Eurovision Song Contest 2022
The Eurovision Song Contest 2022 was the edition of the European song contest held in Turin from 10 to 14 May 2022 at the PalaOlimpico, with two semi-finals and a final broadcast in full on Rai 1. Italy was hosting the contest again after more than thirty years, since the 1991 edition in Rome, thanks to the Måneskin's win in Rotterdam in 2021. Hosted by Laura Pausini, Mika and Alessandro Cattelan, it was the first edition held during a war in Europe since the conflict in Bosnia, and the first to come close to normality after the pandemic.[1]
The bid
Turin's bid began just days after the Måneskin's victory on 29 May 2021. On 28 June the City Council, under mayor Chiara Appendino, unanimously approved, by 33 votes to 33, two motions in support of the bid: the first emphasized the city's facilities and the tourism boost seen in previous editions, with a peak of 37% in Lisbon in 2018; the second focused on the benefits for hotels, restaurants and shops.[2]
By early August eleven Italian cities were still in the running, but the technical requirements narrowed the field to a few arenas capable of holding at least ten thousand seats: the Forum in Assago, the PalaLottomatica in Rome, the Unipol Arena in Bologna and Turin's PalaAlpitour. It was not the first time Rai had looked at that venue: in 2016 it had already optioned it, in anticipation of a win by Francesco Gabbani that never came.[3] By late August the list of finalists had been narrowed to five, Turin, Milan, Bologna, Pesaro and Rimini, with Rome eliminated. The call for bids required an international airport within an hour and a half, more than two thousand hotel rooms nearby, an air-conditioned hall for over ten thousand people and a press area for about a thousand journalists.[4] The announcement came on 8 October 2021, with a message from the contest's official account that opened with "Ciao Torino!" and continued: "The secret's out! #Eurovision 2022 will be held in Turin!".[5]
The arena in piazza d'Armi
The venue was the arena designed by Arata Isozaki for the 2006 Winter Olympics, in piazza d'Armi, the largest covered sports arena in Italy, which has changed name several times over the years and since January 2024 has been called Inalpi Arena. The same building also hosts the ATP Finals tennis tournament.[6] For the three evenings in 2022 tickets sold out within minutes; Rai required testing every 72 hours for the roughly four thousand staff members and FFP2 masks for the audience.[1]
The contest
About forty countries took part: Russia was excluded after some initial hesitation from the European Broadcasting Union, the body that organizes the contest.[1] The first semi-final, on Tuesday 10 May, featured 17 of the 40 countries, from Albania to Armenia, with guests including Diodato, Dardust and Benny Benassi; the top ten from each semi-final joined the "big five" — Italy, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain — in the final. Italy was already qualified with Mahmood and Blanco, winners of the Sanremo Music Festival with "Brividi".[7]
The favorite was the Kalush Orchestra, an Ukrainian group formed in 2019 and named after the town of Kaluš, in the western Carpathians, which blends hip hop with folk music and traditional instruments such as the telenka, a traditional flute. Ukrainian men between 18 and 60 were barred from leaving the country at war, but the band obtained special permission to travel to Turin; in the preceding months its members had transported refugees and distributed aid.[8] Before the contest, one of them, Oleksandr Slobodianyk, said:[1]
"I will do everything I can so that our country wins not only the war, but also the Eurovision."
In the final on Saturday 14 May, "Stefania", a song dedicated to the mother of singer Oleh Psiuk, won with 631 points from national juries and public voting. Second place went to Britain's Sam Ryder with "Spaceman" (466), and third to Spain with Chanel Terrero's "Slomo" (459). Two past winners returned to the Turin stage, the Måneskin with "Supermodel" and Gigliola Cinquetti with "Non ho l'età".[9]
A city celebrating, and the numbers
The second heart of the week was the Eurovision Village at Parco del Valentino, where free concerts drew thousands of people.[9] A study by the Osservatorio Culturale del Piemonte for the Chamber of Commerce, presented in January 2023, counted 63,000 seats filled across the nine events at the PalaOlimpico and 220,000 attendances at the Village over 55 hours of shows. The total actual audience was estimated at more than 128,000 people, with over 58,000 coming from outside the city and 24,682 from abroad, mostly from Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany and France; 75.6% were aged between 18 and 35, and for 52% of tourists it was their first visit to Turin.[10]
Visitors spent 11 million euros directly, which rose to 22.8 million once indirect and induced effects were included; the equivalent advertising value was estimated at 66 million. The shows reached 161 million viewers across 34 countries, the final achieved a 56.7% audience share in Italy, and YouTube views reached 74 million.[10] Chamber of Commerce president Dario Gallina spoke of "a success that we had already largely sensed"; Piedmont Region president Alberto Cirio commented:[10]
"It would have taken a communications campaign worth tens of millions of euros to achieve media coverage like the one Eurovision brought to Piedmont."
According to the City of Turin's culture councillor Rosanna Purchia, more than 70% of tourists visited at least one museum in the city.[10]
What remains
The "artistic" key that each host city passes on to the next is on display, along with the others, at the Museo della Radio e della Televisione at the Rai production centre on via Verdi 16; Turin's key was added there after the handover to the city that hosted the contest on Ukraine's behalf in 2023.[11] That city was Liverpool, and the handing over of the key between the mayor of Turin and the English mayor was recalled by councillor Purchia as a symbol of the spirit of the event.[10] In August 2022 the City made available to residents more than four hundred event banners left over from the streets, one per applicant while supplies lasted.[12]
Pages linking here
Related articles: Inalpi Arena
Sources
- Il Post — 7 May 2022
- Mole24 — 29 June 2021
- Mole24 — 7 August 2021
- Mole24 — 25 August 2021
- Il Post — 8 October 2021
- Mole24 — 11 January 2024
- Il Post — 10 May 2022
- Il Post — 8 May 2022
- Città di Torino – Torinoclick — 15 May 2022
- Città di Torino – Torinoclick — 30 January 2023
- Città di Torino – Torinoclick — 18 May 2022
- Mole24 — 1 August 2022