Absences
Italy has withdrawn from the Eurovision Song Contest a number of times. The first withdrawal was in 1981, when RAI stated that interest had diminished in the country. This absence continued through the following year, before Italy returned in 1983. Italy again withdrew in 1986 when RAI decided not to enter the contest. From 1994 to 1996 Italy withdrew again, with RAI citing a lack of interest in participating. Italy returned in 1997, before withdrawing again without explaining any reason, and the country did not participate again before making a comeback in 2011.
None of the Eurovision winning songs were particularly successful in the Italian charts. "Non ho l'eta" by Gigliola Cinquetti (Grand Prix 1964) was a hit in February 1964 when the song won the Sanremo festival, but according to the official "Hit Parade Italia" website, "Waterloo", "Ding-A-Dong", "Puppet on a String", "Save Your Kisses for Me" and even Italy's own winning entry of 1990, "Insieme: 1992", all failed to enter the TOP 10 of the records sales charts. A notable exception to this rule is however the 1984 entry "I treni di Tozeur" by Alice and Franco Battiato which only finished shared 5th in the actual contest, but still became a #3 hit in Italy and which also placed as #20 on the chart of the best-selling singles in Italy of 1984.
Read more about this topic: Italy In The Eurovision Song Contest
Famous quotes containing the word absences:
“The spirit of God, like the sun, always gives all its light at once. The spirit of man resembles the pale moon, which has its phases, its absences and its returns, its lucidity and its spots, its fullness and its disappearance, which borrows all its light from the rays of the sun, and which still dares to intercept them on occasion.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
“If youth but knew; if age but could.
Wives in their husbands’ absences grow subtler,
And daughters sometimes run off with the butler.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“Wives in their husbands’ absences grow subtler,
And daughters sometimes run off with the butler.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)