Italy announced this week that Emma Marrone will be its representative at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest (rather than just casually mention it during the Sanremo Music Festival). Marrone, a platinum-selling artist in Italy, will be performing the song “La mia cittá.”
I hate this song. Hate hate hate hate hate this song. Hate it. I hate it so much. I’ve listened to it several times now, and each time, I find something else I don’t like about it. It intentionally has an 1980s pop-rock sound (think Duran Duran’s “Girls on Film” meets J. Geils Band’s “Centerfold”), but I don’t think it’s even a good example of the genre. And besides, is it even a good idea to enter a music competition in 2014 with a song that sounds marginally better than 1989’s winner?
Jen is more apathetic than I am. She just found it boring. In fact, she might be in a worse place than me, because it doesn’t even register with her as a song worth caring about. What’s worse: a negative reaction or no reaction at all?
Emma is a dynamic performer with a terrific raspy, husky voice. She can bring the charisma live: see her performance with Modà, “Arriverà” from Sanremo 2011 as an example. I personally don’t think that “La mia cittá” is the song that is going to show Eurovision viewers just what she can do.
UPDATED 2 MARCH 2014: Here is a video of Emma performing “La mia cittá” at a Radio Italia show:
I think she looks like she’s trying too hard to be a rock star. I can’t see this continuing Italy’s hot streak at the Song Contest.