Back in February, Francesco Gabbani took an arguably surprise victory in the Sanremo Music Festival. His song Occidentali’s Karma immediately became popular with Sanremo fans and Eurovision fans alike. Upon the release of the first set of betting odds, Italy were immediately installed as the favourites to win the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest. They have remained there since. Nevertheless, there was one more hurdle to overcome. They had to cut more than 30 seconds from the song so that it fit the 3-minute Eurovision rule!
A verse removed and subtitles added!
In the last few minutes, the official Eurovision YouTube channel has uploaded the official Eurovision version of the Italian entry. You will notice the most significant edit is that the majority of the second verse has been removed. Furthermore, the video now includes English subtitles to help listeners understand the meaning of the song! Watch the music video for the Eurovision version below:
Italy automatically qualify for the Eurovision final as part of the so-called “big 5”. Therefore the first time we’ll see Francesco perform live on television from the Kyiv stage is on May 13th. However, Francesco is heading to the London Eurovision Party in a couple of weeks time so lucky ticket-holders will be able to see him perform live ahead of travelling to Kyiv!
What do you think of the Eurovision version of the Italian entry? Do you think they should have edited different parts of the song out? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below and via our social media pages @escXtra!
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