Italy: RAI confirms Eurovision 2020 participation.
Italy’s national broadcaster, RAI, has confirmed that Italy will be competing in the next edition of the Eurovision Song Contest in The Netherlands in 2020.
RAI has confirmed to ESCToday that Italy will be participating in Eurovision 2020 in Rotterdam next May, without giving no further details of the national selection format it will follow. However it is expected that the broadcaster will stick to its traditional way of selection and determine its next Eurovision act through the Sanremo festival, which has been the case the recent years.
The 2020 Sanremo Song Festival nights will unfold from 04-08 February with the Grand Final set to takel place on 8 February at the Teatro Ariston in Sanremo.
THE EUROVISION STORY SO FAR
Italy has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 45 times since making its debut at the first contest in 1956. After a 14-year absence from 1998 and on, the country returned to the contest in 2011. Italy has won the contest twice in 1964 with Gigliola Cinquetti and her song “Non ho l’età”. Italy’s second victory in the contest came in 1990 with Toto Cutugno and the song “Insieme: 1992”.
Italy’s come back to the contest has proved to be very successful, the country having finished in the top ten in seven times of the last eight contests (2011–2019), with Raphael Gualazzi second in 2011, Nina Zilli ninth in 2012, Marco Mengoni seventh in 2013 and Il Volo third in 2015, Francesco Ghabbani 6th in Kiev. In 2018 the winners of Sanremo 2018 ,Ermal Meta and Fabrizio Moro, represented Italy in Eurovision in Lisbon with their song “Non mi avete fatto niente”. The Italian duo achieved an honorable 5th place in the Grand final with 308 points and a remarkable 3rd placing in the public voting.
In 2019 , Mahmood, winner of Sanremo 2019 represented the country in Tel Aviv with his entry Soldi. The Italian representative kept the good results for Italy achieving a 2nd place in the Grand Final in Tel Aviv while his entry has broken all records in streaming and now the most listened Italian song.
