World Song Contest

Officially, 41 countries is the record of participants of the World Song Contest. But that happened in WSC .16, when the contest had to face a scandal. This time 40 countries took part, and we can say it's the unofficial record for the reasons you know. No new countries joined this time, but several new players. It's always a surprise as no promotion is made for the contest. More people were asking for semi finals or a qualifying round but once again the players had to made a straight choice. 10 songs, and only 10.

Among the songs, we had, once again, some several hits. This contest showed us that the year of release might have an impact when it came to international hits. This time we had the United States of America and Italy. Evanescence, with their 2003 hit "My Immortal" and Italy with the 2006 hit of Tiziano Ferro. Portugal also achieved a good results in WSC .17 with an international hit, but this time, a song which was not seen as a dark horse finally reached Portugal's second best result with the 10th position. Germany also made a good come back, with a top 3 position. The best result so far for this country.

For other countries, it was the same destiny than in the previous editions. Bulgaria and Venezuela ended once again in the bottom five. Romania, after some good results when it entered the contest, was once again unable to find the magical formula despite being represented by one of the youngest "human" participants, if not the youngest, of all the editions.

Former winners came back, probably inspired by Varvara, the only singer who have won the contest twice, but none of them achieved a top 10 position. Brian McFadden ended 18th for Ireland, and Shiri Maimon ended 11th for Israel. It was their second attempt in the contest, far behind Tose Proeski who was back for the 5th time for F.Y.R. of Macedonia.

During the live coverage of the results, we had to wait until the last vote before we knew the winner of this edition. At that time, the USA were leading with 135 points, and Italy was 10 points behind. But Malta finally gave 12 points to Italy and nothing to the USA. This gave a first victory for Italy, with "Stop! Dimentica" performed by Tiziano Ferro.

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THE WINNER  

Country: Italy
Artist(s): Tiziano Ferro
Song: Stop! Dimentica

Italian pop singer/songwriter Tiziano Ferro (born 21 February 1980 in Latina) became involved in music while attending a local conservatory, taking guitar and piano classes in addition to improving his vocal skills. At the age of 16, he joined a gospel chorus, uncovering his passion for Afro-American music. In 1998, Tiziano Ferro began working along with producers Alberto Salerno and Mara Majonchi, composing his first songs. Three years later, EMI Italy released his debut album, called Rosso Relativo, featuring the hit single "Perdono." In late 2003, Ferro released his second album, 111 Centoundici. It affirmed his place as one of Italy's top pop stars. In 2004, he released his first English-language single, "Universal Prayer", in Europe. The single was recorded to promote the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. The song is a duet with British R&B star Jamelia. In that same year at the 2004 MTV Europe Music Awards held in Rome he won Best Italian Act and performed his hit song "Sere nere". He also made a guest appearance in the first season of the hit Mexican TV drama Rebelde. He also collaborate in the second album studio Myriam of Myriam Mexican recording singer, with the theme "Dime tú". In 2006 his third studio album Nessuno è solo was released and debuted at number one in Italy and Argentina. It debuted at #10 in Chile, and #11 in Spain. The album was certified triple platinum. On March 25, 2007, Ferro was invited to perform at the prestigious celebration of Radio Italia's 25th anniversary. Tiziano released his new CD, titled Alla Mia Età in 2008.