L'italiano

The idea came to Toto Cutugno after a concert in Toronto, where he played to an audience of Italian emigrants and wanted to write something for them. His collaborator Cristiano Minellono wrote the words, taking his first spark from the title of a Canale 5 programme, Buongiorno Italia. The working title was "Con quegli occhi di italiano", with those Italian eyes. Cutugno did not plan to sing it himself. The song was offered to Adriano Celentano, who turned it down. Cutugno then thought about handing it to the impressionist Gigi Sabani to perform as a Celentano imitation. It was the Sanremo organiser Gianni Ravera who heard it and persuaded Cutugno to sing it in his own voice. At the 1983 festival it finished only fifth, though it won the side competition and came second in the critics' ranking. It became Cutugno's biggest international hit and was covered across Europe and beyond, from a Finnish version about being a Finn to Hebrew, Hindi, Vietnamese and Arabic adaptations. Its popularity faded in the 1990s, then came roaring back in 2006 when Cutugno sang it at a concert in Rome celebrating Italy's World Cup win. A song written for Italians far from home ended up as the anthem Italians sing to each other.