Italy was one of the seven participating countries to take part in the first contest in 1956. The Eurovision Song Contest was initially inspired by the Italian Sanremo Music Festival, held annually since 1951 in the city ofSanremo. Since their debut Italy has taken part 37 times, and has won the contest twice - in 1964 with the song "Non ho l'età" performed by Gigliola Cinquetti, and in 1990 with "" performed by Toto Cutugno. Italy has also come 2nd once - again with Gigliola Cinquetti and the song "Sì", and 3rd four times - including the global hit song "Nel blu dipinto di blu", also known as "Volare", performed by Domenico Modugno in 1958. Italy has also hosted the contest twice - in 1965 in Naples, and in 1991 in Rome. Since their debut Italy has withdrawn from the contest a number of times. The first occurrence was in 1981, claiming that interest in the contest in Italy had diminished. Italy returned in 1983, and withdrew again in 1986, returning the following year. In 1994 Italy withdrew again, before returning again in 1997. After the 1997 Contest Italy withdrew again, and did not return until the 2011 Contest.
Return to Eurovision
Since their withdrawal in 1997 the EBU, the organisers of the Eurovision Song Contest, had worked hard to bring Italy back to Eurovision. Since the 2009 Contest the country's return - along with that of Monaco and Austria - was made a priority of the EBU. In September 2010 it was announced by Massimo Liofredi, chairman of Rai 2, that the winner of the fourth series of the Italian version of The X Factor may represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest 2011, rather than compete in the Sanremo Music Festival as in previous years. This raised hopes that Italy would return to Eurovision after 14 years of absence. On 2 December 2010 the EBU announced on the official Eurovision website that Italy had applied for the 2011 Contest, set to be held on 10, 12 and 14 May 2011 in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Sanremo 2011
On 1 February, RAI announced that the Italian entry would be chosen through the Sanremo festival 2011, to be held between 15–19 February 2011. A specific jury was set up to choose the artist and song best fit to represent Italy in Düsseldorf, thus, the winner of the Sanremo contest wouldn't necessarily be the Eurovision entrant. All songs competing in both the established artists' section and the newcomers' section were eligible for Eurovision. On 19 February, during the final, Raphael Gualazzi, winner of the "Giovani" section with the song "Follia d'amore", was announced as the Italian Eurovision entrant in Düsseldorf, Germany. The six member jury set up to choose the Eurovision entry was composed ofGianni Morandi, Mauro Mazza, Massimo Liofredi, Marco Simeon, Maurizio Zoccarato and Giorgio Giuffra.
"Artisti (Big Singers)" section
Legend:
"Giovani (New Generation)" section
At Eurovision
Italy automatically qualified for the grand final, on 14 May 2011; as part of the "Big Five", and would vote in the second semi-final. At the finals, the Italian entry performed 12th and in the voting, was placed second to the Azerbaijani entry Running Scared by Ell and Nikki with 189 points.
Split results
In the Final Italy came 2nd with 189 points: the public awarded Italy 11th place with 99 points and the jury awarded 1st place with 251 points.
