Let’s face it, for all the complaining that the Big 5 have it easy at the Eurovision Song Contest, it’s actually not so glamourous. Sure they get an automatic spot in the final, but for many years this didn’t translate into placing on the scoreboard!

In this new series, ‘Best of the Big 5’, Eurovision Ireland are going to put the spotlight on the contest’s major financial contributors and find out just who is your favourite for each country.

But as voting for 50+ songs for each member of the Big 5 would be a mammoth task, we’ll make it easier for you and split them down into 2 semi finals a la the contest, then combine these results for a final – and today we’re moving on to Italy!

07-21-03-16-06-05-02 … while it might look like the number of an Italian pizzeria, it’s actually Italy’s placings in the last 7 contests – and we think you’ll agree that out of all of the Big 5, Italy are easily the most consistently high ranked. Let’s face it, all but 2 of these most recent entries were in the Top 10! While we here at Eurovision Ireland are convinced a 3rd Italian victory will come at some point this decade, for now we’re going to look back over their back catalogue of Eurovision hits and decide which is your all time favourite.

As Italy have sent 45 songs to Eurovision over the decades, we’ve split them down the middle by odd and even numbers, depending on what year they entered the contest. So these are Italy’s Odd Year Entries – songs that entered in years ending in 1,3,5,7 or 9.

Your favourite not here? Don’t worry! Even Year Entries will come next week! The Top 10 entries from both semi finals will go on to a grand final, which will then crown your favourite Italian Eurovision entry and give them a coveted spot in the Hall of Fame alongside Pastora Soler from Spain!

Author: James Scanlan
Source: Eurovision Ireland