Non Mi Avete Fatto Niente by Ermal Meta and Fabrizo Moro
I’ve seldom been so pleased as to learn the Italian broadcaster RAI has finally embraced YouTube and made the San Remo performances available on demand. I was able to watch all this year’s entries in a little over an hour rather than the 5 or so you need to commit to each night for 5 nights, if you followed the whole thing live.
If you thought France might give the EBU a headache with a song about the migrant crisis, Italy’s even bolder with a song that places extremist terrorism under the Eurovision spotlight.
To pass the rules, it is, of course, a more humanitarian theme, but there’s no avoiding the song’s purpose, particularly given the video. Here the visuals are quite clever. The Italian singing is given subtitles in an ever-changing parade of languages. If you have some basic knowledge of a couple-or-three of these the impact is stark.
On stage though, this trick won’t be able to be used, and if you don’t understand Italian, or have the visible cues an LED backdrop could otherwise provide, you might come away from this thinking it’s just a pair of Italian men shouting at one another. There is a melody, of course, and if you’re attuned to Italian music you’ll be more disposed to this, but having seen Italy have a decent tilt at the title in most years since their comeback, this year feels way off the mark.
My marks: 6 points
Will it qualify? N/A Big 5