Eurovision Song Contest 2019: Madonna, Mahmood, Holland and the Middle East

Netherlands’ Duncan Laurence wins and Mahmood, who comes so close he can taste it, scores 2^nd place for Italy. the Eurovision Song Contest is an event that shouldn’t be missed, to watch with your friends while rooting for your country, but also to discover different musicality, curious characters, very special performances that one would never normally see during any other national festivals (here in Italy we have San Remo, how about you guys?) In the coming days I will celebrate Mahmood with my violin, but to see this, you will have to “land” on my Youtube channel (click here https://www.youtube.com/andreacastatv)

THE RANKING OF MY TOP 10 MEMORABLE MOMENTS OF THIS FINALE

10) The evening opens with Netta Barzilai who, in airplane pilot version, takes the event to Israel thanks to her success with “Toy” in Lisbon last year (2018).

9) For Russia, here’s their star Sergey Lazarev, who already 3 years ago hauled his country all the way to the final. This time he sings “Scream” while visibly multiplying on stage thanks a choreography with several mirrors.

8) The favourite to win, Duncan Laurence of the Netherlands intones “Arcade”, a ballad about lost love (in the videoclip, the former competitor of ‘The Voice’ Holland is immersed in a large tank completely naked… remind you of anything? https://youtu.be/lsVgDyAr7xI).

7) Greece introduces itself with Katerine Duska who sings “Better Love”: hopefully on June 30^th at the Colour Day Festival in Athens (where I will be playing!) she will be there too 😉

6) Iceland sends in Hatari with “Hatrid mun sigra”, the most impressive performance of Eurovision 2019: an apocalyptic future where hatred will win, this is the anti-capitalistic message of the song. In other words, bits and pieces of The Space Violin Project scattered here and there in the Festival…

5) At 10.50pm it’s Italy’s turn. Mahmood and three dancers are on stage with “Soldi”, the first song in Italian euro visual history with verses in Arabic. The Milanese artist warms up the arena, everyone is clapping rhythmically and end by all chanting “bravo, bravo”.

4) A performance with great visual impact for Australia: Kate Miller Heidke flies with her “Zero Gravity”.

3) While waiting for the final verdict, Veronica Ciccone, in art Madonna, kicks it off with her hit “Like a Prayer” and ends with her new single “future”. She starts by hitting the wrong note, but quickly unites Israel and Palestine in peace, she’s always ahead and significant.

2) The announcement of the winner is a crescendo of emotions for Italy: for the technical juries Mahmood is fourth with 212 points, but the Milanese artist receives 253 points through televoting and gains a total of 492 points, Italy propels nice and high, but first place goes to the Netherlands.

1) Next year, therefore, the gigantic machine of the “festival of festivals” will relocate to the land of tulips.