Meet Marco Mengoni, Festival de Sanremo double winner
Marco Mengoni was born in Ronciglione on Christmas Day 1988. At the age of 14, he began singing occasionally and in 2006 he founded his own band.
In 2009, he auditioned for X Factor and was chosen by singer Morgan, making it to the live shows where he performed songs of very diverse styles, from AC/DC to Mia Martini.
He won the competition and released “Dove si vola,” his first maxi-single, which sold over 70,000 copies in a few weeks. He went straight to the 60th Sanremo Festival, coming in third with “Credimi ancora,” which was released as his second single, “Re Matto,” in February 2010.
That same year, he won the Man of the Year category at the MTV awards, and shortly thereafter, “Dove si vola” was certified double platinum. He also won Best Italian Artist at the 2010 EMA Awards and Best European Act in November, an award that had not been won by an Italian artist in 17 years.
His first studio album, “Solo 2.0,” was released in the fall of 2011, and in February 2013, Marco won the Sanremo Festival with the song “L’essenziale,” and it was announced that he would be the Italian representative at Eurovision 2013. A month later, he decided to go to Malmö with the same song, where he came in seventh place.
After that, he released his album “#PRONTOACORRERE,” which included the song he took to the festival. It was released in March of the same year and within a few weeks of its release, it had already gone Platinum. In November, the European MTV audience crowned Marco as the Best Italian Artist and the Best European Performance among the nominees in his category.
How was “Due Vite” selected to represent Italy at Eurovision?
“Due Vite” participated in the 73rd edition of the Sanremo Festival, an Italian music event that has been held since 1951 and has become one of the country’s most important. The festival has evolved and changed format over the years but has always maintained its essence of promoting Italian music.
Marco Mengoni was selected as the winner of the 73rd edition of the Sanremo Festival with his song “Due Vite,” which gave him the opportunity to represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool in May 2023. Since Italy’s return to Eurovision in 2011, the Sanremo Festival has once again taken a leading role in selecting the Italian candidate for the European song contest. Since then, eight winning songs in the main category have been selected for Eurovision.
The winner of the Sanremo Festival was selected through a vote that included televoting, the press room, radio, and the demoscopic votes from the previous nights. After being selected as one of the five finalists, Marco Mengoni won again in the second round of voting and secured victory. The final voting mechanism consisted of a complete classification of all the votes from the five nights, where the top five artists went back to perform and passed to the final voting where the scores were reset, and the demoscopic (33%), press from the Sala Stampa (33%), and public (34%) voted again and decided the winner.
“Due Vite”: An intense and moving song that celebrates the strength of relationships through life’s challenges
“Due Vite” by Marco Mengoni is an intense song that addresses the relationship between reason and the unconscious. In an interview, Mengoni explained that he spends many hours a week reflecting on his thoughts with a professional and realizes that his unconscious provides him with a more realistic vision than everyday life. The song describes this double life: the life of the night and dreams that become more real than dreams themselves, and the life he lives every day.
Mengoni also admits that he is a sinner, someone who makes mistakes. Throughout life, there are blows and moments of boredom that must be overcome. For him, “Due Vite” represents these challenges and associated emotions.
The inspiration for the song comes from the Italian singer-songwriter Lucio Dalla. Mengoni explained that the song is full of words and continuous tension that does not seem to explode until it is performed live. To tackle this topic, Mengoni is inspired by Dalla’s style: little breath, many words, and a lot of tension to then explode.
“Due Vite” also marked Mengoni’s third participation in the Sanremo Song Contest, following “Credimi ancora” in 2010 and “L’essenziale,” the winner of the Sanremo Song Contest 2013, with which he represented Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013.