All opinions expressed in this article are those of the person quoted and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the other team members or ESC United as a whole.
It’s 5 days to go until Junior Eurovision 2022, and we are counting down the 16 nations who are participating in Yerevan, Armenia on Sunday, December 11, 2022.
Every day we will do an overview of a participating nation in alphabetical order, recapping how they got to Junior Eurovision, a brief history of the nation’s participation, a brief biography of the artist, and finally, our “expert” panel of editors give the entries a score out of 10 and a brief review.
Next up, we look at Italy, whose kids since debut in 2014 have been mirroring the relative success of the adults during the same time frame.
Italy’s history at Junior Eurovision:
Italy is another late-comer to the Junior Eurovision party, but when they accepted their invitation in 2014 for their debut, they only went and won it with junior crooner Vincenzo Cantiello and his balladic “Tu primo grande amore.”
That was followed up with a 16th place finish the next year. Then Fiamma Boccia came in third in 2016 with “Cara Mamma,” 11th in 2017, 7th in 2018, 7th in 2019, before taking off 2019 due to Italy’s struggles being Europe’s frontline against COVID-19.
Elisabetta Lizza returned to Junior Eurovision 2021 for Italy with the rocker “Specchio (Mirror on the Wall),” coming in 10th.
Before Junior Eurovision 2022:
On November 3, 2022, RAI announced that Chanel Dilecta would represent Italy at Junior Eurovision 2022.
The Artist
13-year-old Chanel Dilecta hails from Thiene, in Vicenza in Northern Italy.
She has been performing since the age of 4, and has recently performed in Italian singing contest shows such as TMF (Tour Music Fest) 2021, the Italian Performer Cup, and The Coach Contest.
The Song
“BLA BLA BLA” is about adults living up to promises made. Essentially, if you don’t live up to promises made to the younger generation, then words have no meaning and you may as well be yammering nonsensically.
“BLA BLA BLA” is written by Carmine Spera, Fabrizio Palaferri, Angela Senatore, and Marco Iardella.
With the background out of the way, here is what we at ESC United think of Italy’s entry for Junior Eurovision 2022.
Providing their thoughts for Junior Eurovision this season: Alice Christine (Washington, D.C.), Boris Meersman (Belgium), Gianluca D’Elia (New York City, New York), James Maude (Los Angeles, California), Roy Postema (The Netherlands), William Carter (Dallas, Texas), and Zephaniah Gabriel (The Philippines).
Alice – 8 – “This song is fun, catchy, and easy to sing along to. It’s also great to see Italy sending an upbeat pop track to JESC instead of a ballad.”
Boris – 8 – “A shameless “Bim bam toi” knock-off, but who cares it frickin’ BANGS. “Bla bla bla” exhibits the quirkiness and catchiness I pine for in JESC entries. It’s a camp and feisty spoof, but not in such an excess that one can’t take it seriously. It is also astute and current in its theming. “Bla-bla-bla” is very media-friendly and yet constantly pokes fun at the (a)social media and (hardly)smartphones that dominate present-day teenage interactions, much moreso than they do our own. The best mockery served is always the sort the addressees eat up like cake.”
Gianluca – 9 – “This feels so fresh, modern and in tune with Italy’s current pop music scene. If I didn’t know this was a JESC song, I would have mistaken it for a newcomer entry at Sanremo.”
James – 8 – “Extra credit for the subversive message hiding in plain sight in the lyrics, otherwise you’d mistake it for one of the many duff social media songs we’ve seen at both ESC and JESC over the years. Plus, it’s being a vibrant, upbeat pop song will make Italy stand out this year.”
Roy – 8.5 – “My oh my what a lovely quirky tune this is. This really brings me back to older Junior editions where simply having fun was enough to come away with the win. Think about ‘Bzzt’ or ‘Click Clack’. This falls exactly in that category. Is it the best produced tune in the world? Hell no! Is it fun and catchy? Absolutely!! Chanel’s voice is also surprisingly rich and full. She seems to have the charisma to carry this song live as well. This is definitely one of the unexpected frontrunners for me.”
William – 6.5 – “This is super cute. I appreciate Italy for sending a song that manages to be both slick AND appropriately youthful. It’s bright. It’s bubbly. It’s radio friendly. It’s maybe a little too repetitive? Regardless, I think Chanel and the Italian broadcaster have something fun planned for us.”
Zephaniah – 7.5 – “Another upbeat track. Vocals are amazing but I need to get the groove of this song because I will like it. I don’t know if it’s me or the English lyrics in the middle of the chorus is a little awkward. Overall, it’s fine I think.”
Total: 55.5 points (Average = 7.926)
Most are in agreement at ESC United that Italy has sent in a solid, fun song. But Italy falls 0.5 points short of Ireland, who remain the top of our editors’ poll with six nations down and ten to go,
1.) Ireland – 56 points (Average = 8.0)
2.) ITALY – 55.5 points (Average = 7.926)
3.) Armenia – 54.5 points (Average = 7.786)
4.) Georgia – 52.5 points (Average = 7.5)
5.) France – 52 points (Average = 7.428)
6.) Albania – 42.5 points (Average = 6.071)
What do #YOU think of Italy’s entry? Do #YOU think Italy can convert the “Bla Bla Bla” into points? Let us know in the comments below, on social media, or in our forum.
