A chilling homoerotic duet, Italy's trick to continue reigning in Eurovision

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December 2, 2010 was a big day for

.

's public broadcaster

, announced the country's return to the festival, from which they had decided to withdraw 14 years earlier.

It had all been a tantrum, a big protest action.

The Italians considered that the latest results they had achieved in the contest did not do justice to the quality of their music.

And they slammed the door.

.

And that in 1997, the last year in which they participated before the eclipse, they were

How they were missed during the long absence.

But Italy, one of the seven founding countries of the Eurofestival in 1956, returned as the prodigal son, through the front door.

.

And this week hosts the 66th edition of the competition in Turin thanks to Måneskin's victory last year.

For a nation to win twice in a row is really complicated.

But it cannot be ruled out that it is what happens this coming Saturday.

Because

Normal, if we take into account that they present one of the best songs of the edition.

And that it is performed by two of the artists with the most magical aura on stage, icons among one of the groups that most closely follow the event, such as the LGTBI.

Mahmood, an international star who already came second in Eurovision in 2019 with

, and Blanco -Riccardo Fabbriconi-, a very young singer who has already achieved important successes, take the Turin stage with Brividi, an exciting ballad, with exquisite lyrics and message and skin-deep feeling.

And as much as Mahmood insists on rejecting labels and affirming that his ode to heartbreak and the freedom to make mistakes even when loving, which is what the chills of the subject are about, many throughout Europe want to see the

l.

's quality

is, in any case, unquestionable;

as much as the chemistry that Mahmood and Blanco exude, despite the fact that they are hosts of the edition and have been unconcerned about winning has led them to be below expectations in dress rehearsals.

Nothing that can't be fixed in the final performance.

They became the Eurovision flag bearers by winning San Remo last February.

The contest of musical contests, which boasts of maintaining a certain stale flavor in the 21st century and, yes, still has the live orchestra

, continues to paralyze Italy for a whole week every year, with stratospheric audiences reaching 20 million viewers.

And it is precisely the fact that the transalpine country sends its winner of the mythical

what makes all its candidacies extraordinary.

Gigliola Cinquetti, winner of Eurovision in 1964.Efe

Italian artists have starred

.

Three times the RAI has been victorious: in 1964, with Gigliola Cinquetti and her unforgettable Non ho l'età;

in 1990, with Toto Cutugno, who played Insieme: 1992;

and last year with the aforementioned Måneskin, the powerful band that took everyone's breath away with their staging of Zitti E Buoni.

One of the highlights, in fact, at the festival's grand finale this coming Saturday will be Gigliola Cinquetti's performance, with an updated version of the song that gave her universal fame.

The list of

, a whole genre in itself, who have enlarged Eurovision is enormous.

-with that timeless jewel that is

dipinto di blu-;

-Due grosse lacrime bianche-;

Nicola di Bari -I giorni dell'arcobaleno-;

Al Bano & Romina Power -We'll live it all again-;

Questo amore-;

-I treni di Tozeur-;

-People of the sea-;

Madness of love-;

-L'essenziale-;

-Grande amore-...

The communion between eurofans and Italian music is absolute.

And yet, every time the transalpine country organizes the festival it is an ordeal and it makes good the famous disasters and Italianate

.

The 1991 edition is still remembered as one of the most chaotic.

And that was held at the Cinecittà studios, the great City of Cinema, on the outskirts of Rome.

Nonsense by the hosts of the gala, failed presentations by the representatives and not a few logistical problems marked the year, although we Spaniards only remember that contest for Sergio Dalma and his sublime Bailar pegados.

This year there are also problems in Turin.

The biggest, the one that affects the arches of the imposing stage, which in the end have not been able to be used by the different artists to project funds, which has ruined the previous work of a good number of

All in all, Eurovision 2022 leaves us with an extraordinary show.

And

have the responsibility of keeping the flag of Italian song high, so recognizable in its sensitivity, in its delicacy, in its kaleidoscopic approach to love... Everything that makes the music of this country always so universal.

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