Hello welcome to my series of quick takes designed to get you ready for Eurovision 2019. Just some quick thoughts / my take on each of the 41 songs this year. The countries are in alphabetical order so without further ado: Italy.

Country: Italy
Singer: Mahmood
Song: Soldi
Personal Score: 1 out of 41
My Prediction: Auto Qualified

It’s my favorite – everyone else can go home.

No, that’s not fair. Anyway I pretty much instantly connected with this song on a handful of levels and I’m so happy to see something that seems perfectly content to do its own thing at Eurovision. I don’t know how the jury will react to Mahmood’s almost-rap piece about his absentee father but I think this will really connect with audiences. Mahmood is wonderfully soulful singer with a soft, enchanting voice and while the lyrics in the verse may be too complex to catch for non-Italian speakers the repetitive portions of the song make it so that almost anyone can latch on to one of the hooks. The clapping sound also might be a really good entry point for people at home to get into the vibe of the song.

I’m not sure this will be the winner at Eurovision but it’s very likely to be in the top 10, the problem is probably the jury with this song. It’ll likely connect with viewers but due to the language barrier, the modern nature of the song, and Mahmood’s style and attitude I don’t know how the jury will respond to something outside of the pop dance – ballad continuum (it’s usually not well though). I think this will likely have a minimal staging but I hope they bring in some elements to help people understand the lyrics to drive this song home.