Antonio Diodato
The focus of my first ever Virtual Press Conference!
Tomorrow is when we would have traditionally been at the end of the 2020 season and Saturday 16th May would have seen those in the Final have potentially the biggest day of their musical careers, or at least the biggest audience. As an Italian singer, Diodato arguably has already experienced a major peak in his life by winning Sanremo 2020 on February 8th but will miss out on singing the new Italian anthem, "Fai rumore", to the viewers and jurors of Eurovision this year. The alternative to the cancelled Contest this year is the EBU instigated "Eurovision: Europe Shine A Light" (EESAL) and it was about this programme that the press conference had been organised.
The invite had been sent by Head of Press for the Italian delegation, Kabir Naidoo, together with all the material I could ever need to be prepared for the conference (many thanks to him for all of that). Obviously the main targets for this conference were journalists from Italy, some of whom might have had minimal exposure to Eurovision, so this was primarily trying to sell EESAL to them but it was a very interesting experience to be involved in such an event. Fortunately us non-Italians had an excellent interpreter translating for us and I worked out quite quckly that the main players at the hour long conference were:
In his role as one of the executives at RAI, Claudio went first and summarised what would be happening on EESAL, some of which was new information for even myself who keeps close watch on all the news generated by Eurovision media:
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The big question asked was about next year with respect to Sanremo and Eurovision. No clear cut answers there - Diodato said that he'd like to at least be a host or a guest singer but in the pre-conference interview, he said that he had yet to be asked. The interesting comment was from Claudio, where he said that Diodato could be the first singer to win Sanremo on consecutive years. That sounds like an invitation to participate at Italy's biggest musical event next year but the two comments combined didn't sound like we'd have an internal selection for Eurovision 2021 from Italy - perhaps it is just me adding 2+2 and making 5...![]()
The whole conference was a fascinating hour - not only was I labelled a journalist (a promotion in my eyes, I'm a blogger and radio presenter really) but also I got to hear from people who are passionate about their work and also about the message that music, Sanremo and Eurovision provides for us fans, music professionals and general lovers of music. It was the first time I had heard Antonio Diodato talk at length and it is obvious he is a quiet and yet impassioned person - I hope that we do have the opportunity to hear him sing at Sanremo next year or even better that he gets the nod to be Italy's representative at Eurovision 2021. We will definitely be hearing new material from him soon that he has written during lockdown, so that is something positive and I am sure that his section at EESAL will be one of the most emotionally charged of the night, given the severity of the pandemic in Italy and how his nation has taken his song and his singing to their hearts. I hope that the Italian media went away with positive things to write for their television shows and news media for the next editions for the general public to read...
Claudio Fasulo (RAI 1, Deputy Director Entertainment 1)
Amadeus (presenter of Sanremo 2020)
Simona Martorelli (RAI Head of Delegation)
Jon Ola Sand (Executive Supervisor of Eurovision Song Contest)
and Diodato.
In his role as one of the executives at RAI, Claudio went first and summarised what would be happening on EESAL, some of which was new information for even myself who keeps close watch on all the news generated by Eurovision media:
- Each nation will have 20 seconds on its 2020 entry played on the show (good thing we have had the Song Celebration videos to enjoy each song in full);
- There will be played some unique moments to each nation - former stars to appear from Italy will include Mahmood, Francesco Gabbani, Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro and Il Volo;
- And what we knew already, there will be a choral version of 'Love Shine A Light' with all the 41 artists of 2020.
Amadeus obviously focused on the aspect that would have been more familiar (and visibly more interesting in some cases) to the assembled Italian journalists - Sanremo. It was nice to get some of his thoughts and memories of Diodato performing this year at the Teatro Ariston:
- He was really impressed by "Fai rumore" - he said that it had the 'art of Sanremo';
- Before the contest started, he had seen Diodato rehearse and he was fairly static - Amadeus told him 'Open up your arms as you sing!'. He felt that his song was going to win and he doesn't tire of listening to it months after he first heard it;
- Like all Italians, he loves how it has been embraced as a song to be sung during lockdown on their balconies.
