Vincenzo Cantiello has won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest for Italy, claiming victory in his country’s debut at the event. Singing “Tu primo grande amore” (‘Your first great love’), the fourteen year old triumphed over Bulgaria, who rose up the rankings to sneak the runner-up spot over Armenia. Italy gained 157 points over Bulgaria’s 147 and Armenia’s 146.
Vincenzo had been internally selected for the competition and was the only male vocalist taking part out of the 16 participating countries. We asked Vincenzo in Malta what it was like to be the only male participant.
The contest, the first Eurovision-branded competition to be hosted in Malta, took place in front of a capacity crowd of over 4,000 in the Malta Shipbuilding facility in Marsa, specially converted to host the event. Hosts Malta finished a very respectable fourth ahead of Russia.
Vincenzo was presented with the winner’s trophy by last year’s champion, Gaia Cauchi. Reprising his winning entry, Vincenzo was clearly emotional about his win, but gave another secured performance. Vincenzo is no stranger to a TV audience, having previously won a series of RAI’s ‘Ti lascio una canzone’, an Italian talent show for children.
If you missed the show, here’s what happened, as it happened.
Watch the winning entry again below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KhrF7mEsI4
