Italy: Matteo Salvini unimpressed by Mahmood

Italian – Egyptian singer Mahmood won the Sanremo Music Festival on Saturday, but his country’s deputy prime minister is clearly not among his fans, as he “votes” for Ultimo who was the runner up of the historic festival!

#Mahmood…………… mah…………
La canzone italiana più bella?!?
Io avrei scelto #Ultimo, voi che dite?? #Sanremo2019 pic.twitter.com/jpflaSLF7c

— Matteo Salvini (@matteosalvinimi) February 10, 2019

Mahmood, who is of Sardinian-Egyptian heritage and was born and raised in Italy, was forced to answer questions about his identity again just moments after his victory at Sanremo, telling a pressing conference: “I am 100% Italian.”

The 69th annual Sanremo festival saw Ultimo finish second, while Il Volo winners four years ago, placed third.

Mahmood managed to win in Sanremo, only because of the jury and press votes. The public didn’t Soldi so much, as he got very small amount of votes in televoting.

• In his first appearance among 24 contestants he received 1.74%
• In his second appearance among 12 contestants he received 4.32%
• In his third appearance on the duel night, among 24 contestants he received 2.27%
• At the last appearance, he received 3.49%, which put him in 7th place among his 24 co-candidates, while in the superfinal he received 20.95% of the television audience, being third among the three finalists of the superfinal.

Mahmood, who sang Soldi, will now represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv in May.

Do you think that Soldi is a jury’s song?