May 13, 2013

89/917 Claudio Villa: Addio addio (Italy 1962)

Italy has been a prolific participant of the Eurovision since the beginning of the contest. Even though the Italians still prefer their local San Remo competition, the country has sent quality entries from year to year with only few mediocre entries and almost none real stinkers. During the first decades Italy sent also their biggest stars to Eurovision. Such was Claudio Villa who represented his country twice. The first one, the Eurosong number 89 took part in 1962. The song might be a good way to explain why Italy has not won the contest more often their quality of songs should entitle.


The song Addio addio (composed by Domenico Modugno) could be called a prototype of an Italian entry of the 1960's. A song that starts slowly, does not capture you at first but if you are patient enough the song will reward you with a rousing finale. And of course, the singer is first class. There were lot of Italian songs like this in the Eurovision, songs that need patience and probably several listenings before they give you the goodies they have to offer.

Unfortunately Eurovision does not work well for entries like this, at least not in the 1960's with no preview shows not to mention YouTube to check the song beforehand. The juries liked the Italian entries to some extent, the songs fit usually within the top 10 or close to it. However they could not beat the easier entries that got to you instantly during the first listening and before the second half of the song. So far, Italy has won the contest only twice and placed in the top 5 only 14 times during their 40 year run.

Claudio Villa placed 9th in the 1962 contest. His song has stood the test of time much better than rest of the song from that rather dull Eurovision year. This goes to show, that often the Eurovision scoreboard has nothing to do with the quality of the music itself.

My points 4/5.

No comments:

Post a Comment