Gabbani defeated Fiorella Mannoia and Ermal Meta, winning not only the competition, but also the right to represent Italy at Eurovision 2017. Eurovision Song Contest Following his win, it was confirmed by RAI and the European Broadcasting Union that Gabbani had accepted the invitation to represent Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest, which is given to the winner of the Sanremo Music Festival, and that he'd be performing "Occidentali's Karma" at Eurovision. As Italy is a member of the "Big Five", he automatically advanced to the final, held on 13 May 2017 in Kyiv, Ukraine. On May 13, the song finished sixth at the Eurovision 2017 final, and won the Marcel Bezençon Press Award given to the best entry as voted on by the accredited media and press during the event. The song is the first in Eurovision history to feature words in Sanskrit, while being the second entry to have words in Ancient Greek (the first being "Pia Prosefhi" by Elina Konstantopoulou representing Greece in the 1995 edition.) During an interview, Luca Chiaravalli, author and producer of the song, said that the lyrics would probably be changed before the Eurovision live performance. According to the Eurovision rules, in fact, the song cannot last more than three minutes. Therefore, the track must be shortened. A sentence containing the word "Chanel" was one of the things which were removed, as it is a registered trademark. During the TV program Standing Ovation (broadcast on Rai 1) Francesco Gabbani declared that the song would remain with the lyrics in Italian. On 17 March 2017, the official Eurovision version of the song was published. Music video The accompanying music video for the song was directed by Gabriele Lucchetti. On 12 February 2017, the video for "Occidentali's Karma" was viewed 4,353,802 times on Vevo, setting a new record for the number of single-day views on the platform by an Italian music video. The video reached 100 million views in YouTube on 24 April 2017, becoming the first ever song from the Eurovision Song Contest to do so. Commercial performance The song debuted at number-one on the Italian FIMI Top Digital chart, and it was certified gold during its first week, becoming the fastest-selling single in Italy, with 47,175 equivalent units in its first week, and receiving 2,472,000 weekly streams, the highest number ever reached by any single in the chart's history. Track listing Charts Weekly