WORTH A LOOK?: *****

We didn’t watch Italy’s San Remo Festival this year but were aware of the songs and gutted that our favourites could only manage 7th.

• Read on for reasons including how Italy are shaping up to top Sweden as Eurovision’s most prolific country

La Rappresantante di Lista are described on Wikipedia as an Italian pop rock duo consisting of Veronica Lucchesi and Dario Mangiaracina who formed 11 years ago.

They 1st came to our attention via this year’s monsta-winning Podcast of 2021 Second Cherry with song Amare (To love) which finished 11th in that year’s San Remo.

Ciao Ciao (Bye, bye) is quite simply a breath of fresh air. Lyrically it contemplates the end of the world (‘È la fine del mondo’/’It is the end of the world’), offers hope through a meeting (‘Ti saluto con amore’/’I greet you with love’) and then joy (‘Mi scoppia nel cuore la voglia di festa’/’The desire to party bursts in my heart.’)

Given world events, it’s a sentiment that might strike a chord and musically its pretty becoming throbbing synths and choppy bass topped by a coquettish lead vocal cook up something enticing and worth submitting to.

When Veronica sings ‘E con le gambe, con il culo, coi miei occhi’ one perhaps doesn’t need the English translation to sense that there’s something intimate and seductive on the menu (‘And with my legs, with my ass, with my eyes.’)

Momentum has been building behind Italy’s Eurovision entries for years since their return to the international contest in 2011, predominantly using San Remo as the vessel for choosing them.

2021’s win by Måneskin gives a sense perhaps that Italy could topple Sweden as Eurovision’s most prolific country. Not least because fellow San Remo contestant Achille Lauro (see below) won the San Marino ticket for Eurovision this year and contest winners Mahmood and BLANCO (see above) with Brividi (Shivers) were the favourites to win Eurovision before the invasion of Ukraine.

• Picture courtesy La Rappresentante di Lista via Facebook Tickets
• Have you heard any of these songs or seen any of these shows? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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