Gabry Ponte is bringing all of Italy along for the ride, when he represents San Marino at Eurovision 2025. He’s heading to Basel with the dance track ‘Tutta L'Italia’.

From Italy to San Marino

Italian DJ Gabry Ponte has had quite the journey to the Eurovision Song Contest, and it’s been a long time coming, after a career spanning more than 25 years.

The first destination for his song Tutta L'Italia was at the Festival di Sanremo, where Italy conduct their search for an artist to represent the country at Eurovision. But Gabry's dance track wasn't there to compete. Instead, it was the theme song for the entire show.

Then the San Marino Song Contest came calling, the show where the small country (landlocked within Italy) chooses its Eurovision artist. Gabry took his dance track to the show, with his talented masked singers on stage next to his DJ decks. He was up against 19 other songs.

After a high energy night, the winner was decided by jury vote alone. And what could they possibly choose, but Tutta L'Italia?

The song, which means “all of Italy,” pairs dance music with Italian culture. His daughter got the first ever listen, while he was driving her to the park. When the song finished she said: “Daddy, play it again.” If that's not a vote of confidence, we don't know what is.

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Gabry is a Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum DJ and producer, and a huge deal in dance music. He’s had over 5.5 billion streams globally, placing him as the most-streamed DJ in Italy. He’s also one of the top two most-streamed Italian artists alongside Måneskin, who won Eurovision for Italy in 2021.

One of his best-known hits is Blue (Da Ba Dee) recorded with his band Eiffel 65 and released in 1998. It was their debut single, and it topped worldwide charts, reaching diamond certification and collecting awards. It even got them a Grammy nomination. A little less Blue after that, Gabry?

Years later, Blue (Da Ba Dee) became the intro song in Marvel’s Iron Man 3. And more than two decades on, David Guetta and Bebe Rexha reworked the song to become I’m Good (Blue).

Alongside huge success with Eiffel 65, Gabry has also gone solo. He’s stacked up 30 platinum and 18 gold records, including Thunder with LUM!X and Prezioso, Born To Love Ya with Sean Paul and NATTI NATASHA, and Mockingbird with Tiësto and Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike. We would give our Grand Final ticket for a sneak at his phone contacts (figuratively, of course).

So, what’s the secret to great dance music? Gabry says it’s to keep it simple.

Adrenalina rush

St Jakobshalle in Basel certainly won’t be Gabby’s first big stage performance. He played at the Tomorrowland Festival for the first time in 2023, before heading to Tomorrowland Brasil in 2024. He also spent that year headlining his own arena tour across Italy, celebrating 25 years in music.

Once he’s finished with the Eurovision Song Contest 2025, there won’t be much time to rest. Gabry will be heading to Milan’s San Siro Stadium in June 2025, where he will become the first ever DJ to headline there.

Gabry says that whether it’s a big festival or a small club, he has the same feeling before he goes on stage – anxiety about whether the audience will connect with the music, and excitement.

And he clearly loves catching that feeling. If he had an Aladdin’s lamp, he would ask for three very specific adrenaline-filled adventures. First up, he’d like to go back in time to Ancient Egypt. Secondly, he’d like to fly through space at infinite speed and see how the universe looks. Finally, he would like a videogame-style extra life, so that he can have a go at some extreme sports, like wingsuit flying.

Dropping beats

Gabry first became Eurovision-curious when he heard Loreen’s Euphoria, and thought it was brilliant. He watched the show in 2012 and saw her win for Sweden. Little did he know he’d one day be on the Eurovision stage himself.

When Gabry isn’t making music, he’s listening to it, and Spotify is his most-used app. Pull up his playlist of favourite tunes and it’s full of slow ballads. We’re joking of course – this is a playlist packed with dance beats and party anthems. He loves Avicii’s Without You, deadmau5’s Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff, and the album Settle by Disclosure.

As an artist who's been in the business for a quarter of a century, there’s plenty of room for classic dance tracks too. He loves the Chemical Brothers’ Block Rockin’ Beats, Technotronic’s Pump Up The Jam, and Moby’s Go.

It’s tough to get Gabry on the dance floor because he’s usually behind the DJ decks. But if you want to give it a try, he needs anything above 135 BPM.

Tutta la Svizzera

Gabry is getting ready to take San Marino (and all of Italy) to Switzerland, and put a little "Da ba dee da ba di" in the Contest. But he’s had a hand in Eurovision before, when he co-wrote and co-produced LUM!X feat. Pia Maria’s Halo, which represented Austria for the 2022 Contest in Turin.

This time, Gabry will be wearing his own Eurovision Halo and standing proudly on the stage himself, hoping to win the trophy for San Marino.

You can hear Gabry on Episode 6 of the Official Eurovision Song Contest Podcast .

You can learn more about Gabry Ponte from San Marino right here .