The Puzzle of Italy

This week, Italy have got the fans hot under the collar as their national broadcaster, RAI, have announced that an Italian return to the Eurovision Song Contest is 'not impossible'. If they were to return in 2007, it would be their first entry in 10 years.

So why did Italy sit out in the first place? Well, it's all a bit of a case of sour grapes (a la The Austrian Situation). Italy were one of the seven founding Euro-countries and entered a song every year from 1956-1993, winning it on two occasions. However, Italy always thought of themselves as the 'Land of Song', and it's highly speculated that after Italy's 12th placing in 1993 (a fair position, Sole d'Europa wasn't spectacular) they had had enough of not doing well in the contest and left in a big sulk, possibly embarrassed that their songs were only finishing mid-table. I don't know why, they'd only won it three years previously!

Italy came back for one last time in 1997 with the rather excellent Fiumi Di Parole, a mid-tempo ballad with a good chorus. It was performed by the duo Jalisse (see the lovely pic) and was one of the favourites to win. It didn't of course, 'cos the marvellous Katrina and her Waves did. However, not only did Italy have to settle for 4th place, they had to live with the embarrassment of being beaten by the Turkish entry, Dinle. It has to be noted that up until '97, Turkey had only ever finished inside the top 10 once, and their entries hadn't been particularly brilliant. However, they decided in 1997 to send a brilliantly ethnic song with one of the most infectious clap-a-long choruses known to man. It finished in 3rd place, seven points ahead of Italy, and this was the last we ever saw of the 'Land of Song'.

Since then, times have changed. Smaller countries perhaps not known for their musical merits (Moldova anyone?) have been winning the contest, and Turkey won in 2003 with a polished bellydance number, not too unlike Dinle. So now that Italy may have accepted the change in Eurovision over the last 10 years (i.e. the top two don't usually consist of UK and Ireland anymore), it seems the 'Land of Song' may be returning to the world's biggest song contest. What's more they'd probably be given an automatic final place, making the 'Big 5' with UK, Spain, Germany and France.

So could the European Broadcasting Union be looking at a potential 45 countries at Eurovision 2007? Well, possibly not - Moldova's participation next year is looking doubtful. But a return for Italy would be welcome. They had some good songs, y'know...