Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 1973
| Eurovision Song Contest 1973 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country |  Italy | |||
| National selection | ||||
| Selection process | Internal Selection | |||
| Selected entrant | Massimo Ranieri | |||
| Selected song | "Chi sarà con te" | |||
| Finals performance | ||||
| Final result | 13th, 74 points | |||
| Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest | ||||
| ||||
Italy was represented by Massimo Ranieri, with the song '"Chi sarà con te", at the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 7 April in Luxembourg City. As usual, broadcaster RAI chose both song and performer internally. Ranieri had previously represented Italy at the 1971 contest in Dublin.
A strong melodic and structural similarity was noted between "Chi sarà con te" and Anna Identici's 1968 recording "Quando m'innamoro" – familiar to Anglophone audiences via Engelbert Humperdinck's hit English-language cover version "Man Without Love" – but no specific allegations of plagiarism were ever made.
At Eurovision
On the night of the contest Ranieri performed 10th in the running order, following Yugoslavia and preceding eventual contest winners Luxembourg. At the close of voting "Chi sarà con te" had received 74 points, placing Italy a disappointing 13th of the 17 entries, well short of Ranieri's fifth place in 1971.[1]