By: eurovisionunion
Best of the Bunch, Best of the Bunch, Features, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Best of the Bunch: Italy

Italy was one of the original countries to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest, and they have fairly consistently participated since then, up until 1998, where they took a pretty extended break from the contest. They returned to the contest in 2011, so that’s where we will pick up today. Usually in the Best of the Bunch series, we look at the songs between 2006 and 2015, however of course in this case, we will look at 2011 to 2015. At the end of the recap, make sure to vote for your Best of the Bunch!

Let’s begin with 2011, which was the big comeback year for Italy. Automatically back into the Big 5, Italy had nothing to lose, but yet they came back to the contest with what became their best result since their comeback. Raphael Gualazzi performed his bilingual jazz number Madness of Love and came second with a total of 189 points.

The following year, Nina Zilli was selected to represent Italy with the song L’amore è Femmina (Out of Love). Nina kept Italy in the Top 10 after dazzling audiences with her classy song, finishing in 9th place with 101 points.

In 2013, Italy selected Marco Mengoni, one of the nation’s top artists with a classy slower tempo song which was simple, but just beautifully showed off his addicting voice. The song was called L’essenziale, and with this song, kept Italy in the Top 10 for the 3rd year in a row, after finishing in 7th place with 126 points

At Eurovision 2014, Italy sent yet another hugely popular artist, Emma with the song La Mia Città. Despite her following within Italy, her performance proved to polarise Europe’s voters, and eventually finished in 21st place, the worst result since Italy’s return.

Lastly in 2015, Italy was back to its old tricks by sending an epic song performed by very capable, and popular performers. Although it wasn’t a typical Eurovision style, Il Volo took to the stage to perform Grande Amore, and it was one big love across Europe for the trio, who finished in 3rd place with 292 points.

Now you’ve recapped on the Italian entries, vote below for your Best of the Bunch! Vote for one entry, or for all if you can’t decide!