Namasté! Alè! On February 19 Francesco Gabbani spoke to Radio Nostalgia stating he was willing to keep his entry in his native language. Now it’s official: “Occidentali’s Karma” will remain 100% in Italian at Eurovision 2017. (Well, besides “Chanel”, “singing in the rain”, “namaste” and a few other foreign flourishes).

He made the announcement on Rai 1’s Friday primetime show “Standing Ovation”, hosted by Antonella Clerici, where he performed his his song, which remains #1 on the Italian FIMI Singles Chart for the second week in a row.

“It’s a great responsibility,” he said of representing Italy at Eurovision in Kyiv. “Another beautiful opportunity, an adventure I’m going to live with a lot of spontaneity. Actually, it’s what I always try to do. I hope to uphold the reputation of Italian music, so I will present the song in its original version, in Italian”.

Ahead of the news, all y’all wiwireaders out there had no doubt this was the right path to take.

Just a few days ago we asked you to vote in our poll to decide if Francesco should sing “Occidentali’s Karma” 100% in Italian, half Italian-half English or 100% in English.

The tribe didn’t just speak — it shouted! With a landslide of 84.29% of all votes cast, YOU stated that Sanremo 2017’s winner needs to bring the gorilla on stage in his fabulous Italian language. So it seems Italy has made the right choice! Amen!

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WHAT LANGUAGE SHOULD FRANCESCO CHOOSE FOR EUROVISION (POLL RESULTS)

  1. Italian 84.29% (1,722 votes)
  2. Half Italian-Half English 14.59% (298 votes)
  3. English 1.12% (23 votes)

Total Votes: 2,043

Are you happy with Italy’s decision? Could this choice lead to a third victory for the country? Let us know below!

FOLLOW ALL OF OUR ITALY EUROVISION NEWS HERE

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Sakis
Sakis
7 years ago

Milan2018 or Athens2018..?..Just wait 6th March for the Greek NF..
Sure Italy & Greece on Top5..Southern countries are back !

Austrian Ari
Austrian Ari
7 years ago

Wise choice. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

AngieP
AngieP
7 years ago

This is amazing news!
Every day I love this guy more and more!
That’s what I want from an artist: to represent his music and his country’s music and don’t try to make it more commercial or do what others do! Just keep it real!
It’s already awesome, the way it is!
Rome 2018 (or Turin, or Milan or whatever!)
Italy FTW!

William Gabbani
William Gabbani
7 years ago

William Lazarev !!! – Second place for Italy!

And for number one who?

EuroFan México
EuroFan México
7 years ago

Felicitaciones franchezco congrats from Mexico te soñé the monkey and your Carisma aré greath

Michaela
Michaela
7 years ago

Yaaay! Milan 2018 would be perfect, such a beautiful city 🙂

Bastian
Bastian
7 years ago

I cant get enough of it, this is just so d*mn perfect. Love, love loooooooooove it. I hope it wins esc! This will be a big hit in Europe once it’s performed on the big stage.

zetaesse
zetaesse
7 years ago

No way for #Rome2018 or #Turin2018, things are changed; both cities have now mayors from right-wing populist parties against any major event.
Maybe #Milan2018 or #Bologna2018… 🙂

Jana
Jana
7 years ago

I hope he wins! I’d love to see the Eurovision Song Contest in Italy. Good luck!

pff
pff
7 years ago

The Wanted – Chasing The Sun…….. coincidence? :/

William Lazarev !!!
William Lazarev !!!
7 years ago

Second place for Italy!

Abel
Abel
7 years ago

Really really hope that Italy will host next year. They are so relax, talk very much and they like gossip, it will be a new experience in a good way. And the can do Sanremo with orchestra so they can do a show don’t worry.

AndersP
AndersP
7 years ago

This is by far my favourite song so far this year, I’ve had it on repeat for a about a week. Keeping it in Italian is the right choice, I wish there were more songs in languages other than English. Having lived and worked in Italy and having watched Italian TV (especially Rai), my real concern if this wins is that if Rai can find a way of screwing up a TV format, they can and will and do. Expect an extra hour of faffing added to each show, and maybe an infomercial for memory foam mattresses as the interval… Read more »

Johnny
Johnny
7 years ago

Good choice to sing in italian.

Racal
Racal
7 years ago

YAS! Go Italy!! 🙂

kvira
kvira
7 years ago

Wouldn’t mind if it’s Turin

Anyway, the next problem is how to cut the song. It’s 30 sec, and if you want to keep the original song as much as it can be, the only possible solution is increasing the tempo and cutting unnecessary stuff that is too long (like that om at the end)

SECH
SECH
7 years ago

They sain it would be Turin if Italy won in 2015

kvira
kvira
7 years ago

With almost 30 million views on YouTube as of today, I can see that this is going to win. So, Rome anyone?

MARY
MARY
7 years ago

I dont like this type of song for Eurovision – not artistic stage for me – and live performance not enough good for me because this monkey makes me angry….. !!!!

blondboybc
blondboybc
7 years ago

Grazie, grazie, grazie Francesco for listening to the majority of fans who want it kept in Italiano! The language is beautiful, befits the song, and you can understand the meaning of the song with staging he uses! Wonderful news! 😀

Marc
Marc
7 years ago

Italy is so winning this year 😀

They trully deserve it 🙂

Colin
Colin
7 years ago

Thank you! This song is perfect. #Rome2018

Craig
Craig
7 years ago

Good call, but they’ll need to make sure the staging is on point to get the message of the song across

Polegend Godgarina
7 years ago

@ Chicken Kyiv? – that was true in 1997 but it’s no longer true in 2017. We’re ready to win, bye.

Polegend Godgarina
7 years ago

God is real! Too bad the juries don’t seem to like songs in foreign languages usually. I hope this will be a 2012 case where several songs with no English lyrics ranked high with the juries. We (Italy) do deserve to win this year, and this is coming from someone who has never ranked Italy’s entries in the top 10 since our comeback in 2011.

Jonas
Jonas
7 years ago

Israel in ’98 had a word everybody knows in all languages as its title, though, “Diva”. Couldn’t have hurt.

Il Volo won the televote in all Italian, Ruslana’s few English words were indecipherable, “Lane Moje” very nearly won for Serbia too, so all in all…

still on course for a great result, I would say.

Paul D.
Paul D.
7 years ago

Thank. God. Yass.

Chris (frostyw)
Chris (frostyw)
7 years ago

Namaste! Ale!

Chicken Kyiv?
Chicken Kyiv?
7 years ago

While Italy want to do well they want to make sure they don’t accidentally win. In the past 2 decades there have only been 2 winners without at least some English in (Israel 98 and Serbia 07)

real@winner
real@winner
7 years ago

@fikri
Who cares for France? The song is gonna finish 23rd, whether it is sung in French, English or Swahili

Jonas
Jonas
7 years ago

Well…technically not 100%…”singin’ in the rain”, anyone? Namaste! Allez! 🙂

Good news, though.

fikri
fikri
7 years ago

yay!

now let’s direct all our complaints to france so that they won’t butcher “requiem” with english.