Mahmood

As a result, Mahmood gained a Spot in the top three acts of the competition and after an additional performance, the song was declared the winner of the 69th Sanremo Music Festival.

Mahmood also received the "Enzo Jannacci" Award for Best Performance.

and the "Premio Baglioni d'oro" award for best song voted by the participating artists.

Alessandro Mahmoud (, ; born 12 September 1992) (أليساندرو محمود), known professionally as Mahmood, is an Italian singer-songwriter.

He rose to prominence after competing on the sixth season of the Italian version of The X Factor.

In 2012, Mahmood auditioned for the sixth season of the Italian version of The X Factor.

He became part of the boys category mentored by Simona Ventura.

He was originally eliminated at Judges Houses, then returned as a wildcard, before eventually being eliminated in the third episode.

After this experience, he worked in a bar and attended a music school, studying piano, solfeggio and music theory, where he also started writing songs.

In 2013, he released his debut single "Fallin' Rain".

In 2016, Mahmood participated in the Newcomers Section of Sanremo Music Festival with the song "Dimentica".

In 2017, he released the single "Pesos", with which he participated in the fifth edition of the Wind Summer Festival, winning the third episode of the Youth section.

In 2017, he was also featured on Fabri Fibra's single "Luna".

In September 2018, he released his debut extended play, Gioventù bruciata.

In November 2018, Marco Mengoni released his fifth album, Atlantico, which features three tracks co-written by Mahmood, including the single "Hola (I Say)".

In December 2018, Mahmood was one of 24 acts selected to compete in Sanremo Giovani, a televised competition aimed at selecting two newcomers as contestants of the 69th Sanremo Music Festival.

Mahmood was placed first in the second episode of the show, with his entry "Gioventù bruciata", also receiving the Critics' Award among acts performing in the second final.

He has won the Sanremo Music Festival twice, in 2019 with the song "Soldi" and in 2022 alongside Blanco with the song "Brividi".

His Sanremo victories allowed him to represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest in those respective years, finishing in second place in and in sixth place in as the host entrant.

Mahmood has released three studio albums, Gioventù bruciata, Ghettolimpo and Nei letti degli altri.

Amazon Music Italy enlisted him as one of the most streamed artists in Italy.

Born in Milan to an Egyptian father and a Sardinian mother from Orosei, Mahmood was raised around Gratosoglio, a district of Milan.

When he was five years old, his parents divorced and he was subsequently raised by his mother.

"Soldi" was later announced as his entry for the Sanremo Music Festival 2019.

Mahmood performed the song for the first time during the first live show of the 69th Sanremo Music Festival, which was held on 5 February 2019.

Dario "Dardust" Faini, co-writer of the song, directed the Sanremo Orchestra during his performance.

During the third live show, "Soldi" was the first performance of the night.

On 8 February 2019, Mahmood performed the song in a new version, featuring rapper Gué Pequeno.

During the first round of the final, "Soldi" placed 7th in the televote, but was the most voted by the experts jury, and the second most voted by the press jury.

On 22 February 2019, Mahmood reissued Gioventù bruciata as a full-length studio album, which topped the Italian albums chart.

In April 2019, Mahmood was featured on the single "Calipso" by Charlie Charles and Dardust, which topped the Italian singles chart.

In May 2019, he represented Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv, Israel.

He performed "Soldi" in the grand final of the contest on 18 May, placing second in the final ranking.

The song topped the charts in Greece, Israel, Italy and Lithuania and reached the top 10 in five more countries, eventually becoming the most-streamed Eurovision song ever on Spotify, a record held until late January 2021 when it was surpassed by the 2019 Eurovision winner, "Arcade" by Duncan Laurence.

Mahmood performed at the closing ceremony of the 2019 Summer Universiade in Naples with three of his songs "Soldi", "Gioventù bruciata" and "Anni 90".

On 11 June 2021, Mahmood released his second studio album, Ghettolimpo.

The album's release was preceded by five singles: "Rapide", "Dorado" (in collaboration with fellow Italian rapper Sfera Ebbasta and Colombian singer Feid), "Inuyasha", "Zero" (also included in the soundtrack of the 2021 Netflix series of the same name) and "Klan".

Mahmood made his return to Sanremo in 2022 alongside Blanco with the song "Brividi", with which they won and thus earned the right to represent at the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Turin.

The song reached number 15 on the Billboard Global 200 chart dated 19 February 2022.

At the contest in Turin, "Brividi" finished in sixth place with 268 points.