Back Italia en el Festival de la Canción de Eurovisión 1958 Spanish Italie au Concours Eurovision de la chanson 1958 French איטליה באירוויזיון 1958 HE Italië op het Eurovisiesongfestival 1958 Dutch Itália no Festival Eurovisão da Canção 1958 Portuguese Италия на «Евровидении-1958» Russian 1958 Eurovision Şarkı Yarışması'nda İtalya Turkish
| Eurovision Song Contest 1958 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country |  Italy | |||
| National selection | ||||
| Selection process | Sanremo Music Festival 1958 | |||
| Selected entrant | Domenico Modugno | |||
| Selected song | "Nel blu dipinto di blu" | |||
| Selected songwriter(s) |
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| Finals performance | ||||
| Final result | 3rd, 13 points | |||
| Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest | ||||
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Italy was represented by Domenico Modugno, with the song '"Nel blu dipinto di blu", at the 1958 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 12 March in Hilversum, Netherlands. Broadcaster RAI chose the winning song from the Sanremo Music Festival 1958 as their Eurovision entry: the song had been performed twice at Sanremo and Modugno was chosen over Johnny Dorelli as the performer.
Although "Nel blu dipinto di blu" did not win at Eurovision, it went on after the contest (under the title "Volare") to become a huge worldwide hit. The song spent five weeks at the top of the US Singles Chart, was later named the Billboard Year-End number one single for 1958, and won two Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. It is also one of only three non-British / non-winning Eurovision songs ever to have reached the top 10 in the United Kingdom.
"Volare"'s popularity has not diminished with time and it rapidly assumed the status of a worldwide musical standard. It is invariably cited, along with ABBA's "Waterloo", as globally the most successful and instantly recognisable song ever to have emerged from Eurovision.