Winning the eighth Sanremo Music Festival, the song was chosen as the Italian entry to the Eurovision Song Contest in 1958, where it came in third place out of ten songs in total. In 1959, at the 1st Annual Grammy Awards, Modugno's recording became the first ever Grammy winner for both Record of the Year and Song of the Year. The song spent five non-consecutive weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 in August and September 1958, and subsequently became Billboard's number-one single for the year. Written by Modugno and Franco Migliacci, it was released as a single on 1 February 1958. ' Nel blu, dipinto di blu' ( Italian pronunciation: 'In the blue painted blue' or 'In the blue-painted blue '), popularly known as ' Volare' ( pronounced 'To fly'), is a song originally recorded by Italian singer-songwriter Domenico Modugno.
