Country Italy Final result 3rd, 13 points | Selected entrant Domenico Modugno 1958 • 1959► | |
Selection process Sanremo Music Festival 1958 Selected song "Nel blu dipinto di blu" | ||
Italy was represented by Domenico Modugno, with the song '"Nel blu dipinto di blu", at the 1958 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 12 March in Hilversum, Netherlands. Broadcaster RAI chose the winning song from the 1958 Sanremo Music Festival as their Eurovision entry: the song had been performed twice at Sanremo and Modugno was chosen over Johnny Dorelli as the performer.
Although "Nel blu dipinto di blu" did not win at Eurovision, it went on after the contest (under the title "Volare") to become a huge worldwide hit. The song spent five weeks at the top of the US Singles Chart, was later named the Billboard Year-End number one single for 1958, and won two Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. It is also one of only three non-British / non-winning Eurovision songs ever to have reached the top 10 in the United Kingdom.
"Volare"'s popularity has not diminished with time and it rapidly assumed the status of a worldwide musical standard. It is invariably cited, along with ABBA's "Waterloo", as globally the most successful and instantly recognisable song ever to have emerged from Eurovision.
At Eurovision
On the night of the final Modugno performed first in the running order, preceding the Netherlands. However, a technical problem meant that the performance had not been seen in all countries, so Modugno was required to perform the song again after all the other entries had been sung – it remained the only time in Eurovision history that a song has had to be performed twice in its entirety until 2010 when Spain was allowed to do the same after their first performance was disturbed.
At the close of the voting "Nel blu dipinto di blu" had received 13 points (the highest being 4s from Belgium and Germany), placing Italy third of the 10 entries. The Italian jury awarded 6 of its 10 points to contest winners France.