escYOUnited
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Italy ITALY 2022 - Mahmood and Blanco - Brividi
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HayashiM
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Imo Mahmood's falsettos had been off key for the entire song. I usually love Italy in ESC, but honestly, I am very surprised they have still reached the top 10 with this performance.Nobody thought they were off key at times until the bridge?
PolarFoxxie.
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Ohhh no, Italy was loooong time on 2nd place by bookies and fandom overhyped them. At the end they finished only on 6th huge favorite. There was a lot of wrong things they did in that performance and before finals. Ohhh nooo, Mahmoud from 2nd place in Tel Aviv to 6th place. What is next 26 place?
Zerocalcare
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I, on the other hand, believe that the ranking is not so unfair. The overall quality of this year's competition was roughly the same. True there were some better voices but apart from UK and Sweden all the others lacked something. Perhaps only Ochman and Maro would have deserved more than Italy but not the rest. The Netherlands had a great song and a beautiful voice but poor staging and Greece was really overrated (apart from the good lyrics and the chorus there wasn't much else - indeed, there were those electronic distortions of the voice that we eurofans mostly hate if not used well). Qualitatively, I love Marius Bear but for various and well-known reasons he has collected less hype than Mahmood and Blanco. From the point of view of the staging, after Spain, Sweden and Serbia, there was Italy. Sixth place is generous (obtained thanks to the presence of Mahmood who is loved by European fans) but the Top 10 is deserved.
The real problem, HayashiM, is that after the first night of Sanremo "Brividi" has not been able to play the same way. The lack of motivation of Mahmood and Blanco and our delegation (who only wanted to get the Top 10) and the tired voices of our singers (tired from many concerts) did not help us to reach a Top 3 which was not a mirage. With such a subdued performance, in a more competitive edition, without the politics that drugged everything Mahmood and Blanco would probably have kept Francesca Michielin company to the delight of all the haters of Italy. For once, we were lucky.
Then, if we want to say that Mahmood is not very suitable for this kind of songs and that "Brividi" does not have the same emotional impact created by our other entries, I agree with you. Personally, apart from "Soldi" I never liked Mahmood (my mother hates him - I'm sorry about that) and I just can't love Trap music. I'm talking to you in a sincere way and without testing the ground as many forumists do (who are afraid of penalizing the general judgment of their song).
However, I conclude by saying that we are among the few ESC nations to present something new every year. This comes with risks because you can do well but also fall surprisingly like France. The public and the jury also rewarded us for this.
Zerocalcare
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Latest news. In Sardinia, the native region of Mahmood's mother, they celebrate sixth place at the ESC in this way!
Zerocalcare
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Mahmood & Blanco, perché non è andata bene fra gli zero punti delle giurie e la freddezza del televoto
Nell’analisi dei voti pesa anche la capacità di coinvolgimento degli artisti e alla coppia è stato rimproverato un atteggiamento distaccato
www.corriere.it
My jokes aside, for Italian newspapers the sixth place of Mahmood & Blanco is seen as a failure. Too many inaccuracies, lack of determination and fatigue that did not allow Italy to shine.
Preuss
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Yeah I agree that it was kinda stupid by them not to focus on ESC more, all the other artists felt committed to the contest, whereas ESC came across as if it only was another stop on Mahmood and Blanco’s tours
I for once thought Italy had a beautiful staging. It was really good but Blanco’s hilarious entrance
I for once thought Italy had a beautiful staging. It was really good but Blanco’s hilarious entrance
MopManMoss
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sixth after the vocal performance they gave on the night of the grand final is the complete opposite of a failure that performance didnt even deserve a top 10 let alone 6thMahmood & Blanco, perché non è andata bene fra gli zero punti delle giurie e la freddezza del televoto
Nell’analisi dei voti pesa anche la capacità di coinvolgimento degli artisti e alla coppia è stato rimproverato un atteggiamento distaccato
My jokes aside, for Italian newspapers the sixth place of Mahmood & Blanco is seen as a failure. Too many inaccuracies, lack of determination and fatigue that did not allow Italy to shine.
Zerocalcare
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After winning in 2021 and as host country sixth place and another Top 10 reached, for me, I am not a failure. It is just that more was expected not from televoting or from the jury but from Mahmood & Blanco who, after the first evening in Sanremo, began to lose their incisiveness. If Italy continues, year after year, to be dangerous it is for the reason that it always has high expectations and is never satisfied with the result. This way of doing it allowed us to set the Top 10 record and to allow music and the Italian language to be seen with admiration.
You say that Italy didn't deserve the Top 10? Taking the popular vote for granted, Italy would have been eighth. Therefore, we must assume that the European people do not think like you. "Brividi" then set record after record on Spotify, the European charts, YouTube viewing, and previously won several critics' awards at the GF. To all this we must add that the European public was pleasantly impressed by the return of Mahmood and by another new musical genre brought from Italy (this guaranteed us more votes). Italy was able to sell its product well, causing a stir before the ESC. Therefore, following the premise of the first, the Italian song would hardly have obtained less than the Top 10. The jury then, it is known that it has an eye for ballads... and our Ballad / Trap, apart from the state of form and the lack of deternination of Mahmood and Blanco was technically well constructed in each of its components. Therefore, the jury awarded Mahmood and Blanco with a sixth place. It doesn't seem to me that there is anything scandalous. If you tell me about nations that were twenty-third in televoting and second in jury votes, then I tell you that you are right. Those are cases where those who did not deserve were rewarded.
