Aart Heering
From 6 to 10 February it will be remarkably quiet on the Italian streets. For no less than five evenings, a considerable part of the nation marvels at the 68th edition of the Festival of Sanremo of the Italian song. The press in those days also preferred this nationally popular event to the usual political strife and intrigue. Much to the regret of the politicians themselves, who are forced to shorten the campaign for the elections on 4 March. But they also know that Sanremo is above all in these days, and they are probably looking themselves too.
Italian songs of life
Every country has its own genre of music. The French have the chanson, the Germans the Schlager, the Netherlands the life song and Italy the Italian song. And that has been happening since 1951 – winner Nilla Pizzi with Thank you for the flowers – celebrated at the Theater Ariston in the seaside resort of Sanremo (Sanremo in Italian) at the Riviera of Flowers, which therefore still manages to attract a large number of people even in the tourist low season.
Rai dairy cow
What once started as an evening with fun songs has now grown into an almost endless The performance, not to mention the many support acts and afterthoughts. For state television Rai Due to its rich advertising income, the Festival is a cash cow that is milked every year to the last drop.
Italy's own song festival
The old variety formula of glitter, VIPs, imposing décolletés and ditto stairs from which presenters and candidates descend has never been abandoned and continues to fascinate the Italians. So much so that Italy did not participate in the Eurovision Song Contest for fourteen years, arguing that Sanremo is the only real festival. (Italy has been participating again since 2011, but without much resonance in the national media.)
Sanremo: music and scandals
Because publicity is guaranteed, Sanremo is also good for a tasty scandal in most years. It will never be as bad as in 1967, when a candidate committed suicide after being rejected for the second round.
But in 1995, host Pippo Baudo, a Rai dinosaur with at least ten Sanremos to his name, topped off with an unemployed person who threatened to crash himself from the Ariston's box (how did that man get there?), live over. to not do that anyway.
In 2012, co-host Belen Rodriguez, a much-discussed Latin American sex symbol, seeded confusion by giving viewers a glimpse of the butterfly tattooed on the inside of her thigh. Not much else came out, but that wasn't the point.
An overview of the most notorious Sanremo scandals can be found here (In italian).
5 long evenings
Sanremo has produced big names over the years. Domenico Modugno, Toto Cotugno, Gigliola Cinquetti, Albano and Romina, Eros Ramazzotti and so on and so on.
1984: Eros Ramazzotti wins the Sanremo Festival in the Nuove Proposte category.
This year there are again many veterans among the twenty participants of the Segione Campionic: Ron, Ornella Vanoni, Riccardo Fogli and two members of the Pooh, who gave the pipe to Maarten as a group after half a century last year but apparently can't resist: Roby Facchinetti and Red Canzian.
De Sezione Nuove Proposte has eight much lesser-known names, but these are also up-and-coming talent.
The five evenings of Sanremo are organized as follows:
- to 20 Samples.
- 10 Samples again and the first 4 Propostion.
- The other 10 Samples in 4 Propostion. At the end of this evening – via a vote by a mix of TV viewers, press and jury of experts – four Services eliminated.
- On the penultimate evening another 20 Samples, now in duet with a partner of their choice. Then the winner of the 4 remaining will also be Services chosen.
- to 20 Samples now for the last time, after which the winner is finally chosen late in the night and Italy can move on to the order of the day.
(Half) Dutch presenter
This time, a former participant will be the presenter: Claudio Baglioni, once defined as 'the singer par excellence of romance and warm feelings'. He is assisted by actor Pierfrancesco Favino and showgirl Michelle Hunziker. This also puts a piece of the Netherlands on the stage, because la bella hunziker is half Swiss and half Dutch. And Eros's ex. She is also well-mouthed and in that respect a relief after the many shapely but taciturn veline who are mainly beautiful on Italian TV next to the presenter.
Win Sanremo in 4 steps
It is difficult to predict who will win. For example, last year's victory was Francesco Gabbani with his cryptic Western's Karma and dancing monkey unexpectedly. But experience shows that the songs that score high usually follow the same pattern.
If you want to stand a chance of winning Sanremo, stick to the following rules:
- Start whispering, mumbling or moaning to a humming tune from an orchestra conducted by a man with André Rieu hair. The text doesn't matter, as long as the word 'Amore' appears in it regularly. Because as the now somewhat stale bard Amedeo Minghi once aptly put it: Sanremo e il Festival dell'amore. E solo l'amore.'
Want to know more about Sanremo 2018 or watch videos? Go to the special Sanremo 2018 website of the Rai.
Update: winner Sanremo 2018
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