This Saturday the 18th of May, Italian singer Marco Mengoni will compete in the European Broadcasting Union’s 2013 Eurovision Contest in Malmö, Sweden, becoming the third Italian featured in the competition after Italy’s more than 10 year hiatus. In 2009, Marco won the third series of X Factor Italia and his first EP, Dove Si Vola, became his first success. Few months later, he came third at the 60th edition of famous Italian music contest Sanremo, with the song Credimi Ancora. After a successful tour launch, Marco won also the MTV TRL Award in the category “Man of the Year”, the Wind Music Awards and his debut releases were certified Platinum. He then released the Re Matto live album hitting #1 in Italy. In November 2010 Marco Mengoni won the “Best Italian Act” Award at the MTV European Music Awards and was also the first Italian performer in 17 editions to win the “Best European Act” award. Earlier this year, Marco won the 63rd Sanremo Music Festival with his song L'Essenziale and was chosen by a special jury to represent Italy at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest with the same song.
The Eurovision Song Contest began in 1956 and is one of the longest running television programmes, drawing in more than 100 million viewers each year. The contest has launched the careers of international megastars such as ABBA and Celine Dion. Italy did not compete in the Eurovision Song Contest from 1997 until 2011, when entrant Raphael Gualazzi took second place after winning the newcomers section at the 2011 Sanremo Festival. Last year Nina Zilli performed “L’amore è femmina (Out of Love)”. Italy has won the contest twice in the past, in 1964 and 1990, and had many contestants place in the top five, including Domenico Modugno, whose Eurovision performance of “Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu (Volare)” (In the Blue, Painted Blue – To Fly) in 1958 launched his international career. This year’s performances will be broadcast live online on Eurovision.tv on Saturday at 9.00 pm CET.
