Italy is sending Lucio Corsi’s “Volevo essere un duro.” As part of the Big Five countries, Lucio automatically has a spot in the final.

Over the five long nights of their national final, Sanremo, the relatively unknown glam-rock inspired Lucio Corsi stunned everyone with his second place finish. First place finisher, Olly decided not to go to Eurovision with his “Balorda nostalgia,” given scheduling conflicts with his already sold out tour, opening the spot up to Lucio Corsi.

“Volevo essere un duro” is a nostalgic song about childhood desires and dreams, and coming to terms with the reality of being yourself. The flowing melody paired with instrumentation reminiscent of the 1970s sound is touching and conveys the song’s meaning even when you do not understand the lyrics. 

With simple staging at a keyboard and microphone, the melody takes the forefront. The theme of childhood is alluded to with the subtle costume Toy Story reference of Andy written on the bottom of Lucio’s shoe. 

The official music video of this one is among the best this year. It has a charming low-budget quality (with a very good art department) and really captures the beloved misfit character of the song and of Lucio himself. 

Interestingly, of the three songs in Italian this year, it just so happens that Italy itself ranks the lowest for us, though that is really only due to genre and the mellower emotional tone of the song. Regardless, Lucio adds welcome variety to the final and we look forward to his live performance.