Nel blu dipinto di blu (Volare)

The song began with a nap. In June 1957 the lyricist Franco Migliacci was waiting for Domenico Modugno to go to the sea, drank some wine and fell asleep. When he woke, his eyes landed on two Marc Chagall reproductions on his wall: a yellow man floating in mid-air, and a painter whose face was half blue. He started writing about a man who dreams of painting himself blue and taking flight. Modugno and Migliacci worked on it for days under the working title "Sogno in blu". Modugno's widow later recalled that a storm blowing his window open gave him the idea for the word that became the chorus, and the popular title: Volare. The Sanremo jury nearly turned it down. Admitted at the last moment, it won the festival on 1 February 1958, and Modugno's performance is still described as the night Italian music changed. Singers of the time stood still with their hands on their chests. Modugno threw his arms wide open as if he were about to fly. The rest of the world followed. The single spent five weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and became Billboard's top single of 1958, and at the first Grammy Awards it won both Record and Song of the Year, the first time either prize was given. Versions in many languages have sold more than 18 million copies combined, and football crowds still turn it into chants. A drowsy afternoon and two paintings gave Italy its first truly global pop song.