Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017

Italy participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the song "Occidentali's Karma", written by Francesco Gabbani, Filippo Gabbani, Luca Chiaravalli and Fabio Ilacqua. The song was performed by Francesco Gabbani. Italian broadcaster Radiotelevisione italiana (RAI) announced in October 2016 that the winning performer(s) of the Big Artists section of the Sanremo Music Festival 2017 would earn the right to represent the nation at the Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev, Ukraine. The selected performer would also be given the right to choose their own song to compete with at Eurovision. In February 2017, Francesco Gabbani emerged as the winner of Sanremo with the song "Occidentali's Karma". The artist accepted the invitation to represent Italy at Eurovision and decided that "Occidentali's Karma" would be his contest entry.

Eurovision Song Contest 2017
Country	Italy
National selection
Selection process	Sanremo 2017
Selection date(s)	11 February 2017
Selected entrant	Francesco Gabbani
Selected song	"Occidentali's Karma"
Selected songwriter(s)	Francesco Gabbani Filippo Gabbani Luca Chiaravalli Fabio Ilacqua
Finals performance
Final result	6th, 334 Points
Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2016 • 2017 • 2018►

Background

Main article: Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest

Prior to the 2017 Contest, Italy had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest forty-two 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. Italy has withdrawn from the Eurovision Song Contest a number of times with their most recent absence spanning from 1998 until 2010.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 2016, Francesca Michielin represented the nation with the song "No Degree of Separation", placing sixteenth with 124 points.

The Italian national broadcaster, Radiotelevisione italiana (RAI), broadcasts the event within Italy and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. RAI confirmed Italy's participation in the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest on 16 September 2016.[2] Between 2011 and 2013, the broadcaster 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 their 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 the broadcaster appointed the runner-up as the Italian entrant.

Before Eurovision

Artist selection

Main article: Sanremo Music Festival 2017

On 20 October 2016, Italian broadcaster RAI confirmed that the performer that would represent Italy at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest would be selected from the competing artists at the Sanremo Music Festival 2017.[3] According to the rules of Sanremo 2017, 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 7–11 February 2017 with the winner being selected on the last day of the festival.[4]

Twenty-two artists competed in the Big Artists category of Sanremo 2017. Among the competing artists was former Eurovision Song Contest entrant Al Bano who, in duets with Romina Power, represented Italy in the 1976 Contest and in the 1985 Contest. The performers in the "Big Artists" category were:[5]

Artist	Song (English translation)	Composer(s)
Al Bano	"Di rose e di spine" (Of roses and thorns)	Maurizio Fabrizio, Katia Astarita, Albano Carrisi
Alessio Bernabei	"Nel mezzo di un applauso" (In the middle of an applause)	Roberto Casalino, Dario Faini, Vanni Casagrande
Bianca Atzei	"Ora esisti solo tu" (Now you only exist)	Francesco Silvestre
Chiara	"Nessun posto è casa mia" (No place is my home)	Niccolò Verrienti, Carlo Verrienti
Clementino	"Ragazzi fuori" (Boys out)	Clemente Macarro, Fabio Bartolo Rizzo, Pablo Miguel Lombroni Capalbo, Stefano Tognini
Elodie	"Tutta colpa mia" (All my fault)	Emma Marrone, Oscar Angiuli, Gianni Pollex, Francesco Cianciola
Ermal Meta	"Vietato morire" (Forbidden to die)	Ermal Meta
Fabrizio Moro	"Portami via" (Take me away)	Fabrizio Mobrici, Roberto Cardelli
Fiorella Mannoia	"Che sia benedetta" (That is blessed)	Erika Mineo, Salvatore Mineo
Francesco Gabbani	"Occidentali's Karma" (Westerners' Karma)	Francesco Gabbani, Filippo Gabbani, Fabio Ilacqua, Luca Chiaravalli
Gigi D'Alessio	"La prima stella" (The first star)	Luigi D'Alessio
Giusy Ferreri	"Fa talmente male" (It's so bad)	Paolo Catalano, Fabio Clemente, Roberto Casalino, Alessandro Merli
Lodovica Comello	"Il cielo non mi basta" (Heaven is not enough for me)	Federica Abbate, Antonio Di Martino, Dario Faini, Fabrizio Ferraguzzo
Marco Masini	"Spostato di un secondo" (Moved by a second)	Marco Masini, Diego Calvetti, Sergio Vallarino
Michele Bravi	"Il diario degli errori" (The error diary)	Federica Abbate, Giuseppe Anastasi, Cheope
Michele Zarrillo	"Mani nelle mani" (Hands in hands)	Michele Zarrillo, Giampiero Artegiani
Nesli feat. Alice Paba	"Do retta a te" (I listen to you)	Francesco Tarducci, Orazio Grillo
Paola Turci	"Fatti bella per te" (Made beautiful for you)	Paola Turci, Giulia Anania, Luca Chiaravalli, Davide Simonetta
Raige feat. Giulia Luzi	"Togliamoci la voglia" (Let's remove the desire)	Alex Andrea Vella, Antonio Iammarino, Luca Chiaravalli, Sergio Vallarino
Ron	"L'ottava meraviglia" (The eighth wonder)	Rosalino Cellamare, Mattia Del Forno, Francesco Caprara, Emiliano Mangia
Samuel Umberto Romano	"Vedrai" (You will see)	Samuel Umberto Romano, Riccardo Onori, Christian Rigano
Sergio Sylvestre	"Con te" (With you)	Giorgia Todrani, Stefano Maiuolo, Sergio Sylvestre

