In February he won Sanremo, in May he placed second in Eurovision. Now Italy’s Mahmood has accomplished another milestone. The “Soldi” singer had now clocked up over 100 million views for the music video of his Eurovision entry.
The video was first uploaded in early February, just after Mahmood debuted “Soldi” at Sanremo 2019. In the four months since then, the video has picked up many fans, both within Italy, Europe and beyond.
The “Soldi” video was directed by Attilio Cusani and helps illustrate the emotional lyrics of the song. It symbolises Mahmood’s troubled relationship with his father, his boyhood experiences along with a modern Italian feeling. The style of the music video continued into Mahmood’s staging for “Soldi” in Tel Aviv.
Mahmood celebrated the news with fans on Instagram.
In Italian, Spanish and English he wrote:
“In 2011, I started uploading some covers in English on YouTube and the more I uploaded them, the more the views increased, even reaching 100k, which to me looked like an outstanding result.
“Waking up now and realising that Soldi has reached 100M views makes me understand that what I’ve done up until know, I’d do again millions of times.
“Thank you, THANK YOU TRULY”
Spain’s Eurovision star Miki had congratulations for Mahmood, writing “When there is talent, it always shines”.
The 100 million views milestone puts Mahmood in good company. He joins the small but slowly growing number of Eurovision acts who have reached over 100 million YouTube views for their Eurovision music videos. Let’s take a look.
Eurovision videos with over 100 million views
4. Alexander Rybak – “Fairytale”: 103.1 million views
This fan upload of “Fairytale” predated the performance uploads from the official Eurovision channel. It’s the only Eurovision performance video that’s reached over 100 million, no doubt helped by a thrilling live performed that outshines the official music video. Its popularity proves that Alexander Rybak’s 2009 entry is an enduring favourite.
3. Netta – “Toy”: 118.2 million views
To date, Netta’s “Toy” is the only Eurovision song to reach 100 million views on the official Eurovision channel. She reached the milestone in December last year, just nine months after it was uploaded. The video has now reached over 118 million views.
2. Il Volo – “Grande amore” – 157.3 million views
Two and a half years after their Eurovision 2015 bronze, the Italian popera trio Il Volo reached 100 million views for “Grande amore”. The soaring, romantic song captured the hearts of fans around the world. The music video has since clocked up over 150 million views and remains a fan favourite.
1. Francesco Gabbani – “Occidentali’s Karma”: 221.3 views
Francesco Gabbani reached the 100 million mark even before Eurovision 2017. The popularity of his quirky music video saw him reach 100 million in April, making him a favourite to win the song contest. The “Occidentali’s Karma” video has since gone on to reach well over 200 million views.
What do you think? Which video is your favourite? What will be the next Eurovision song to reach 100 million views? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below.
I hadn’t a lot of soldi, I enjoyed listening to fairytales and playing with my favourite toy, I felt such grande amore but I learnt to have occidentali’s karma
If EBU didn’t want to fix the contest, Italy would have won at least twice in recent years.
Funny considering that it was the Italian juries that down voted Mahmood’s biggest threats. Mahmood got less points from both the juries and the tele voters then Duncan. Maybe it is about time for Mahmood’s fans to accept that truth.
So happy for him. I think he will continue to have great success. His music is so modern and relevant.
see when u do talentry
…the talent comes back to bite
It has so many views because it won Sanremo, not because of Eurovision
That’s beside the point. It’s still a Eurovision song with 100 million views.
Read the comments below the video and you’ll notice many of them are written by non Italians… and it is a song in italian so the result is even more relevant. And if you want to be so accurate, the 100 millions are only the views of the video in channel vevo mahmood; there is the same video in channel eurovision that had more than 8, 5 million views the day that the video in channel vevo reached the 100 millions . This video has today 24 june 2019 102 millions views channel vevo +8.7 views channel eurovision, so more… Read more »
3 italian songs in the top 5! It’s time for Italy to finally win!!!!!
Duncan unfollowed Mahmood on Instagram.
I wonder why… he used to comment on Mahmood’s pics… guess didn’t get the D after all
Because all he knows that following him is a losing game.
He’s following Mahmood again, I think it’s a notice-me-senpai situation…
Considering that this is a song in Italian, it’s AMAZING!
