Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014

Italy was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 with the song "La mia città", written and performed by Emma. The Italian participating broadcaster, RAI, internally selected its entry for the contest. The entry placed 21st in the final, scoring 33 points.

Background

Prior to the 2014 contest, RAI had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Italy forty times since its first entry during the inaugural contest in. Since then, it has won the contest on two occasions: in with the song "Non ho l'età" performed by Gigliola Cinquetti and in with the song "Insieme: 1992" performed by Toto Cutugno. RAI has withdrawn from the contest a number of times with its most recent absence spanning from 1998 until 2010. Its return in with the song "Madness of Love", performed by Raphael Gualazzi, placed second—their highest result, to this point, since their victory in 1990. It saw further success in and, placing ninth and seventh, respectively.
As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, RAI organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. The broadcaster has previously organised national finals and internal selections to select its Eurovision entry. Between 2011 and 2013, RAI 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. This method was again used for 2014.

Before Eurovision

Internal selection

On 22 January 2014, RAI announced that it had internally selected Emma Marrone to represent Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014. On 24 January 2014, RAI revealed that Emma would perform "La mia città" at the contest.

At Eurovision

As a member of the "Big Five", Italy automatically qualified for a place in the final, held on 10 May 2014. In addition to their participation in the final, Italy was assigned to vote in the second semi-final on 8 May 2014. During the Italian delegation's press conference on 6 May 2014, Italy was allocated to compete in the second half of the final. In the final, the producers of the show decided that Italy would perform 16th, following Russia and preceding Slovenia.
Italy placed 21st in the final out of 26, scoring 33 points. This represented one of the lowest placements in Italy's Eurovision Song Contest history – its lowest ever by absolute finishing position, but not its lowest relative finish or score.
On stage, Emma was joined by two guitarists, one keyboard player, one drummer and one backing vocalist, Arianna Mereu. The Italian performance is based on a concept of glam rock from the 70s combined with futuristic elements.
In Italy, the broadcast of the first and second semi-finals aired on Rai 4 with commentary by Marco Ardemagni and Filippo Solibello, while the final aired on Rai 2 with commentary by Linus and Nicola Savino. The Italian spokesperson revealing the result of the Italian vote in the final was Linus.

Voting

Points awarded by Italy

Score	Country
12 points
10 points
8 points
7 points
6 points
5 points
4 points
3 points
2 points
1 point

Score	Country
12 points
10 points
8 points
7 points
6 points
5 points
4 points
3 points
2 points
1 point

Detailed voting results

The following members comprised the Italian jury:

– Vice president Talent & Music of MTV Italy
Andrea Laffranchi – journalist
– singer
– songwriter, composer, musician
Francesco Pasquero – music manager

Draw	Country						Jury Rank	Televote Rank	Combined Rank	Points
01		2	2	4	4	1	2	11	6	5
02		8	5	11	12	11	10	9	12
03		10	8	6	14	10	11	14	13
04		11	11	2	1	9	5	13	11
05		4	7	15	11	2	6	3	2	10
06		3	3	3	2	5	3	2	1	12
07		7	10	7	3	13	7	10	10	1
08		1	1	1	5	3	1	8	3	8
09		15	15	13	15	14	15	15	15
10		13	13	14	13	15	14	12	14
11		6	6	12	10	12	9	7	9	2
12		14	12	8	6	8	12	4	8	3
13		9	9	10	9	6	8	5	5	6
14		5	4	5	7	4	4	6	4	7
15		12	14	9	8	7	13	1	7	4

Draw	Country						Jury Rank	Televote Rank	Combined Rank	Points
01		8	6	5	5	3	4	4	2	10
02		13	21	15	13	19	19	20	23
03		14	20	16	12	17	18	25	24
04		4	2	2	4	2	2	10	4	7
05		20	12	10	16	14	12	19	16
06		22	25	8	14	4	13	1	6	5
07		19	19	24	24	18	24	7	14
08		11	10	18	10	25	14	21	20
09		9	4	21	9	1	6	3	3	8
10		18	13	14	7	13	11	8	8	3
11		2	3	3	3	6	3	2	1	12
12		17	16	12	6	12	10	22	17
13		12	14	9	23	20	17	13	12
14		25	15	23	15	24	23	24	25
15		10	17	20	18	23	20	11	15
16
17		7	7	4	19	9	7	18	11
18		1	1	1	2	5	1	12	5	6
19		15	22	19	21	16	21	15	21
20		24	11	17	11	11	15	5	9	2
21		5	18	11	20	21	16	17	19
22		23	5	7	8	8	8	14	10	1
23		3	8	22	17	7	9	23	18
24		6	9	6	1	10	5	9	7	4
25		21	23	25	25	15	25	6	13
26		16	24	13	22	22	22	16	22