"Grande amore" (; English: Great love) is a song performed by Italian

operatic pop Operatic pop or popera is a subgenre of pop music that is performed in an operatic singing style or a song, theme or motif from classical music stylized as pop. The subgenre is often performed by classical crossover singers and acts, although that ...

trio

Il Volo Il Volo (; Italian for "The Flight") is an Italian operatic pop trio, consisting of baritone Gianluca Ginoble, and tenors Piero Barone and Ignazio Boschetto. They describe their music as "popera". Having won the Sanremo Music Festival 2015, the ...

, and written by Francesco Boccia and Ciro "Tommy" Esposito. The song won the

Sanremo Music Festival 2015 The Sanremo Music Festival 2015 (''65° Festival della Canzone Italiana di Sanremo 2015'') was the 65th annual Sanremo Music Festival, a television song contest held at the Teatro Ariston in Sanremo, Liguria, between 10 and 14 February 2015 and b ...

and represented Italy in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2015 The Eurovision Song Contest 2015 was the 60th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Vienna, Austria, following the country's victory at the with the song "Rise Like a Phoenix" by Conchita Wurst. Organised by the European Broa ...

where it won the televoting, came sixth with the juries and third overall. The song was also covered with releases in other languages.

Origin and recording

Composition

The song was written in 2003 by the singer Francesco Boccia, and composed by Ciro "Tommy" Esposito (member of the Italian band

Il Giardino dei Semplici Il Giardino dei Semplici (also spelled just as Giardino dei Semplici and often referred as GDS) are an Italian pop-rock music group, mainly successful in the 1970s and 1980s. Formed in late 1974, throughout various decades they have released 17 stu ...

), with an idea to make it performed by classical music

singers Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

. It was performed by Boccia himself and proposed for Sanremo Music Festival in 2005, but it was rejected because it was considered too old-fashioned. It was shelved for twelve years, and again proposed for the "Newcomers" section in the

, to be performed by duo Operapop (formed by Francesca Carli and Enrico Giovagnoli), but their participation was denied due to festival's age restriction. It was also proposed to be performed by

Orietta Berti Orietta Berti (born Orietta Galimberti on 1 June 1943) is an Italian pop-folk singer and television personality. Biography Born in Cavriago, Berti began her career in 1962 and had her first success in 1965 with the song "Tu sei quello" (You ...

, who although praised the song, refused because she wasn't available to participate in the festival.

Carlo Conti Carlo Natale Marino Conti (born 13 March 1961), simply known as Carlo Conti, is an Italian television presenter. Life and career Born in Florence, Conti graduated in accountancy, then he was a bank teller from 1981 to 1986.. After some experi ...

, artistic director and main presenter of the 65th edition of the festival, was not satisfied with the first proposed song by the trio

, and after hearing the song "Grande amore", recommended to the song's editor Pasquale Mammaro (manager of Operapop) to contact manager Michele Torpedine and assign it to the operatic trio Il Volo.

Lyrics

The song lyrics were not supposed to be changed, but on the behalf and desires by the trio, two verses were changed; "regina dei giorni miei" (queen of my days) became "respiro dei giorni miei" (breath of my days), and "sotto al tuo portone" (under your doorway) became "senza più timore" (without more fear). The lyrics were changed because as the original version refers to the

serenade In music, a serenade (; also sometimes called a serenata, from the Italian) is a musical composition or performance delivered in honor of someone or something. Serenades are typically calm, light pieces of music. The term comes from the Italian w ...

singing by a lover under the balcony to his lady, the trio felt it was too old style for their young age. The song is not addressed to an actual person, but it's an idea of declaration of always valid love.

Song contests

Sanremo Music Festival

Il Volo performed the song for the first time during the 65th Sanremo Music Festival on 11 February 2015. During the final night of the song contest, held on 14 February 2015, "Grande amore" finished in first place, receiving 39.05% of votes on the last round of the competition, beating the remaining top three entries,

Nek Filippo Neviani (born 6 January 1972), known by his stage name Nek, is an Italian singer-songwriter and musician. Nek is popular in Italy and throughout the Spanish-speaking world, and has performed and released most of his albums in both Italian ...

's "Fatti avanti amore" (35.38%) and

Malika Ayane Malika Ayane (; born 31 January 1984) is an Italian pop singer. Early life Malika Ayane was born in Milan, Italy, on 31 January 1984, to a Moroccan father, Ahmed, and an Italian mother. She grew up in the Zone 2 of Milan, the most multi-ethn ...

's "Adesso e qui (nostalgico presente)" (25.66%). According to the final voting results, Il Volo won mostly thanks to the televotes (40% of the final voting results share), receiving 56.1878% of votes, while only 22.9167% of votes by the experts jury (3rd), and 32.3333% of votes by the popular jury (2nd). During Il Volo's performances, the Sanremo Festival Orchestra was directed by Carolina Bubbico.

Eurovision Song Contest

On 19 February 2015, Italian broadcaster

RAI RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...

confirmed "Grande amore" as the song to be performed by Il Volo during the

. Since Italy is part of the " Big Five", Il Volo automatically qualified for the final of the competition in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, on 23 May 2015, where they performed as the last song in the running order. The song came first on televoting and third overall. It also won the Marcel Bezençon Press Award for Best Song, awarded by the accredited international press.

Personnel

Celso Valli Celso Valli (born 14 May 1950) is an Italian composer, conductor, arranger and record producer. Born in Bologna, Valli studied at the Conservatorio Giovanni Battista Martini. He made his official debut collaborating with Drupi in his 1978 alb ...

Arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

orchestra conductor Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or Choir, choral concert. It has been defined as "the art of directing the simultaneous performance of several players or singers by the use of gesture." The primary ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

* Mattia Tedesco -

guitars The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

* Cesare Chiodo -

electric bass The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck The ...

* Paolo Valli -

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

* Stefano Bussoli -

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionall ...

Covers

Il Volo released a Spanish-language version on 10 July 2015.

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{authority control 2014 songs 2015 singles Eurovision songs of 2015 Eurovision songs of Italy Il Volo songs Sanremo Music Festival songs Number-one singles in Greece Sony Music singles