Final

On 11 February 2017, Francesco Gabbani was declared the winner of the "Big Artist" category with his entry "Occidentali's Karma". During the press conference that followed the final, it was announced that he had accepted to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest.[6][7] On the same night, RAI confirmed via Twitter Gabbani's Sanremo entry "Occidentali's Karma" would be the Italian entry at Eurovision.[8]

First Round – 11 February 2017
Draw	Artist	Song	Expert Jury (30%)	Opinion Poll (30%)	Televote (50%)	Average	Place
1	Elodie	"Tutta colpa mia"	3.13%	6.78%	5.99%	5.37%	8
2	Michele Zarrillo	"Mani nelle mani"	3.13%	3.80%	3.49%	3.48%	11
3	Sergio Sylvestre	"Con te"	3.13%	7.30%	8.10%	6.37%	6
4	Fiorella Mannoia	"Che sia benedetta"	15.00%	15.05%	12.73%	14.11%	1
5	Fabrizio Moro	"Portami via"	4.38%	5.98%	7.94%	6.28%	7
6	Alessio Bernabei	"Nel mezzo di un applauso"	3.75%	2.02%	3.21%	3.01%	15
7	Marco Masini	"Spostato di un secondo"	2.50%	4.15%	3.63%	3.45%	13
8	Paola Turci	"Fatti bella per te"	13.75%	9.80%	4.15%	8.72%	5
9	Bianca Atzei	"Ora esisti solo tu"	1.88%	6.02%	7.26%	5.27%	9
10	Francesco Gabbani	"Occidentali's Karma"	9.38%	11.88%	14.37%	12.13%	2
11	Chiara	"Nessun posto è casa mia"	3.75%	3.68%	2.21%	3.11%	14
12	Clementino	"Ragazzi fuori"	3.13%	2.55%	2.69%	2.78%	16
13	Ermal Meta	"Vietato morire"	13.75%	7.72%	7.63%	9.49%	3
14	Lodovica Comello	"Il cielo non mi basta"	3.13%	3.18%	3.89%	3.45%	12
15	Samuel Umberto Romano	"Vedrai"	5.63%	5.42%	2.11%	4.16%	10
16	Michele Bravi	"Il diaro degli errori"	10.63%	4.67%	10.59%	8.82%	4

Second Round – 11 February 2017
Draw	Artist	Song	Jury (30%)	Opinion Poll (30%)	Televote (40%)	Total	Place
1	Fiorella Mannoia	"Che sia benedetta"	27.08%	37.89%	33.21%	32.78%	2
2	Ermal Meta	"Vietato morire"	43.75%	28.61%	23.10%	30.95%	3
3	Francesco Gabbani	"Occidentali's Karma"	29.17%	33.50%	43.69%	36.27%	1

At Eurovision

The Eurovision Song Contest 2017 took place at the International Exhibition Centre in Kiev, Ukraine and consisted of two semi-finals on 9 and 11 May and the final on 13 May 2017.[9] According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. As a member of the "Big 5", Italy automatically qualifies to compete in the final. In addition to their participation in the final, Italy is also required to broadcast and vote in the first semi-final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot.[10]

Points awarded to Italy

Points awarded to Italy (final)
Televote
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
Albania  Malta	Montenegro  San Marino  Slovenia   Switzerland	Cyprus  Finland  Israel  Macedonia  Spain	Greece  Croatia  Iceland	Austria  Azerbaijan  Romania  Serbia
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
Belgium  Estonia  France  Georgia  Lithuania	Armenia  Germany  Hungary  Moldova  Portugal	Latvia	Australia  Netherlands  Norway  United Kingdom	Czech Republic  Ireland  Sweden
Jury
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
Albania  Malta	Cyprus  France  Spain	Lithuania  Montenegro  Serbia	Finland  Norway	Austria  Sweden
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
Iceland	Greece	San Marino	Armenia  Georgia  Israel  Slovenia   Switzerland

Points awarded by Italy

Semi-final 1 Score Televote Jury 12 points  Moldova  Azerbaijan 10 points  Portugal  Sweden 8 points  Poland  Albania 7 points  Albania  Moldova 6 points  Belgium  Armenia 5 points  Montenegro  Belgium 4 points  Greece  Portugal 3 points  Cyprus  Cyprus 2 points  Georgia  Georgia 1 point  Sweden  Australia