MopManMoss, instead of criticizing the Italian show and its song, I advise you to hope that the UK is able to maintain the quality achieved this year (I wish you). But I don't think that after 20+ editions and a single well done song you can really criticize who is among the best ESC contenders (in an era, from 2011 onwards where the ESC is considerably more competitive and followed than in the past).
Accept it. It hurts but accept it.
mup
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I share your opinion. And I have to say that Blanco was totally clueless on what Eurovision is. I remember an interview where Blanco told Italians to vote for them, so Mahmood immediately informed him that we can't vote for our own country and Blanco replied: "Then drive to Switzerland and vote for us!", like that.
Mahmood then told the interviewer that he was going to teach Blanco some facts about Eurovision and added that unfortunately Blanco had never asked him any information about ESC.All this, I think, is the result of Italy withdrawing for such a long time (and losing interest, with skipped ESC participations, even before that): many generations - older and younger - grew up with with absolute no knowledge or interest in Eurovision, even business-owners in Turin did not expect so many tourists because they were not aware of the popularity nor of the existence of this contest. Same goes for those people - especially women - who went to attend the show too elegantly dressed, thinking it was a formal evening like in Sanremo.
shameless
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^I think Blanco age plays also part in this ignorance. This generation thinks that only their own bubble is interesting and the center of the world. And I am talking about all generations who have been in that age, I also was like that and most people I know. And no, of course I don't generalise everyone in his age. He just happened to come across as a bit unlikeable and the entire act screamed Queerbaiting. Don't think Mahmood should've participate so quickly again. It sorta tarnished his first participation but I think in the long run people will always remember Soldi. And then again, 6th place is not bad at all. Just a tad disappointing. However, may I point out it's the first time since 2016 that a host country finishes top 10 (it used to be a regularity in the old days).
mup
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I think Mahmood was pushed by his label to take part in another Sanremo so soon because of disappointing album sales in the previous year, if I recall correctly. Many artists are sent to the Sanremo festival by their labels and there's a lot of competition among those labels to get their artist(s) to win or gain success afterwards thanks to their "Sanremo hit".
Mahmood was originally going to participate in Sanremo 2022 by himself - as Amadeus, host and artistic director of the festival, told us. Then he chose to partner with Blanco, and I think it was totally done by the input of their labels to win the festival with a Sanremo jury-friendly song, plus the combination of two fanbases in the televote, as I mentioned earlier.
This year, the participation in ESC was felt as nothing more than an accessory prize, very much the opposite of last year's winning band that showed a lot of drive to win and awareness in the opportunity of fame given by Eurovision.
Youtube Top Songs weekly chart
Brividi charted in 5 countries:
- #3 - 1.58 million - #9 - 9k - #58 - 37k - #66 - 1k - #97 - 2k
* - the grand final live performance on the official Eurovision channel.
# - chart position of the song in that country.
k - thousand of views.
Youtube Top Music Videos weekly chart
- #5 - 1.08 million - #45 - <10k - #66 - 26k - #94 - <10kZitti e buoni re-entered at:
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PollyWantsACracker
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Unpopular opinion: since their comeback to the contest, Brividi was the worst Italian entry after Emma.
Zerocalcare
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Yet we came eighth in the preference of televoting and without help from the jury (which, apparently, the 12 points for us from San Marino were subtracted
). Probably "Brividi" did not have the strength of many of our other entries of the past but to doubt the quality you have to be alone and purely in bad faith.Now let's look at the pros and cons:
PROS:
- Excellent and particular construction of the music.
- Excellent lyrics construction.
- Strong romantic / social theme.
- New musical genre brought from Italy.
- Excellent management of the advertising package (this made the difference between the sixth Italian place and the failure of "Fulenn").
- Solid staging.
- Perfect harmony between Mahmood and Blanco.
- New from a duo of singers singing pro-LGBT themes at the ESC.
- Mahmood and Blanco's vocal and mental fatigue caused by concerts.
- Mahmood's voice, at least for me, wasn't the perfect choice for this song. His very marked falsetto may not like it.
- Lack of motivation. As the winner of the last edition, the host country of the current edition and the crisis in Ukraine, winning has never been considered a priority by our singers who have used the ESC stage to advertise and make their record labels happy.
- For part of the facts reported in the previous point, our delegation was interested in achieving our minimum result (and terror for every non-Italian Eurofans
): the Top 10. - "Brividi", as expressed at the beginning of the message, does not have the same emotional strength and the Italian taste of many other songs of the past. "Brividi" I've always considered a "Swedish song": well built but little soul.
If we calculate that "Brividi" got:
- Record in the European chart.
- Record YouTube views.
- Spotify record.
- Winner of the Critics' Award for Best Lyrics.
- Sixth place in the Eurovision Song Contest.
- Second place at OGAE 2022.
Are we sure that saying this doesn't prove even more how good Italy is? From a "failure" a minimum result of great depth was obtained. I think Germany would dream of having failures like ours every year. What if we have to commit? Would an era studded with Italian successes begin? Should we all think that a dark age will begin, a musical middle age for European fans? 
I'll leave the floor to you, lawyer Polly. Do you accept defeat or do you want to negotiate? Today I feel magnanimous
A passionate kiss
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Mahmood and Dula Pip at Sunny Hill festival in Kosovo:
Dula Pip fangirling over Soldi
Dula Pip fangirling over Soldi
