We’re about to know who will sing for Italy in Rotterdam. 16 out of the 24 competing singers in Festival di Sanremo are potential candidates. Fun fact: we don’t even know who they are. First of all, we should try to guess who are the 8 artist who don’t want a spot in Eurovision. I will also include Morgan and Bugo, even though they’re out of the Festival now. Since I’m quite sure about 7 of them, I cut them off the list:

Achille Lauro
Alberto Urso
Anastasio
Diodato
Elettra Lamborghini
Elodie
Enrico Nigiotti
Francesco Gabbani
Giordana Angi
Irene Grandi
Junior Cally
Le Vibrazioni
Levante
Marco Masini
Michele Zarrillo
Paolo Jannacci
Piero Pelù
Pinguini Tattici Nucleari
Rancore
Raphael Gualazzi
Riki
Rita Pavone
Tosca
Bugo e Morgan

Who is the eighth name? I would say Irene Grandi. Levante will be touring during Eurovision, but who knows.

There are some candidates that I find suitable for Eurovision. One thing’s for sure, we won’t win. But we might get a good placement again. Here are some artists that I find interesting for Eurovision:

1) DIODATO – Fai rumore

Diodato is one of my favourite Italian singers/songwriters. His Fai rumore is a very emotional song about the end of a love relationship that he sings with passion. His vocal technique makes him hit high notes in the right way. He has also improved his stage presence quite a lot. Jury material? Definitely. Televote material? TBA, I’m not sure. The lyrics aren’t very complicated and I hope that they will be understood at home.

2) ELODIE – Andromeda

Eurovision divas? Italy might add Elodie to this list. This song was written by Eurovision 2019 runner-up Mahmood and Dardust, who also wrote Soldi with him. Many of us were looking forward to hearing her Sanremo entry because of this. However, I still have mixed feeling about this songs. But I’m sure that she knows how to find her place on a stage and I think she would deliver a good performance in Rotterdam. Her entry might be appreciated by both juries and televote.

3) PINGUINI TATTICI NUCLEARI – Ringo Starr

Energy and fun are their main characteristics. Because of this, I think that their entry could have many fans in Europe (well, it already has) and get televote points. However, I’m not sure about the possible Eurovision juries’ reaction. Consequently, this is another 50/50 for me.

Eurovision fans like these three entries. They also like Rancore‘s Eden and I’m happy about that. However, we should remember that Eurovision full-time stans represent just a small percentage of the televote. Casual voters might not have the time to appreciate Rancore’s song. Of course I should also mention Francesco Gabbani‘s Viceversa. I really like him and I appreciate his song but I also think that people aren’t very enthusiastic about a potential comeback. Levante‘s Tiki Bom-Bom is also a well-produced song, but it’s already clear that she won’t win Sanremo, so I have decided to exclude her from the list.

Asking artists in advance if they’d like to sing for Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest was a nice addition to the rules. I hope next year RAI will use one of the 5 Sanremo shows to select the candidate among the entrants who agree to go to Eurovision if they have the chance to. If they do this, at least people will know that they are voting for Eurovision and not just for their Sanremo favourite.

This is tonight’s running order. Michele Zarrillo will open the show and Rancore will close it. Hope we won’t fall asleep in the meantime!