Second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, which saw the presence on stage of Angelina Mango with his “La Noia”, which won the Sanremo festival. The Italian singer was not officially competing this evening, as Italy had already qualified for Saturday’s final. However, it was a very important test for the young artist representing our country to test the international audience of the Malmo Arena.
Israel will also be on stage this evening with Eden Golan, booed by the audience in the room. It is not the first time for the Israeli singer, who already during the trials had to deal with public protest, linked not to her performance but to the international context, which sees her country at war with Palestine. There was much controversy on the eve of Israel’s presence at Eurovision, especially because Palestinian flags were not allowed inside the arena, in compliance with the apolitical spirit of the event. “You are competing successfully in the face of a bad wave of antisemitism and you are resisting all this by representing the State of Israel with great honor“, was the message of the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a video message. Then he added: “When they ‘boo’ you, we shout ‘hurray’ for you“. During the protests in Malmo against Israel’s participation, Greta Thunberg was also intercepted. Israel will be in the final on Saturday.
One of the songs that was most successful in the second evening was that of Spain, which with Nebula brought to the stage”Zorra“, a hymn to female freedom. “Zorra”, which translates into “bitch”, is a rather common insult aimed at women, to denigrate and devalue them and it is with this song that the Iberian representative claims the freedom of every woman to go out alone, to dress as she wants and do what she feels like, without being judged and insulted for this. On stage, Nebulossa appeared on stage with two dancers thong. A timid reception, however, for Mango. The Italian brought a particularly animated performance to Eurovision with impactful choreography and particularly elaborate costumes. But her “cumbia” doesn’t seem to have caught on with the audience, except in the last part and when the Italian singer let her voice go with an a cappella piece: at that point the applause broke out.
But Italy’s victory looks increasingly distant but not impossible: on Saturday Angelina will have to convince the European public, considering that Italy cannot vote for its representative.
