Francesca Michielin to represent Italy!

14 February 2016 at 17:57 CET

Francesca Michielin performing in Sanremo last night rai.tv

Italian broadcaster, RAI, confirmed that the winner of the Festival di Sanremo 2016, Stadio, won't take advantage of the opportunity to represent Italy at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden. The invitation has been accepted by the runner-up of the Italian song contest, Francesca Michielin.

The winners of the 2016 Sanremo festival, Stadio, and thus the first act to have the rights to represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm declined the offer of flying the Italian flag in Sweden: "We would love to participate, but we have a tour already planned. If we were young men we'd just be happy" declared the band.

Naturally the Italian broadcaster, RAI, passed the invitation to the runner-up of the competition, Francesca Michielin, who has accepted the challenge and will be honoured to represent Italy at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden.

The song she competed with in Sanremo is Nessun grado di separazione, but check Eurovision.tv in the coming days for more news on Italy's participation and the song which Francesca Michielin will ultimately perform at the Globen Arena in Stockholm on the 14th of May.