After making one of the most successful returns to Eurovision last year and the Gualazzi effect*, there was a huge unprecendented interest in San Remo this year. There has been a wild spread acceptance that San Remo is a vehicle which is able to produce very high quality entries. Especially ones that will be of good enough quality that they will be able to score very well with the juries. Like last year Italy surprised everyone by deciding to send little known singer Nina Zilli and her song Out of Love.
After all the pushing and shoving that was involved in selecting the Italian enter this year (remember Per Sempre?) I think that Italy have actually come up with a song that they should be both happy and proud of. This might not be my favourite in the contest but it is very close. The song has some of the jazzy and blues overtones from last year’s entry. Noteablely Italy have also decided to send a song that use Italian and English interchangeably. Overall the song reminds of one that you might expect from an artist like Imelda May. I think that juries will lap this up.
Staging is going to be a key issue for this entry. Nina is going to need a lot of Charisma to pull off an entry like this. I’m not convinced that she will actually have this when it is required. The running order does not exactly help Italy but the song is strong enough to do very well if the performance is right.
Verdict: Not sure if they picked the right singer for this entry but all the same I think this another strong entry from Italy. The standard this year is a lot higher than last year and ultimately this will impact on how Italy do. However a top 5 finish is likely. Overall it could be the most mature and classy entry of the year.
Grade: A
*The Gualazzi effect is the way I explain how entries, such as Italy’s last year, which are not overly liked by fans when first picked but after a high score at Eurovision everyone thinks that they are amazingly good.
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