Eurovision mania, Turin is crazy about the stars. The grand finale tonight

Turin explode. Of music, people and stars. The countdown to finding out the name of the Eurovision winner has officially begun, but many fans, who are waiting to find out, prefer to spend time chasing the VIPs. It’s a sport these days. We start from social networks, thanks to the network of fan clubs useful in discovering your favorite places and improvised music in the city squares. Then from virtual to real: zip around, around Turin, hoping to meet some of the big names.

Thursday night was Mahmoud and Blanco’s time. While everyone was focused on watching the Eurovillage stage, hoping to see them step up, the duo representing Italy in the competition broke the mold by appearing at midnight in Piazza Vittorio. And he began to sing.

But first the entrance to the effect. They were on the motorbike, shouting “Azzurro” at the top of their voice and then moving on to “goose bumps”. The song, which Mahmoud had already sung on the morning trip to the center, in which he allowed himself to go on a declaration of love for the city, “Torino is so wonderful, divided”, and they also played with the Kalush orchestra in one of the clubs. Because, as Kallush wrote on Instagram, “Music has the power to unite.”

Join the fans too. Yesterday outside the Hotel Principi di Piemonte, where it was believed for hours that Maneskin, today’s stars and super-guests for tonight’s final where they would sing for the first time and live their last single “Supermodel”, make new friends and stories were made in the name of music. Rebecca, 24, flew in from Boston, Massachusetts, to be there on Tuesday. Madness was born on the wave of his love for the Manskin man. But only the last. He smiles and shows a tattoo on his back that says “We are out of our minds but we are different from them.” He knows all about the band but with Italian he is still a beginner. “I love them”. I love them, he says, “The music is incredible, then the stage presence. I changed my life for them.”

Outside the hotel, he waited for hours even if without certainty, yesterday there were more than a hundred. There was also Roberto Sali, 58, the “Vice-Mayor” of the Achille Lauro fan club, as other members of the group call him from all over Italy; “Choose me by vote, Mayor Achille Lauro.”

Coming from Varese, book the week in Turin as soon as Eurovision is announced, €800 from Monday to Sunday. But what if the Maneskins also competed? “With them there is no competition. They are crazy, who are more than them. I saw them at 54 concerts, already from March 11, 2018 in Nonantola.” And Alicia repeated to him: “They are the new Rolling Stones.”

Roberto was in Sanremo with the rock band Victory Night and also in Rotterdam, “This video is in the hotel,” he says, showing it to everyone. It’s part of Mammeskin, “they’re the fans who are 30 and over, and then there’s the official fan club.” Even Carola, 23, went to Cassell to protest them: “But I have the wrong time.”

Also among the coveted stars is Mica: “I don’t care about Manskin, I’m here for him – says Alicia Grasso, 20-year-old medical student -. I love him on X Factor, I started reading about his life and his difficulties and found myself a bit in middle school.” Consider meeting him after the rehearsals: “At least I see him back.”