Marco Mengoni took Europe by storm in Malmö and we all thought he was the best thing to come out of Italy since someone came up with the idea to put tomato sauce and cheese on a flat piece of dough and let it bake in the oven. Then someone told us that it’s the Italian women who rock the music scene down there nowadays, and if they really wanted to display homegrown talent in Eurovision they should send a girl next year. Meet Emma Marrone:
Emma’s off to a good start just by having a full page on Wikipedia instead of the couple of (mostly Eurovision related) sentences most of her competitors can show for. She’s a superstar in Italy and clearly she deserves an audience far and beyond. Not that we think participating in Eurovision is part of some carefully thought out plan to obtain world domination. She’s probably doing it just for the fun of it. But perhaps the competition needs artists of her caliber, with a big name, not some faded hasbeen, but someone current with a thriving career still going places.
The quality of Italy’s entries since their return, coupled with the experienced artist they’ve chosen raises the bar considerably. We simply expect nothing but perfection. Maybe that’s why we’re slightly disappointed by the song Emma has decided to compete with. It’s decent enough, by all means, but misses that certain something to become a real contender. Like some real hit potential. One rarely wins Eurovision with just an ok album filler. We can only speculate on the motives behind the choice, whether it’s hubris by overestimating Emma’s fame and ability to win on walkover or a calculated move because they want her to do well, but not win.
We’re not sure she’ll even win the most shouty woman contest as the competition is fierce in that category, with Israel and Poland being frontrunners. And we do remember France tried out with a similar formula last year and sunk like a stone. But still, this is Italy we’re talking about, and we can’t bring ourselves to disliking it. There’s no way we’ll ever dislike, strong, talented, kickass women either, with or without beard.
Now, please send us a yummy bloke again next year, Italy!
Love the song, thanks for sharing!
Very Kitsch video, so very eurofestival, I may say. Out of kidding, Marco was really great in Malmoe, but the tipical italian “canzone” (even if greatly refreshed and updated) was not enough for top 5. The italian music industry seems to be aware now of the potential of the eurovision and send Emma there, because she has enough talent to gain an international recognition. The problem was that the two best songs of the last album were published before the first of september, so it was impossible to choice them. I would have rather preferred her to write a new song for the competition. But this song at least it’s a fair attempt to go out from the italian cliché and get attention from the voters, also because other artists with the same formula hasn’t got the same presence or talent of Emma, just my opinion of course.