Jon Ola was on the call too (having been introduced by Simona) and whether it was because he was talking to a bunch of Italians or maybe this entry had really got to the heart of this ultimate diplomat, but he was talking as though "Fai rumore" was a big favourite of his. The other things to come out of Jon Ola's piece:
- He was delighted that "Fai rumore" had become an anthem for the Italian public and that it had united them in song;
- He briefly flagged up that previous Eurovision artists would reach out to the current ones during EESAL;
- And that important monuments would be lit up across the Eurovision world, an example of which was shown to us at the conference...
Diodato sung "Fai rumore" in the empty Arena di Verona (a UNESCO World Heritage Site that dates back to 1AD and a major entertainment venue), with an illumination of the Italian flag cast across the structure. I don't want to spoil the visual imagery of what will happen but definitely watch out for that on Saturday - if all the entries have that link with a national monument then it will be a truly stunning programme to watch.
Next up was really the star of the press conference, Diodato himself. He indicated that when he wrote it, it was all his personal feelings about wanting to bring his humanity out and that winning Sanremo seemed, to him at least, to be his emotional peak. The next part I did a reasonable job of writing down what he said and I want to quote it, because he was speaking from his heart:
"this song became an anthem, a cry for freedom, a desire to express our humanity, a desire to sing from our balconies. I was moved as it reminded me that music gives a deep meaning to everything, it tells a story"
Hopefully the interpretation was correct as that is such a wonderful sentiment and as a Brit, it often seems to me that sometimes those from Southern Europe draw on the arts as a source of emotional healing and stability, often more so than us further north.
Listening to the videos of those in Italy singing Diodato's anthem together in neighbourhoods that perhaps had never connected in any way before is truly inspiring - the closest we have to this community spirit in the UK is clapping for key workers at 8pm each Thursday. As for Eurovision itself, he had already stated that he hadn't really watched it in the past but even though he was now not going to participate in the biggest music show in the world, he could still not see any negatives as what had happened during the lockdown was a massive gift, with barriers being wiped out and people were "all the same in this". He was proud to have been able to have sung his song at the Arena di Verona for EESAL, despite it being empty and he said after performing there:
Listening to the videos of those in Italy singing Diodato's anthem together in neighbourhoods that perhaps had never connected in any way before is truly inspiring - the closest we have to this community spirit in the UK is clapping for key workers at 8pm each Thursday. As for Eurovision itself, he had already stated that he hadn't really watched it in the past but even though he was now not going to participate in the biggest music show in the world, he could still not see any negatives as what had happened during the lockdown was a massive gift, with barriers being wiped out and people were "all the same in this". He was proud to have been able to have sung his song at the Arena di Verona for EESAL, despite it being empty and he said after performing there:
"When you sing in a historical place, alone, surrounded by a silence that breathes around you, you hear your voice resound, you hear it coming back after travelling in time with a different heritage and you really have the feeling of being in a suspended time"
I have to echo his sentiments - even though we only saw a matter of a few seconds of silent footage, the visual impression was absolutely incredible and I can only imagine that a lot of the fandom will be blubbering wrecks at the end of the two hours!
The Q&A session brought out information that I was unaware of - that Diodato had a passion for the cinema and that one of his songs had been on a movie soundtrack; that he'd love to do a tribute to Domenico Modugno someday, the legend of Italian music who not only came from the same place but also was part of the same record label (Carosello Records); when he travelled to film the EESAL footage at Verona, it was frustrating to only be able to talk to people at a distance and it felt strange to be out after being in lockdown; and that he was delighted to participate in the PreParty ES At Home online and would be delighted to go there for real next year. I had wanted to ask about the official Eurovision video for the song having English lyrics on it and whether there would be anything similar in Rotterdam, a bit like Italy's 2018 entry in Lisbon, but I realise now that I have to click the 'raise hand' button a lot quicker than I did!
The big question asked was about next year with respect to Sanremo and Eurovision. No clear cut answers there - Diodato said that he'd like to at least be a host or a guest singer but in the pre-conference interview, he said that he had yet to be asked. The interesting comment was from Claudio, where he said that Diodato could be the first singer to win Sanremo on consecutive years. That sounds like an invitation to participate at Italy's biggest musical event next year but the two comments combined didn't sound like we'd have an internal selection for Eurovision 2021 from Italy - perhaps it is just me adding 2+2 and making 5...
Could this be the moment that Italy falls back in love with Eurovision?
"Fai rumore" has already has won the fandom's hearts and minds!
"Fai rumore" has already has won the fandom's hearts and minds!