Italy’s Tonina Torrielli: ‘I didn’t know I was singing at the first Eurovision’ & More News Here

When Tonina Torrielli represented Italy in the Eurovision music contest in Lugano, Switzerland, in May 1956, not solely did she by no means uncover how properly her music carried out, as simply the winner was introduced after a secret vote, however she was not even conscious she was participating in the first version of what was to turn out to be the largest music competitors in the world.

“They packed me off, just like a parcel, to Lugano, without saying what it was for,” mentioned Torrielli, who lives in Turin, the place the 66th Eurovision music contest is happening. “So I went and sang and that was that, I didn’t know it was the first European song contest as nobody was talking about it.”

Her profession singing in music competitions lasted till the mid-Sixties when she opened a music store referred to as Maschio on Piazza Castello in the centre of Turin along with her late husband, Mario Maschio, who was a drummer.

The store additionally grew to become well-known, and for the subsequent 4 many years was the place to go for music aficionados. “Even today, people come and ask: ‘Where is Maschio?’” mentioned Shpetim Xhani, a concierge at the constructing subsequent door. “It was very well known; people came from everywhere as you could find every kind of music there.”

Maschio could also be gone – a garments store has changed it – however music fever could be very a lot in the air as Piazza Castello and different squares and parks round Turin fill with buskers and native musical acts in the leadup to the Eurovision grand remaining on Saturday.

“There’s a really lovely atmosphere,” mentioned Dino Ricchiuti, who was taking part in his saxophone steps away from Maschio, the place he used to buy musical gear. “After two years of the pandemic, which caused a lot of bands to stop working, Turin has sprung back to life.”

Italy is internet hosting Eurovision for the first time in 31 years after the glam pop band Måneskin gained the 2021 version with a showstopping efficiency of Zitti e buoni. The band from Rome have loved phenomenal success since, together with supporting the Rolling Stones at a live performance in the US in November.

Måneskin’s victory, together with the indisputable fact that Italy is that this yr’s host, has helped revive the contest in a rustic that has withdrawn from the occasion on quite a few events over the final 66 years, citing lack of curiosity.

In 1974, Rai, the state broadcaster, censored the competitors over fears that the title of Italy’s music, Si, sung by Gigliola Cinquetti, who was Italy’s first Eurovision winner in 1964, might need given a nod to the public to vote sure in assist of a forthcoming referendum on divorce. Italy final withdrew from the competitors in 1997, returning in 2011.

Now the nation is the most profitable amongst the “big five” computerized qualifiers, together with France, Germany, Spain and the UK, after ending in the high 10 in eight of the final 10 contests. Mahmood, who got here second in 2019, is once more competing this yr, singing Brividi, a traditional Italian ballad, in duet with Blanco.

“It’s hard to compare this contest with the last one, although we’re very happy to be representing Italy on home soil,” mentioned Mahmood. “We’re really ready for it, and hope to give it our best so that our music gets better known abroad.”

Torrielli bought her large break singing competitively in the Sanremo music pageant, which started a number of years earlier and was the inspiration behind the Eurovision music contest. Still wildly well-liked in Italy as we speak, whoever wins Sanremo goes on to sing for the nation at Eurovision.

Torrielli, nicknamed “Candy Girl” as a result of she labored in a candy manufacturing facility, grew to become an in a single day sensation when she beat greater than 6,400 hopefuls from throughout Italy to earn a spot amongst the 15 who competed in the Sanremo pageant in March 1956.

“The owner of the factory would hear me singing opera songs, and so pushed me to take part,” mentioned Torrielli, 88. Her music, Amami se vuoi, got here second, however as a result of the first Eurovision allowed two songs for every of the seven international locations that participated, Torrielli represented Italy together with that yr’s Sanremo winner, Franca Raimondi.

Torrielli once more competed in Sanremo, coming third in 1957 and second in 1958, and travelled the world to participate in different music festivals.

Federico Capitoni, a journalist and music critic, mentioned Eurovision had turn out to be extra trendy in Italy, largely due to Måneskin, however Sanremo nonetheless dominated the roost. “If you think about who’s participated at Eurovision in the past, nobody remembers who they are,” he mentioned.

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Not fairly true. Torrielli, who spoke from hospital, the place she had had an operation after a latest accident, nonetheless receives fan mail. There can be a web page devoted to her on Facebook, the place supporters share clips of her songs.

Surprisingly, nonetheless, she just isn’t such a giant fan of her personal music. “If you asked me the lyrics to my own songs, I wouldn’t remember,” she mentioned. “But ask me to sing the likes of Mi chiamano mimi [by Puccini], I know them all by heart as opera is the music I love.”

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