1.
Naples
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Naples is the capital of the Italian region Campania and the third-largest municipality in Italy, after Rome and Milan. In 2015, around 975,260 people lived within the administrative limits. The Metropolitan City of Naples had a population of 3,115,320, Naples is the 9th-most populous urban area in the European Union with a population of between 3 million and 3.7 million. About 4.4 million people live in the Naples metropolitan area, Naples is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Bronze Age Greek settlements were established in the Naples area in the second millennium BC, a larger colony – initially known as Parthenope, Παρθενόπη – developed on the Island of Megaride around the ninth century BC, at the end of the Greek Dark Ages. Naples remained influential after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, thereafter, in union with Sicily, it became the capital of the Two Sicilies until the unification of Italy in 1861. Naples was the most-bombed Italian city during World War II, much of the citys 20th-century periphery was constructed under Benito Mussolinis fascist government, and during reconstruction efforts after World War II. The city has experienced significant economic growth in recent decades, and unemployment levels in the city, however, Naples still suffers from political and economic corruption, and unemployment levels remain high. Naples has the fourth-largest urban economy in Italy, after Milan, Rome and it is the worlds 103rd-richest city by purchasing power, with an estimated 2011 GDP of US$83.6 billion. The port of Naples is one of the most important in Europe, numerous major Italian companies, such as MSC Cruises Italy S. p. A, are headquartered in Naples. The city also hosts NATOs Allied Joint Force Command Naples, the SRM Institution for Economic Research, Naples is a full member of the Eurocities network of European cities. The city was selected to become the headquarters of the European institution ACP/UE and was named a City of Literature by UNESCOs Creative Cities Network, the Villa Rosebery, one of the three official residences of the President of Italy, is located in the citys Posillipo district. Naples historic city centre is the largest in Europe, covering 1,700 hectares and enclosing 27 centuries of history, Naples has long been a major cultural centre with a global sphere of influence, particularly during the Renaissance and Enlightenment eras. In the immediate vicinity of Naples are numerous culturally and historically significant sites, including the Palace of Caserta, culinarily, Naples is synonymous with pizza, which originated in the city. Neapolitan music has furthermore been highly influential, credited with the invention of the romantic guitar, according to CNN, the metro stop Toledo is the most beautiful in Europe and it won also the LEAF Award 2013 as Public building of the year. Naples is the Italian city with the highest number of accredited stars from the Michelin Guide, Naples sports scene is dominated by football and Serie A club S. S. C. Napoli, two-time Italian champions and winner of European trophies, who play at the San Paolo Stadium in the south-west of the city, the Phlegraean Fields around Naples has been inhabited since the Neolithic period. The earliest Greek settlements were established in the Naples area in the second millennium BC, sailors from the Greek island of Rhodes established a small commercial port called Parthenope on the island of Megaride in the ninth century BC
2.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
3.
Renata Mauro
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Renata Mauro was a popular Italian television presenter for RAI. She became known to audiences for hosting game show Jeux Sans Frontieres. Biblioteca di Studio Uno, Al Grand Hotel, flemmy Feeling Biblioteca di Studio Uno, La primula rossa. Una nobildonna La sciarpa TV mini-series Il giorno più corto, erede Siciliana aka Il giorno più corto commedia umoristica aka The Shortest Day Il relitto aka The Wastrel The Naked Maja. Maja aka La maja desnuda aka La maja nue Come te movi, aka Move and Ill Shoot List of Eurovision Song Contest presenters Renata Mauro at the Internet Movie Database
4.
Gianni Ferrio
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Gianni Ferrio was an Italian composer, conductor and music arranger. Born in Vicenza, Ferrio studied at conservatories of Vicenza and Venice and he started working at the end of the fifties, and was pretty active as a composer of film scores, signing about 120 sound-tracks especially for spaghetti westerns and commedie sexy allitaliana films. His piece One Silver Dollar, the theme to Giorgio Ferronis Blood for a Silver Dollar, was later included in Quentin Tarantinos Inglourious Basterds. The last collaboration with Mina was for her 2012 album 12 and he was the official conductor for Sanremo Music Festival in 1959 and 1962 and for the Eurovision Song Contest 1965. He also took part, as conductor, in several important Italian TV-shows, Ferrio was married to ballerina and film actress Alba Arnova. Gianni Ferrio website Gianni Ferrio at the Internet Movie Database Gianni Ferrio at Discogs
5.
