This year Italy has chosen Mahmood & BLANCO as its representatives on Eurovision 2022 that will take place in Turin next May with the song “Brividi”. But who are Mahmood & BLANCO? In this article you will have the opportunity to know more about Italy’s singers for Eurovision 2022.
About Mahmood & BLANCO
Alessandro Mahmood is an Italian singer-songwriter who became known after participating in the sixth Italian edition of “X Factor”. After his time on the show in 2012, he studied piano, music theory and music theory and started writing his first songs. Among his favourite artists are SZA and Rosalia and as a child he used to listen to many Italian singer-songwriters such as Lucio Dalla, Paolo Conte, Lucio Battisti, and also Arabic music from his father’s side.
In February 2019 he participated in the Sanremo festival, winning the music festival with the song “Soldi”. After accepting the invitation to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019, he came in 2nd position in the contest and the success of “Soldi” in Europe was latent as it was on the music charts of countries such as Germany, Sweden or Spain among others, where he managed to sell more than 40,000 copies. Since then, he has already released two albums and everything he touches turns to gold.
Blanco is an Italian singer-songwriter who, in June 2020, released the EP Quarantine Paranoid on SoundCloud, and Universal noticed him and offered him a record deal. In July 2021 he released “Notti in bianco”, which became one of the summer hits, followed by hits such as “La canzone Nostra”. The single was at the top of the charts and the singer occupied the entire top ten with his songs. The album “Blu celeste” went number one and triple platinum.
The singer has references such as Lucio Battisti, Lucio Dalla and Pino Daniele, as well as much of pop radio; during his teenage years he got close to the world of hip hop. At the age of 19, he has become one of the most promising talents in Italian music.
Lyrics
Ho sognato di volare con te
Su una bici di diamanti
Mi hai detto: “Sei cambiato
Non vedo più la luce nei tuoi occhi”
La tua paura cos’è? Un mare dove non tocchi mai
Anche se il sesso non è la via di fuga dal fondo, dai
Non scappare da qui
Non lasciarmi così
Nudo con i brividi
A volte non so esprimermi
E ti vorrei amare, ma sbaglio sempre
E ti vorrei rubare un cielo di perle
E pagherei per andar via
Accetterei anche una bugia
E ti vorrei amare, ma sbaglio sempre
E mi vengono i brividi, brividi, brividi
Tu, che mi svegli il mattino
Tu, che sporchi il letto di vino
Tu, che mi mordi la pеlle
Con i tuoi occhi da vipera
E tu sei il contrario di un angеlo
E tu sei come un pugile all’angolo
E tu scappi da qui
Mi lasci così
Nudo con i brividi
A volte non so esprimermi
E ti vorrei amare, ma sbaglio sempre
E ti vorrei rubare un cielo di perle
E pagherei per andar via
Accetterei anche una bugia
E ti vorrei amare, ma sbaglio sempre
E mi vengono i brividi, brividi, brividi
Dimmi che non ho ragione, eh
Vivo dentro una prigione, eh
Provo a restarti vicino
Ma scusa se poi mando tutto a puttane, eh
Non so dirti ciò che provo, è un mio limite
Per un “ti amo” ho mischiato droghe e lacrime
Questo veleno
Che ci sputiamo ogni giorno io non lo voglio più addosso
Lo vedi, sono qui
Su una bici di diamanti, uno fra tanti
Nudo con i brividi
A volte non so esprimermi
E ti vorrei amare, ma sbaglio sempre
E ti vorrei rubare un cielo di perle
E pagherei per andar via
Accetterei anche una bugia
E ti vorrei amare, ma sbaglio sempre
E mi vengono i brividi, brividi, brividi
Italy in Eurovision
Italy is one of the 14 founding participants of the Eurovision Song Contest and arguably the country responsible for the entire Eurovision format! The original Contest was modelled on the popular Festival de Sanremo which began in 1951 and continues to this day.
Italy has won the Eurovision Song Contest on three occasions. In 1964, Gigliola Cinquetti stormed the scoreboard in Copenhagen with Non Ho L’età, receiving nearly 3 times as many votes as the runner-up. Subsequently, the 1965 event was held in Naples.
In 1990, Toto Cutugno won the Contest with European unity anthem Insieme: 1992, taking us to Rome the following year where the 2 Italian winners, Toto and Gigliola, took on presenting duties. Allora!
In 1997, the country withdrew from the Eurovision Song Contest but returned with renewed vigour in 2011, securing 7 top ten placings between then and their third victory.
The Italians struck gold in 2021 with alt-rock band Måneskin. Their self-penned track Zitti E Buoni (English translation: ‘Shut Up and Behave’) won the Eurovision Song Contest and became a global streaming hit, along with their follow-up song I Wanna Be Your Slave.
Italy will host its third Eurovision Song Contest in 2022.