Final Score Televote Jury 12 points  Moldova  Azerbaijan 10 points  Romania  Sweden 8 points  Bulgaria  Moldova 7 points  Ukraine  Belgium 6 points  Croatia  France 5 points  Portugal  Portugal 4 points  Hungary  Armenia 3 points  Poland  Norway 2 points  Belgium  Bulgaria 1 point  France  Austria

Jury members

The following five members will comprise the Italian jury:[11]

• Antonello Carozza – Chairperson – musician, singer, art director
• Fabrizio Brocchieri – producer, label manager, tour manager, writer
• Giusy Cascio – journalist
• Chiara Di Giambattista – television author and screenwriter
• Antonio Allegra – marketing director

Split voting results from Italy (Semi-final 1)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		F. Brocchieri	Antonello	G. Cascio	C. di Giambattista	A. Allegra	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Sweden	2	5	6	1	3	2	10	10	1
02	Georgia	14	8	15	5	7	9	2	9	2
03	Australia	6	11	14	9	13	10	1	15
04	Albania	9	1	5	4	2	3	8	4	7
05	Belgium	3	13	4	2	5	6	5	5	6
06	Montenegro	10	18	7	15	14	14		6	5
07	Finland	11	12	13	14	12	12		11
08	Azerbaijan	4	2	3	3	1	1	12	17
09	Portugal	1	7	8	7	9	7	4	2	10
10	Greece	17	15	9	12	8	11		7	4
11	Poland	16	9	12	11	15	13		3	8
12	Moldova	8	3	2	6	6	4	7	1	12
13	Iceland	15	16	11	16	11	16		13
14	Czech Republic	12	10	16	13	18	15		18
15	Cyprus	7	4	10	8	10	8	3	8	3
16	Armenia	5	6	1	10	4	5	6	12
17	Slovenia	18	14	17	18	16	18		14
18	Latvia	13	17	18	17	17	17		16

Split voting results from Italy (final)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		F. Brocchieri	Antonello	G. Cascio	C. di Giambattista	A. Allegra	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Israel	14	21	11	13	19	15		13
02	Poland	19	18	15	24	25	21		8	3
03	Belarus	21	17	21	18	16	20		11
04	Austria	7	12	7	12	10	10	1	15
05	Armenia	9	13	4	11	3	7	4	19
06	Netherlands	23	14	25	8	14	17		18
07	Moldova	5	3	3	4	5	3	8	1	12
08	Hungary	15	10	17	14	9	12		7	4
09	Italy
10	Denmark	25	23	23	25	23	25		24
11	Portugal	1	9	8	7	12	6	5	6	5
12	Azerbaijan	4	2	1	3	1	1	12	20
13	Croatia	24	24	19	22	15	22		5	6
14	Australia	16	7	16	16	21	14		22
15	Greece	22	19	22	23	20	23		14
16	Spain	20	25	20	17	24	24		25
17	Norway	17	6	6	6	7	8	3	17
18	United Kingdom	13	20	18	19	18	19		21
19	Cyprus	11	15	12	10	13	11		16
20	Romania	12	16	24	15	8	13		2	10
21	Germany	8	22	14	20	22	18		23
22	Ukraine	18	11	13	21	17	16		4	7
23	Belgium	3	5	5	1	6	4	7	9	2
24	Sweden	2	4	2	5	4	2	10	12
25	Bulgaria	10	8	9	9	11	9	2	3	8
26	France	6	1	10	2	2	5	6	10	1

References

1. "Italy Country Profile". EBU. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
2. "Italy: RAI confirms participation in Eurovision 2017". esctoday.com. Esctoday.com. 16 September 2016. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
3. Weaver, Jessica (20 October 2016). "Italy: Sanremo 2017 rules and regulations released; winner eligible to go to ESC". Esctoday.com. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
4. "Regolamento Sanremo 2017" (PDF). sanremo.rai.it (in Italian). RAI. 20 October 2016. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
5. Granger, Anthony (20 October 2016). "ITALY: 22 campioni artists in Sanremo 2017 are revealed". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
6. Escudero, Victor M. (12 February 2017). "Francesco Gabbani to represent Italy in Kyiv!". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 12 February 2017.
7. Pigliavento, Alex (12 February 2017). "Sanremo 2017: vince Francesco Gabbani e vola all'Eurovision!". EurofestivalNews.com. Retrieved 12 February 2017.
8. RAI Eurovision [@EurovisionRAI] (12 February 2017). "Francesco Gabbani con «Occidentali's Karma» rappresenterà l'Italia all'Eurovision Song Contest 2017!" [Francesco Gabbani with «Occidentali's Karma» will represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest 2017] (Tweet). Retrieved 12 February 2017 – via Twitter.
9. Jordan, Paul (9 September 2016). "Kyiv to host Eurovision 2017!". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
10. Jordan, Paul (21 January 2016). "Semi-Final Allocation Draw on Monday, pots revealed". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 25 January 2016.
11. Jordan, Paul (29 April 2017). "Who will be the expert jurors for Eurovision 2017?". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 29 April 2017.

External links

• RAI's official Eurovision website