Monday 11 April 2016

Favourite from the 50s... 29 days to go!

Welcome back to another post in "My 34 Days of Eurovision".

We are just 29 days away from the first semi final now, and with it less than a month away my excitement is starting to nicely build.

I was very fortunate to take part in a 2011 rewatch with some great people on Saturday night, thank you for letting me take part and I am very happy with the outcome (Eric really should have stole the show in 2011: see the full results here). It has got me so much more in the mood for 2016 and I can't wait for more rewatches!

Today I'm looking at my favourite song from Eurovision in the 50s. It all kicked off in 1956 and over four years we were treated to a few classics and timeless numbers. None more so than my pick for favourite of the 50s, and I know that quite a few of you will agree with me.



This is one of my all-time favourites in Eurovision. It's 'Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu', sung by Domenico Modugno for Italy back in 1958. It's more commonly known as the song 'Volare' and surprisingly only came third for the Italians, beaten into top spot by France. What is incredible is that this song is one of the highest selling records of all time, selling a staggering 22 million copies worldwide, which also makes it by some way the highest selling non-English song of all time. Volare also went on to win two Grammy awards, for Record of the Year and Song of the Year, again staggering considering the song isn't sung in English and pretty much all of the winners of those Grammy's have since been English. What is even greater is that the song sold more than any Celine Dion or ABBA track ever did, and that surely makes it one of the greatest Eurovision achievements, if not the greatest.

Whatever you think, the song is a masterpiece. It is timeless, it is beautiful, it is magical. VOLARE.

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