2015) [iTunes Plus AAC M4A]". iplusbuzz.info. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
7. "Austriancharts.at – Il Volo – Grande amore" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
8. "Ultratop.be – Il Volo – Grande amore" (in Dutch). Ultratip. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
9. "Ultratop.be – Il Volo – Grande amore" (in French). Ultratop 50. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
10. "Il Volo: Grande amore" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
11. "Lescharts.com – Il Volo – Grande amore" (in French). Les classement single. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
12. "Offiziellecharts.de – Il Volo – Grande amore". GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
13. "Greece Digital Songs – June 6, 2015". Billboard. Archived from the original on 1 June 2015. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
14. "RÚV - Vinsældalisti Rásar 2". RÚV. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
15. "Italiancharts.com – Il Volo – Grande amore". Top Digital Download. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
16. "SloTop50 – Slovenian official singles chart". slotop50.si. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
17. "Spanishcharts.com – Il Volo – Grande amore" Canciones Top 50. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
18. Swedish Heatseekers Chart Vecka 22, 28 maj 2015 Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine (28 May 2015). Retrieved 22 May 2016.
19. "Swisscharts.com – Il Volo – Grande amore". Swiss Singles Chart. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
20. "Billboard Charts - Search results - Il Volo". Archived from the original on 1 June 2015. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
21. "Classifiche "Top of the Music" 2015 FIMI-GfK: La musica italiana in vetta negli album e nei singoli digitali" (in Italian). Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
22. "Italian single certifications – Il Volo – Grande amore" (in Italian). Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana. Retrieved 9 November 2015. Select "2015" in the "Anno" drop-down menu. Select "Grande amore" in the "Filtra" field. Select "Singoli online" under "Sezione".