ROTTERDAM — After a year of silence, the Eurovision Song Contest returned on Saturday night with 3,500 fans in the arena, 26 songs, and a winner few bookmakers had backed at the start of the week. Måneskin, four young Romans in leather and eyeliner, won for Italy with the rock song “Zitti e buoni” — the country’s first victory since 1990.
The result was a genuine nail-biter. Switzerland and France led the jury vote; Italy needed a huge public score and got it, finishing on 524 points ahead of France’s Barbara Pravi and Switzerland’s Gjon’s Tears. The United Kingdom received nul points — from juries and public alike.
The win continues a remarkable trajectory. Måneskin, formed by teenagers busking on Rome’s Via del Corso, came second on the Italian X Factor in 2017, won Sanremo in March, and have now taken Eurovision with a song in Italian whose title translates roughly as “shut up and behave”. Italy will host the 2022 contest.
The night was not without incident: the lead singer, Damiano David, was filmed leaning over a table in the green room in a way that set social media speculating about drugs. He denied using cocaine and volunteered for a drug test, which the EBU said it would arrange. The controversy has done nothing to dent the band’s reception at home, where they returned to a hero’s welcome.
After 2020’s cancellation, Rotterdam’s stripped-down edition — daily testing, limited crowds, delegations kept in bubbles — proved the contest can be staged in a pandemic. Next May, the circus moves to Italy.
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