LACUNA COIL singer Cristina Scabbia says that she is “super happy” that a fellow Italian rock band, MÅNESKIN, won this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.
The group, whose name is Danish for moonlight, a tribute to the home country of bassist Victoria, won on Saturday (May 22) with a total of 529 points MÅNESKIN‘s win was only Italy’s third victory in the popular contest and the first since 1990.
Scabbia addressed her countrymen’s win during a May 23 livestream via her Twitch channel. She said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I usually don’t watch Eurovision. I have to say that yesterday for the very first time I watched the very first couple of hours. And it was a great coincidence that I watched it at the evening in which Italy won.
“Music competitions are always really weird for me, because I don’t like when they put an artist against another,” she explained. “I’m happy that Italy and MÅNESKIN‘s won. But it is usually not my thing. I know that sometimes you have to compete with others, but it’s not my favorite thing in the world. And, to be honest, it was almost like looking at a soccer championship, just like one team against each other and sad faces, which I really hate. Because, of course, I was very happy for Italy, but I felt really sad for Switzerland because he was first for a long while, and then, all of a sudden, it was gone, and then France was second.
“I’m super happy that we won,” she reiterated. “I say ‘we won’ because I got a lot of messages, like, ‘You won. Congratulations.’ And I was just, like, but I didn’t do anything. My only luck today was being Italian, and, ‘Oh my God! Italy won Eurovision.’ But whatever. That’s my thought about it. I’m happy for them, and they’re really young, so they will have time to work on their career. But it’s always pretty sad when there is a competition.
“I’m happy that a rock band won,” Cristina added. “I hope that the excitement that everyone has today — everybody in Italy today was just, like, ‘Rock will never die,’ and I was, like, ‘Where were you, like, two days before? You always said that music on the radio is, ‘Oh, my God. There are too many distorted guitars,” and then, all of a sudden, everybody was a rock and roll soul today, which is really disappointing. So hopefully… I always say I hope that something is gonna change, but I find it really hard.”
Asked by one of her Twitch followers if LACUNA COIL would ever consider taking part in the Eurovision Song Contest, Cristina said: “LACUNA COIL will never, ever be at Eurovision, because to go to Eurovision, you have to win Sanremo, which is something that we will never participate [in] as artists. We went there as a guest. I always that I respect the taste of whoever wants to go there or watch it, but [it’s] not our thing.” (Editor’s note: The winner of Italy’s Sanremo festival is given first right of refusal for the ticket to Eurovision. This year, the winner accepted the invitation.)
39 countries participated in this year’s competition which was held in the Netherlands, the home country of 2019’s Eurovision winner, Duncan Laurence. The live finale took place in Rotterdam’s Ahoy Arena with 3,500 fans in attendance.
To determine the winner, the points from the jury votes are announced first via satellite link. Finally, the points from the public are announced and added to the jury votes. That combined total leads to the winner.
MÅNESKIN was in the in fourth place — behind the Switzerland, France and Malta — after the jury votes were counted. But MÅNESKIN‘s “Zitti E Buoni” was the favorite of the public, securing 318 points from that section of the voting.