Well done Mahmood – delighted you have joined this small group of over a hundred million views. Continue to love Francesco and his music – check out his new song!
I see Polegend screaming rn for hapiness <3
Why the dislikes? 😀 Polegend is Italian, he will be happy and I am in for it. Btw, I spelled “happiness” wrong, ofc there are 2 n’s! 🙂
bless u hun. i stan for the music not for the charts but when my faves get both quality music and commercial success then i know talent WON
Soldi is an amazing song and also the video is a real masterpiece, for me also Soldi is a winner of this esc, not only arcade.
It is having a big impact in s lot of countries.
Good job mahmood and attilio cusani, the director of the video 🙂
Soldi is such a classic entry, I’m so pleased it has done so well. The fact it combines raw, authentic emotion with a modern, cool vibe is to be massively applauded. I was a little underwhelmed by the live performance, but as a song in itself, it oozes quality, and the video is just perfect to get the sentiment across if you are a non-Italian speaker. I think this will be remembered as a classic entry in years to come.
YAY!!! (:
i have always thought francesco gabbani’s 200 million views to be pretty remarkable, and really shows rybak’s star quality in getting that view count for his live performance 😀
His live performance from the semi-final, no less, not even the final.
Well technically every single Eurovision song has over a 100 million views since the Eurovision audience is well over 100 million, so even D-mol’s ‘heaven’, Ari Ólafsson’s ‘our choice’, and Fusedmarc’s ‘rain of revolution’ are in the 100 million views club… Yeah yeah, yeah yeah, yeah yeah, rain of REH-VOU-LOO-SHIN! Yas Gaga!
Jokes aside… Well done to Mahmood on this fantastic achievement. It really does, however, surprise me that only 5 Eurovision videos have reached this milestone, given that Eurovision music is so much better than anything on the radio or the charts!
I’m pretty sure the semi-finals have significantly less viewers.
I’m still proud of “Rain of Revolution”, one of our more original and funky performances.
RofR is still one of my guilty pleasures. The song has grown on me so much since it was in ESC 2017.
Agreed! It didn’t deserve to final, but it won a place in my heart… I should give it a listen.
Not only the song Soldi is a masterpiece but also the video. I would have liked the director of the video Attilio Cusani to realize the staging if Soldi in tel aviv…
Soldi is super popular here in Israel 🙂
Congratulations <3
it’s been number one on spotify n apple music israel for an entire month, y’all israelegends are the most tasteful country ever
True
Roy come to Italy!
Congrats daddy ^__^ Now cúm out of the closet 😛
I’m just curious if these views are predominately coming from domestic Italians or the rest of the world given how popular the Sanremo festival is? Italy always get a lot of views on their entries
A lot of views come from italy but also a lot from non italians. And this achievement of 100 millions views doesn’t consider the views of the same video in channel eurovision that, the day when the video in channel vevo mahmood reached the 100 million views, had almost 8,5 millions views. These views come all from non italians, and also a parte of the othet video in channel mahmood, read the comments below…
Two winners and three Italians. Italy has been due a victory since they came back and this is a good proof of it.
Universe, your move
I keep saying: Italy is always the bridesmaid of Eurovision, never the bride. I’ve got my fingers crossed that Italy’s fortunes will change for the better soon. Two runner-up finishes and a third place since its return, and in the nine Contests Italy has appeared in this decade, it only failed to reach the top ten *twice* (both being two of the three female artists representing Italy this decade, although frankly I actually loved “No Degree of Separation”/“Nessun grado di separazione”). I agree, Italy is much overdue for a win.
Right? They’ve topped both the televote and jury vote since their return, yet still no victory.
we’ll take consistency (both in quality and in success) without a victory over winning but ending up being fads like portugal anyway
Its only about time, when Italy will win
Yeah, Italy is sending great songs the last few years. It’s fantastic to see one of the Big 5 getting back into Eurovision properly. I think since 2015 they have been consistent and I still listen to all of the songs since. I can feel the win is approaching…!
When EBU stops fixing the result, Italy will win
Wooow…congratulations to Mahmood…I love Soldi…it’s a great song…I also love Netta’s Toy and Alexander Rybak’s Fairytale 🙂