Earlier this year Italy’s Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro won the always competitive Sanremo Festival with their powerful song “Non Mi Avete Fatto Niente”. The song, which translates as “You haven’t done anything to me”, takes inspiration from a powerful line written by the partner of a victim at the Bataclan attack in Paris: “You will not have my hate, you will not have my fear.”
During their first rehearsal at Eurovision 2018, the duo made it clear they want to spread this message of hope — that we can and should continue to live our lives in an age of terror — to as many people as possible. To do so they use multi-lingual overlay displayed on the television, conveying key messages from the song in 15 different languages. French, Russian, Portuguese, Norwegian and Turkish are among the languages that fill the red space that surrounds the singers.
Fans of the Sanremo staging will appreciate much of this. As in the Italian competition, the two singers stand on stage before red lights. The camera pans in on each of them as they passionately deliver their lines. But now all of the free space contains an ever-changing display of words and phrases. Many people loved this. But I found it rather distracting as I kept waiting for English to pop up, so much so that I didn’t focus on the song. The words also clutter the screen, driving attention away from the highly expressive faces of the singers.
Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro — “Non mi avete fatto niente”: Reviews and Reactions
Italy: First rehearsal at Eurovision 2018
Italy: First press conference 2018
Read all of our Eurovision rehearsal reviews
Read all of our Italy Eurovision news here
Photo: Andres Putting (EBU)
I had high expectations from Italy. I liked they went for sth similar to Sanremo, with the lightning and the overall performance. I don’t like the lyrics prjection at all. They don’t need to make the performance actually a lyric video. People will be distracted. We need to see them perform.
I love the song, the lyrics and the message with all my heart. I cannot understand how anyone could dislike this. It’s such a beautiful piece of art… I remember watching the live broadcasting of Sanremo here in Denmark. I only have a minimal knowledge of Italian, but this one hit me hard. I looked up the lyrics and when I watched their final performance I had goosebumps all over. I’m glad it won Sanremo because I believe it deserved so. I believe it deserves to win Eurovision as well, but if it doesn’t, hey, no harm done. The song… Read more »
An amazing song . Ermal make us proud !!! 12 points from Albania
I’m Italian and I’ll never get the hype for this forgettable song. They don’t even have good vocals to make up for it.
I was not like Italy , the message is good , but all together , is not enought to win also not top 10
Another overrated entry from Italy. Indulgent at best!
The biggest strenght of this entry are the lyrics. I didn’t care about the song the first time I watched they performing it in Sanremo, but since I read the lyrics’ translation I was hooked. So I get why they opted for this tactic. And it’s nice that they’re using lots of languages to reaffirm the universality of their message. What isn’t clear for me is if they’re showing the lyrics, just like on their video, or key sentences that highlight what they’re singing about. The second option would be more effective, since they would avoid leaving “blanks”.
Hey Sabrina! So Ermal and Fabrizio are showing the lyrics and just like in the official video the lyrics will be in multiple languages on screen!
There is a lot of red in the background, but basically that is all that is happening here.
I like the song but they could have come up with something a little bit more complex.
Well, since there will be text messages on the screen during the whole performance, they needed to keep the staging simple to avoid distractions. If they repeat Sanremo, there will also be many close up shots of the singers. So the red background will be just… a background. The difference is that the stage now is much bigger.
I realized that only after i wrote my comment.
It makes more sense. Still… Italy always struggles with staging. They did a copy paste from San Remo + music video, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
The song doesn’t create enough impact for a 1st time listener and the addition of the lyrics on screen will be an extra distraction. After the next song people will forget about this.
I still feel they could do something more, with the budget they have. I will be waiting for the camera shots.
It’s indeed a very tough song to sell to a casual viewer that doesn’t speak the language. I guess their best chance with the televote is if people see the taped performance during the semi and get curious about the meaning of the song, looking for it online. I hope at least the juries do their homework and command them for the work they did with the lyrics.
I’m so proud of my dads. Really hoping for that top3 for them :—:
Was not impressed, hope they make improvements and changes. I do like the song, and especially Ermal.
I agree 100%.
Ooh what’s this? Lyrics are going to pop up on the screen?
I suddenly see Italy’s chances increasing GREATLY
France and Italy have similar musical messages, but Italy does it better imo. I love how much passionate Fabrizio is in his performance.
I guess it’s distracting for monolingual English speaking countries because most of us are used to seeing them. Having them on screen already itself makes them to stand out. Might even raise the question of why they even have it, thus the interest and the importance of the lyrics increases. C’mon we all have our phones next to us, it’ll take max 10 seconds to look up for translations. Having them in multiple languages makes the message to appeal even more international since the topic is relatable to everybody, not only for us Europeans. I don’t understand why even complain… Read more »
hey boys, I need an interview of Eugent, Ermal and Eleni a.ka. EEE serving that Albanian realness #MakeItHappen
that would be awesome.
i don’t know if Eleni would accept to do that, she will get bashed by Greeks.
I love this song. I think someone needs to speak to Rybak of Norway and tell him to listen to this song because in my opinion “thats how you write a song”!!!.
Winners with a capital W. What a lovely message for humans. Bravo Italia!
I believe we have the winners. Italy.
You say that every year. Stop.
I’m on wiwiblogs forum only this year.
I would comment on this article, but what’s the point? It’s not going to show up.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me six or seven times, I’m an idiot wasting my time.
I appreciate the message, but everything is so “clichely” delivered.