After Italy's victory at the Eurovision Song Contest 2021, the country is preparing to host the 2022 edition in Turin: here are the details.
On May 23 2021, after 31 years, Italy won the Eurovision Song Contest for the third time thanks to Måneskin, a music band formed in Rome and composed by Damiano David, Victoria De Angelis, Thomas Raggi and Ethan Torchio.With the song "Zitti e Buoni", which had previously allowed the group to win the 71st edition of the Sanremo Festival, they conquered the public and the national juries, thus obtaining 524 votes that allowed them to place first in the standings by overcoming Switzerland and France. Not only that, the song also allowed the band to win the Eurostory award for the best text and to obtain after the final about 4 million plays in 24 hours on Spotify, setting this way the record for the song in Italian with the greatest number of stream ever on the platform in the same period of time. Furthermore, for the first time an Italian song made its entry into the Daily Top Ten realized by Spotify, finishing in the 9th place. The video of their final performance became the most viewed regarding the italian performances, surpassing the previous record set by the artist Mahmood. Before Måneskin, in fact, it was the Milanese singer-songwriter Alessandro Mahmoud in 2019 who brought Italy to the podium of the 64th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv, reaching the 2nd place with the song "Soldi", obtaining the prize Marcel Bezençon for best composition and becoming the most listened to Eurovision Song Contest song on Spotify globally.
Turin: the city selected to host the event
According to the customs of the Eurovision Song Contest, the winning country has the opportunity to host the event the following year: the 2022 edition will therefore take place in Italy, specifically in Turin. Following a selection that involved 17 Italian cities scattered throughout the country, the capital from Piedmont won and so it will host the 66th edition of the great European event at the PalaOlimpico (otherwise known as PalaAlpitour). The mayor Chiara Appendino had nominated the city on the 9th of July, and on the 8th of October she turned to the public on Twitter and social media to celebrate the victory with the message “We won, Turin won! WELCOME TO TURIN, EUROVISION SONG CONTEST 2022. We have brought to Turin the most followed musical event in the world!". The executive supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, Martin Österdahl, affirmed that the paralympic structure has all the requirements to host a large show such as the Eurovision Song Contest: in fact, the 2006 Olympics were held here. The other cities that reached the final stages of the section were Milan, Bologna, Rimini and Pesaro.
The necessary requisitions
The most important features requested by the host site, according to the Rai announcement published last July, were the following: an international airport no more than 90 minutes away, an hotel offer of over 2,000 rooms, a closed place with easy access, air conditioning, a capacity between 8,000 and 10,000 seats, a press center to accommodate 1,000 journalists, sufficient space for operational needs and security infrastructures, an area for dressing rooms and services such as toilets, food and drinks, a seat height of around 18 meters with good roof load capacities and easy access to the roof. These peculiarities have meant that places such as the Palazzo dello Sport dell’Eur in Rome and the Palazzo delle Scintille in Milan were not selected.
The Eurovision Song Contest in Italy
Among the eligible cities designed to host the event, to many had come to mind Naples: this last one had hosted the 1965 edition, by specifically building the Rai Auditorium, following the victory of Gigliola Cinquetti in 1964 with the song “Non ho l’età (per amarti)". In 1991 it was the turn of Rome, following Toto Cutugno's first place in 1990 with the song “Insieme", at the Cinecittà studios. The production surrounding the Eurovision Song Contest spans 9 weeks: 6 are required for the preparation of the event, 2 weeks are dedicated to the show itself and then there is 1 week dedicated to the dismantling and clearing of the venue. 40 delegations will arrive in Turin and more than 1,000 accredited international journalists will be involved. The production costs about 26 million euros to Rai: in fact, the latter asks for a free contribution to the city hosting the event. The semifinals will be held on the 10 and the 12 of May, while the final on the 14.
Detailed information, programmes and tickets will be published as soon as possible.
