Italy debuted at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2014, and they set the bar very high by winning on debut year with Vincenzo. This year, Italy internally selected their artist, and it is Fiamma Boccia who will sing Cara Mamma (Dear Mum) on stage in Malta this November. Could Italy win Junior Eurovision again?
In the first few seconds of the song, you immediately recognise how enchanting and innocent Fiamma’s voice is in this beautiful dedication to her mother. The song grows over the three minutes, and has a simple, but beautifully produced backing track to match emotion of the song, and the emotion of her voice.
The song, after listening to it a few times, started to remind me of the music that Marco Mengoni has been releasing in recent years, except obviously this song features a female, and much higher voice! Ballads or slower songs like this can often fall into the trap of sounding outdated, however I don’t think this has fallen into the trap, and I think the bridge of the sound maintains its modern sound.
This, paired with a classy stage show will really appeal to the juries, which this year accounts for 100% of the vote – 50% kids’ jury and 50% adult jury. Watching other live videos of Fiamma, there’s no question that she is vocally spot on live, so if she nails those higher notes, and the key changes, she will no doubt be a top player on the day.
Overall I think this has what it takes to win the contest. It certainly has tough competition, but for me this is one of the standouts of the contest this year.
I’m giving this a 10/10, and I can’t wait to see it on stage in Malta later this year!
