On 19 February 2011, Gualazzi was chosen by a specific jury among the participants at the Sanremo Festival to be the Italian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Düsseldorf, Germany.

[1][2] The song, performed in a bilingual English-Italian version retitled "Madness of Love",[3] won second place in the contest, surpassing most expectations.

[10] Gualazzi described the song as the "perfect synthesis of the musical world that inspired me, from Art Tatum to Duke Ellington and Oscar Peterson, the stride piano, an evolution of ragtime, a genre with which I got in touch when I was twenty, and I immediately loved it.

[12] Talking about the lyrical content of the song, Gualazzi explained that it is based on the two most important ingredients to enjoy life, madness and love.

[23] His performance marked Italy's comeback in the competition, after a 13-year-long absence:[24] the last Italian entry at the Eurovision Song Contest had been "Fiumi di parole" by Jalisse in 1997.