Francesco Gabbani announced today that ‘Occidentali’s Karma’ has sold over 25,000 copies in it’s first week of release. The song has now gone Gold in Italy.
On Saturday 11th February, Francesco beat 15 other artists to win the 67th Festival della Canzone Italiana di Sanremo, and later confirmed that he will represent Italy with the same song in the 62nd Eurovision Song Contest in May. Francesco’s victory came as something of a surprise in Italy, as it beat the favourite – Fiorella Mannoia’s “Che sia benedetta” – into second place.
Since then, the song has become a hit in Italy. Francesco shot to number one in the Italian charts following the contest, and the song broke the Italian Vevo record within a few days by becoming the most watched Italian video during it’s first day online to have been published on the platform.
‘Occidentali’s Karma’ will now represent Italy in Kyiv, and hope to secure Italy it’s first Eurovision victory since 1990. Since Italy returned to the contest in 2011 they have come close to victory on two occasions, the first being in 2011 when Raphael Gualazzi’s ‘The Madness of Love’ finished in 2nd place whilst placing 1st with the juries, and the second being in 2015 when Il Volo placed in 3rd with ‘Grande Amore’, which won the televote.
Source: Facebook
[tw-accordion class=””] [tw-accordion-section title=”Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest”] Italy debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1956 and has participated a total of 42 times to date. Italy returned to the Eurovision Song Contest in 2011 having last participated in the contest in 1997, the country has withdrawn from the contest on a number of occasions in the past. Italy has won the contest twice, the first time being in 1964 and the latest being in 1990. Italy’s hosting of the contest in 1991 has been remembered as one of the most chaotic contests to date. Since their return in 2011 Italy has finished in the top ten on four occasions.[/tw-accordion-section] [/tw-accordion]
