Non ho l'età

"Non ho l'età"
Eurovision Song Contest 1964 entry
Country	Italy
Artist(s)	Gigliola Cinquetti
Language	Italian
Composer(s)	Nicola Salerno
Lyricist(s)	Mario Panzeri
Conductor	Gianfranco Monaldi
Finals performance
Final result	1st
Final points	49
Appearance chronology
◄ Addio, addio (1963)
Se piangi, se ridi (1965) ►

"Non ho l'età" ("I'm not old enough")^[1] was the winning song in the Eurovision Song Contest 1964, held in Copenhagen. It was performed in Italian by Gigliola Cinquetti representing Italy. Like all previous Italian Eurovision entries, the song had also won that year's San Remo Music Festival. Cinquetti was sixteen years old at the time, making her the second youngest Eurovision winner in history after Belgium's Sandra Kim who claimed she was fifteen when she won the contest with "J'aime la vie" in Bergen in 1986 - although it was later revealed that Kim, in fact, was only thirteen.^[2]

The song was performed twelfth on the night, following Portugal's António Calvário with "Oração" and preceding Yugoslavia's Sabahudin Kurt with "Život je sklopio krug". By the close of voting, it had received 49 points, placing it first in a field of 16.

"Non ho l'età" became a considerable commercial success for Cinquetti, both in Italy, the rest of Continental Europe, Scandinavia and throughout the world; she also recorded the song in English ("This is My Prayer"), Spanish ("No Tengo Edad"), French ("Je suis à toi"), German ("Luna nel blu") and Japanese ("Yumemiru Omoi") and the song has since also been covered by a wide range of artists in other languages.^[3][4]

The song was succeeded as Contest winner in 1965 by France Gall singing "Poupée de cire, poupée de son" for Luxembourg.

It was succeeded as Italian representative at the 1965 Contest by Bobby Solo with "Se piangi, se ridi".

Cinquetti returned to Eurovision in 1974, when she finished second with "Sì" after ABBA's "Waterloo" and in 1991 she co-hosted the contest with Toto Cutugno when it was held in Rome.

Notes

1. ^ Sometimes also given as "Non ho l'età per amarti" (I'm not old enough to love you).
2. ^ O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History. Carlton Books, UK. 2007 ISBN 978-1-84442-994-3
3. ^ Thorsson, Leif. Melodifestivalen Genom Tiderna. Premium Publishing, Sweden. 1999 ISBN 91-89136-00-4
4. ^ Rateyourmusic.com, Gigliola Cinquetti, discography entry

References

Preceded by "Dansevise" by Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann

Eurovision Song Contest winners 1964

Succeeded by "Poupée de cire, poupée de son" by France Gall