Italy 2021- Måneskin with ‘Zitti e Buoni’

The highlight of the national final season is over with Maneskin walking away victors of the prestigious San Remo, and they will now take their entry to Eurovision:

Winning San Remo is no easy feat and in a similar way to Sweden’s Melodifestivalen almost guarantees a strong result. It’s no coincidence Italy’s worst recent performance came with their only internal selection. To win it with such a huge televoting score is highly impressive. They are a big name for sure but Francesca and Fedez are too and they were not even close. It’s a sit up and take note moment, more so than a big score at UMK is at least.

As regular followers here will know, I was quite keen on their chances both pre song, and on the day of the final, so what do I see this doing at Eurovision?

In short, a lot. I don’t think we’ve had a rock act as credible or with as much mainstream appeal at the contest since Manga. Whilst Finland satisfies the core vote well, this can reach out more. It’s just cooler and classier, and a lot of that does come from this being in Italian and all the compositional flair we’ve come to expect from a Sanremo winner. Apart from rock being cool, Italy and the Italian language is just cool too and Italy have been successful at nation branding at Eurovision in a way the likes of France or Spain haven’t.

Part of the appeal of the big televote scores for Meta and Moro and Mahmood in the last two editions to go ahead is that the authenticity comes through, the fact that these great artists are going up there and just doing their thing and if there’s one thing every winner has in common since the current scoring system was introduced it’s authenticity. Maneskin will bring that and coupled with their own distinctive style will bring a memorable performance.

With all of that, ‘Zitti e Buoni’ has that something extra a rock entry needs I was getting at in the Finland review.

The juries typically want the slickness of a Swedish production, and this will never be that, although there is a good amount of musicianship credibility here that they will like. Maneskin’s performance improved considerably throughout San Remo and if they can bring the form they were in on the final night to Eurovision, then juries should play ball, at least somewhat. There will be more ‘complete packages’, but if the juries have any sense about them this should not lag too far behind with them.

And to put it another way, I am more confident in the juries liking this enough, than I am in the televote liking France, Bulgaria and certainly a likely Tusse for Sweden.

We are still waiting on a three minute cut but I'm not too concerned with that. One thing that does bother me about the transition from San Remo to Eurovision is the loss of the orchestra. This really does sound better live than in the music video and it is just something for backers of this to be aware of should no instrumentation be added to the mix.

Italy are onto another big potential televote here and how well they do will come down to whether the juries are willing to go along this. It doesn't scream winner, but nothing does as of yet and we're at the business end of the season. Gun to my head, Italy will come close without winning again, but at this moment in time there’s little else that has as good a case.

Personal Rating: 8/10 Competitive Rating: 9/10 Early Prediction: 1st-5th