This Saturday the 27th of May, Italian singer and songwriter Nina Zilli will compete in the European Broadcasting Union’s 2012 Eurovision Contest, becoming the second Italian featured in the competition after Italy’s more than 10 year hiatus.
After winning several critics awards in the newcomers section of 2010 Sanremo Music Festival, Zilli’s debut album went platinum in Italy. At the 2012 Sanremo Music Festival, Zilli was chosen by a special jury to represent Italy at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest after her striking performance of “Per Sempre” (For Always).
Zilli will perform “L’amore è femmina (Out of Love)” (Love is female), the title track of her new album released in February 2012, for Eurovision as it is more representative of her new album and also features some sections in English. “If I sing totally in Italian, a lot of people wouldn’t be able to keep up with the lyrics, and that’s important for me that they can”, she said at her Eurovision press conference.
The Eurovision Song Contest began in 1956 and is one of the longest running television programmes, drawing in more than 100 million viewers each year. The contest has launched the careers of international megastars such as ABBA and Celine Dion. Italy did not compete in the Eurovision Song Contest from 1997 until 2011, when entrant Raphael Gualazzi took second place after winning the newcomers section at the 2011 Sanremo Festival.
Italy has won the contest twice in the past, in 1964 and 1990, and had many contestants place in the top five, including Domenico Modugno, whose Eurovision performance of “Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu (Volare)” (In the Blue, Painted Blue – To Fly) in 1958 launched his international career.
This year’s performances will be broadcast live online on Eurovision.tv on Saturday at 9.00 pm CET.