RAI
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RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S. p. A. is Italys national public broadcasting company, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many DVB and Sat television channels and radio stations, broadcasting via digital terrestrial transmission and it is the biggest television broadcaster in Italy and competes with Mediaset, and other minor television and radio networks. RAI has a high television audience share of 33. 8%. Sometimes Rai 1 was received even further in Europe via Sporadic E until the switch off in July 2012. Half of RAIs revenues come from broadcast receiving licence fees, the rest from the sale of advertising time, in 1950, RAI became one of the 23 founding broadcasting organizations of the European Broadcasting Union. The Unione Radiofonica Italiana was formed in 1924 with the backing of the Marconi Company following a model adopted in other European countries, URI made its inaugural broadcast — a speech by Benito Mussolini at Teatro Costanzi — on 5 October. Regular programming began the evening, with a quartet performing Haydns Quartet No.7 in A major from the Palazzo Corradi. At 21.00 CET, Ines Donarelli Viviani announced for the first time, to all those who are listening our greetings, good evening. Guglielmo Marconis S. A. Radiofono—Società Italiana per le Radiocomunicazioni Circolari held 85% of URI shares, under the provisions of Royal Decree No.2191 of 14 October 1924 Concessione dei servizi radioauditivi circolari alla Società Anonima Unione Radiofonica Italiana. During the reconstruction following World War II, much of RAIs early programming was influenced by the Reithian style of the BBC, the emphasis was on educational content. Programs like Non è mai troppo tardi and Un viaggio al Po introduced people to life was like in other parts of the country. Over the following years RAI made various changes to its services, Rai reorganized its radio stations in November 1946 into two national networks, Rete Rossa and Rete Azzurra. Rai added the culture-based Terzo Programma in October 1950, on 1 January 1952 the Rete Rossa became the Programma Nazionale and the Rete Azzurra became the Secondo Programma. The three radio channels eventually became todays Rai Radio 1, Rai Radio 2, and Rai Radio 3. On 3 January at 11.00 CET, the first RAI television announcer presented the days schedule, at 14.30, the first regular programme in Italian television history was broadcast, Arrivi e partenze, hosted by Armando Pizzo and Mike Bongiorno. The evenings entertainment was a performance, Losteria della posta. 23.15 saw the start of the days concluding programme, RAI was originally the subsidiary of RAI Holding S. p. A. RAI Holding was absorbed into RAI as of 1 December 2004, RAI is governed by a nine-member Administrative Council
6.
Mario Del Monaco
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Mario Del Monaco was an Italian operatic tenor who earned worldwide acclaim for his powerful voice. Del Monaco was born in Florence to a musical upper-class family, as a young boy he studied the violin but had a passion for singing. He graduated from the Rossini Conservatory at Pesaro, where he first met and sang with Renata Tebaldi and his early mentors as a singer included Arturo Melocchi, his teacher at Pesaro, and Maestro Raffaelli, who recognized his talent and helped launch his career. That career began in earnest with Del Monacos debut on 31 December 1940 as Pinkerton at the Puccini Theater in Milan and he sang in Italy during the Second World War and married, in 1941, Rina Filipini. In 1946, he appeared at Londons Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, during the ensuing years he became famous not only in London but also across the operatic world for his powerful voice and heroic acting style. It was almost heldentenor-like in scope but Del Monaco was no Wagnerian, Del Monaco sang at the New York Metropolitan Opera from 1951 to 1959, enjoying particular success in dramatic Verdi parts such as Radamès. He soon established himself as one of four Italian tenor superstars who reached the peak of their fame in the 1950s and 60s, Del Monacos trademark roles during this period were Giordanos Andrea Chénier and Verdis Otello. He first tackled Otello in 1950 and kept refining his interpretation throughout his career and it is said that he sang Otello an astonishing 427 times. However, the published by Elisabetta Romagnolo, Mario Del Monaco, Monumentum aere perennius, Azzali 2002, lists only 218 appearances by him as Otello. Aptly, the tenor was buried in his Otello costume, Del Monaco made his first recordings in Milan in 1948 for HMV. Later, he was partnered by Renata Tebaldi in a series of Verdi. On the same label was his 1969 recording of Giordanos Fedora, opposite Magda Olivero and his ringing voice and virile appearance earned him the nickname of the Brass Bull of Milan. Despite his idiomatic phrasing, he was widely criticized for being unsubtle. In this regard, the soprano Magda Olivero noted in a recent interview that, When Del Monaco and I sang Francesca da Rimini together at La Scala he explained his whole vocal technique to me. When he finished I said, My dear Del Monaco, if I had to put into all the things you’ve told me, I’d stop singing right away. The technique was so complicated, you push the larynx down, then you push this up, then you do that—in short, it made my head spin just to hear everything he did. Francesca has a phrase, Paolo, datemi pace, marked piano, and then Paolo enters with Inghirlandata di violette. Instead, Del Monaco was terrible—he bellowed the phrase, when he listened to the playback he exclaimed, I can’t believe it
7.
Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Ireland has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 50 times since making its debut at the 1965 Contest in Naples. Since then, they have missed only two contests, in 1983 in Munich and 2002 in Tallinn, Ireland is the most successful country in the contest, with a total of seven wins. Raidió Teilifís Éireann is Irelands representative broadcaster at the contest, the semi-finals are broadcast on RTÉ Two, All of the Irish entries have been performed in English with the exception of the 1972 entry, Ceol an Ghrá, which was sung in Irish. Sean Dunphy finished second at the 1967 contest, behind Sandie Shaw, before Dana gave Ireland its first victory in 1970, the countrys next best result of the 1970s was in 1977, when The Swarbriggs plus two finished third. Johnny Logan gave Ireland a second victory in 1980, with Whats Another Year, Logan then wrote the 1984 entry Terminal 3, which finished second, performed by Linda Martin. In 1987, Logan became the first and only performer to win the contest twice, Irelands most successful decade to date in the contest is the 1990s, which began with Liam Reilly finishing joint second in 1990. Ireland then achieved a three consecutive victories in the contest. In 1992,1984 runner-up Linda Martin returned to win with another Johnny Logan composition and this was followed up by Niamh Kavanaghs victory over Sonia in 1993 with In Your Eyes and Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan winning in 1994 with Rock n Roll Kids. The decade saw yet another victory in 1996 when Eimear Quinn won with The Voice, Ireland also finished second in 1997 with Marc Roberts. In the 21st century, Ireland has fared well, only reaching the top 10 on three occasions, with Eamonn Toal sixth in 2000, Brian Kennedy tenth in 2006 and Jedward eighth in 2011. Ireland finished last in the final for the first time in 2007, since the introduction of the semi-final round in 2004, Ireland has failed to reach the final six times, in 2005,2008,2009,2014,2015 and 2016. 2016 marked the first time that Ireland failed to qualify in three consecutive years, Ireland has competed in the Contest almost continuously since the countrys debut in 1965. In 1983 a strike at the national broadcaster RTÉ meant that the station lacked the resources to send a participant so RTÉ broadcast the Contest with the BBC commentary feed. In 2002 Ireland was relegated from the Contest, in keeping with the EBU rules, RTÉ broadcast that years event as they intended to return in 2003, and a TV commentator was sent to the host city, Tallinn. Ireland has sent 50 entries to the Eurovision Song Contest, of these seven have won, Ireland has been relegated once, in 2001 Gary OShaughnessy finished twenty-first with Without Your Love. In addition, six Irish entries have featured in the semi-final of the Contest, in 2005, Donna & Joe finished fourteenth in the pre-qualifier, failing to qualify for the final. In 2006, Brian Kennedy finished ninth in the semi-final, ensuring an Irish presence in the Athens final, Kennedy finished tenth in the final. Ireland also featured in the first semi-final in 2008 and in the second semi-final in 2009, Irelands recent results in the Contest have been poor in comparison to the 1990s, coming last in 2007 and 2013
8.
Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Sweden has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 56 times since making its debut in 1958, missing only three contests since then. Sweden is one of the most successful competing nations at the Eurovision, with a total of six victories in the contest, Sweden is also the contests most successful country of the 21st century, with two wins from nine top five results. In total, Sweden has achieved 23 top five results in the contest, since 1959, the Swedish entry has been chosen through an annual televised competition, known since 1967 as Melodifestivalen. At the 1997 contest, Sweden was one of the first five countries to adopt televoting, Swedens first entrant in the contest was Alice Babs in 1958, who was placed fourth. This remained the countrys best result until 1966, when Lill Lindfors, Swedens first Eurovision victory was in 1974 with the song Waterloo, performed by ABBA. Thanks to their victory in Brighton, ABBA went on to worldwide success. In the 1980s, Sweden achieved three top three results. After Carola finished third in 1983, the Herreys gave Sweden its second victory in 1984 with Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley, kikki Danielsson then finished third in 1985. Carola returned to the contest in 1991, to give the Swedes their third win with Fångad av en stormvind, charlotte Nilsson gave the country a second win of the decade in 1999, with Take Me to Your Heaven. The 1990s also saw two third-place results, for Jan Johansen in 1995 and One More Time in 1996, in 2010, Anna Bergendahl became the first Swedish entrant to fail to make it to the final, finishing 11th in the semifinal, only five points from qualification. They also finished third in 2011 with Eric Saade and Popular, third in 2014 with Sanna Nielsen and Undo, and fifth with Frans and the song If I Were Sorry in 2016. Sweden has hosted the Eurovision Song Contest six times and is the country to have hosted the event in five different decades. Together with Croatia and Malta it was the country to never be relegated, under the previous rules of the contest. Melodifestivalen is a music competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television. It has chosen the representative for the Eurovision Song Contest since 1959. It is Swedens most popular shows, and it has been estimated that more than 4 million Swedes watch the show annually. Almost every Swedish entry for Eurovision has been selected through Melodifestivalen, only Swedens first entry in 1958, was not selected through Melodifestivalen, having been selected internally by the Swedish broadcaster at the time, Swedish Radio Service. ^ In 2008, Sweden qualified through the back-up jury selection, If a country had won the previous year, they did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year
Luxembourg
Finland – Cay Idström, Benedikt Zilliacus, Jutta Zilliacus, Esko Mustonen, Juhani Valsta, Antti Wahlström, Bojen Huldén, Albert Pelli, Leena Lehtonen, Anssi Sinnemäki[13]
