Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017
| Eurovision Song Contest 2017 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country |
 Italy
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| National selection | ||||
| Selection process |
Artist: Sanremo 2017 Song: Internal selection |
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| Selection date(s) |
Artist: 11 February 2017 Song: TBD |
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| Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest | ||||
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Italy will participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. Italian broadcaster Radiotelevisione italiana (RAI) announced in October 2016 that the winning performer(s) of the Big Artists section of the Sanremo Music Festival 2017 will have the right to represent the nation at the Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev, Ukraine. The selected performer will also be given the right to choose their own song to compete with at Eurovision.
Prior to the 2017 Contest, Italy had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest forty-two times since its first entry during the inaugural contest in 1956. Since then, Italy has won the contest on two occasions: in 1964 with the song "Non ho l'età" performed by Gigliola Cinquetti and in 1990 with the song "Insieme: 1992" performed by Toto Cutugno. Italy has withdrawn from the Eurovision Song Contest a number of times with their most recent absence spanning from 1998 until 2010. Their return in 2011 with the song "Madness of Love", performed by Raphael Gualazzi, placed second—their highest result, to this point, since their victory in 1990. In 2016, Francesca Michielin represented the nation with the song "No Degree of Separation", placing sixteenth with 124 points.
The Italian national broadcaster, Radiotelevisione italiana (RAI), broadcasts the event within Italy and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. RAI confirmed Italy's participation in the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest on 16 September 2016. Between 2011 and 2013, the broadcaster used the Sanremo Music Festival as an artist selection pool where a special committee would select one of the competing artist, independent of the results in the competition, as the Eurovision entrant. The selected entrant was then responsible for selecting the song they would compete with. For 2014, RAI forewent using the Sanremo Music Festival artist lineup and internally selected their entry. Since 2015, the winning artist of the Sanremo Music Festival is rewarded with the opportunity to represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest, although in 2016 the winner declined and the broadcaster appointed the runner-up as the Italian entrant.
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