Italy at Eurovision 2025: The Italian national broadcaster announced that singer Lucio Corsi will represent Italy at Eurovision 2025, following the festival winner’s refusal. Listen to the song.
Singer Olly, who won Italy’s Sanremo Festival, announced he is giving up his right to represent Italy at Eurovision 2025, which will take place in Basel, Switzerland. Now, the Italian national broadcaster, Rai, has announced that Italy’s representative for Eurovision 2025 will be Lucio Corsi, who came second at the prestigious festival.
“Volevo essere un duro” (translated as: “I Wanted to Be Tough”) is the song performed by singer Lucio Corsi, which came second at the 75th edition of the Sanremo Festival. The song was written by the singer himself along with Tommaso Ottomano. This was the singer’s first-ever appearance at the festival. The song is performed in Italian. Listen to the song:
According to Sanremo Festival rules, following the winner’s refusal, the offer passes to the second-place finisher – Lucio Corsi.
Lucio took the “Sanremo Festival” stage dressed in doll-like attire, wearing clown makeup in white and red, filling the stage with heart-melting charm. The singer performed wholeheartedly, starting with piano playing, then switching to guitar at the center of the stage, demonstrating professional vocal and stage control. The atmosphere during the song was highly emotional and special. The song deals with a person’s struggle with feelings of weakness and the desire to be someone else, someone tough and resilient, while trying to cope with the reality that he cannot live up to this image.
The song describes the identity conflict and the inner struggle of the narrator who wants to overcome his weaknesses and strengthen. It expresses the frustration and longing to be “tough,” a person who doesn’t worry about the future and is unaffected by the harsh reality around him. The song uses images like robots, sumo wrestlers, and criminals to illustrate the ideal figures of strength and self-confidence that the narrator wants to connect with. The song portrays a picture of life in which the narrator tries to fit these roles but always finds himself returning to his true essence, which is less secure and more vulnerable.
During the song, the narrator deals with the realization that he is unable to meet these expectations he has set for himself and that the world has set before him. He describes the difficulty of being an “ordinary person” in a world that demands strength and courage over time. The song ends with the recognition and acceptance of the narrator’s true identity, that he is nothing beyond Lucio, the simple and real person behind the characters he tried to be.
Who is Lucio Corsi?
Lucio Corsi, born on October 15, 1993, in Grosseto, Italy, is an Italian singer-songwriter and musician. He grew up in the village of Vetulonia near where his family runs a restaurant. His mother is a painter, while his father has worked in various roles including as an employee of the Italian national broadcaster Rai and as an artist working with leather. Corsi’s love for music was sparked by watching the movie “The Blues Brothers” as a child, and he began writing songs at a very young age, performing in bars and squares of his hometown from 2011.
He began composing instrumental pieces of progressive rock before turning to lyrical writing. After finishing his high school studies in Grosseto, he moved to Milan with the aim of developing his musical career, initially living near Naviglio Pavese, then in Via Ripamonti, and eventually in Niguarda. This participation was the singer’s first ever in the Italian Sanremo Festival.
Lyrics – “Volevo essere un duro”:
Volevo essere un duro
Che non gli importa del futuro
Un robot
Un lottatore di sumo
Uno spaccino in fuga da un cane lupo
Alla stazione di Bolo
Una gallina dalle uova d’oro
Però non sono nessuno
Non sono nato con la faccia da duro
Ho anche paura del buio
Se faccio a botte le prendo
Così mi truccano gli occhi di nero
Ma non ho mai perso tempo
È lui che mi ha lasciato indietro
Vivere la vita
È un gioco da ragazzi
Me lo diceva mamma ed io
Cadevo giù dagli alberi
Quanto è duro il mondo
Per quelli normali
Che hanno poco amore intorno
O troppo sole negli occhiali
Volevo essere un duro
Che non gli importa del futuro no
Un robot
Medaglia d’oro di sputo
Lo scippatore che t’aspetta nel buio
Il Re di Porta Portese
La gazza ladra che ti ruba la fede
Vivere la vita
È un gioco da ragazzi
Me lo diceva mamma ed io
Cadevo giù dagli alberi
Quanto è duro il mondo
Per quelli normali
Che hanno poco amore intorno
O troppo sole negli occhiali
Volevo essere un duro
Però non sono nessuno
Cintura bianca di Judo
Invece che una stella uno starnuto
I girasoli con gli occhiali mi hanno detto
“Stai attento alla luce”
E che le lune senza buche
Sono fregature
Perché in fondo è inutile fuggire
Dalle tue paure
Vivere la vita è un gioco da ragazzi
Io
Io volevo essere un duro
Però non sono nessuno
Non sono altro che Lucio
Non ѕono аltro che Lucio
Source: RAI
Eurovision 2025: This will be Italy’s 50th participation in Eurovision. Italy joined the contest in 1956, was one of the seven founding countries, and has won three times over the years. Italy’s most recent victory was at Eurovision 2021 with the song “Zitti e buoni” performed by the band Måneskin.
