Apart from their nationality, what do Laura Pausini, Eros Ramazzotti, Toto Cutugno, Andrea Bocelli and Måneskin have in common?
They all participated and most of them won the prestigious Italian song festival, better known as the Sanremo Festival, the final of which takes place this Saturday, February 10.
This town of 55,000 inhabitants located by the sea 25 km from the French border welcomes this pillar of Italian culture every year.
Created in 1951, it lasts a week in February from Tuesday to Saturday, and reaches audiences that would make TF1 or France 2 pale: last year, the 2023 edition brought together an average of 11 million viewers each evening and 63% of market share, with a peak of more than 14 million on Saturday for the final.
It's quite simple, it's the event that inspired the creation of Eurovision and its winner participates every year in the European competition.
The farmers' movement takes the stage
From children to great-grandparents, these endless evenings – count 4 hours per evening, up to 6 or 7 for the final – monopolize the attention of the entire Italian society, where everyone has their opinion on the potential winner and the songs in competition.
It must be said that there is something for everyone with 30 star candidates in the country, aged between 20 and 75 years old.
A bit as if artists as different as Michel Sardou and Dadju were competing at a festival in France.
Enough to disconcert more than one French viewer.
And like every year Sanremo is a reflection of Italian society, of the diversity of its opinions.
Social and international issues are never far from the Italian coast and the famous Ariston theater which hosts the festival every year.
After the Zelensky controversy last year, this year it is the demonstrations of farmers affecting the country who want to invite themselves on stage.
Proof of this is that the “ambassador” cow of the protest movement, named Ercolina, was brought to Sanremo.
Negotiations are still underway to allow farmers to intervene, but the presenter of the festival, Amadeus, has already announced that he will read a message of the movement's demands, specifies the Ansa agency.
Furthermore, several artists, including Eros Ramazzotti, called for a ceasefire or “peace” during their performances, without sometimes explicitly mentioning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
John Travolta and Russell Crowe guests
Guest host during the second evening of the festival, Wednesday evening, John Travolta made the rounds on social networks for a sequence which he would have done without.
After having perfectly reproduced the choreography of “Saturday Night Fever”, it was on a completely different title that he had to shine by performing the movements of… “The Duck Dance”, “Il ballo del qua qua” in Italian.
IS THAT JON TRAVOLTA AT SAN REMO DOING THE CHICKEN DANCE🧍🏼♀️ pic.twitter.com/msYoPY2miy
— Linn 🌹🍉 (@olsonspring26) February 7, 2024
According to La Repubblica, the sequence was even removed from the replay of the event on the RAI website, after the “Grease” actor refused to sign the clause authorizing the rebroadcast of the sequence.
New Zealand actor Russell Crowe also stopped off in Sanremo on Thursday evening to sing with his blues band and did not fail to mock his American counterpart.
Russell Crowe if he takes the hand of the Ariston does not belong to the superhost of the third edition of the Sanremo Festival.
When Teresa Mannino was the number one Hollywood star of Italian origin, 'Il Gladiatore' included with John Travolta and mime he 'Ballo del… pic.twitter.com/zcM623wefR
— Repubblica (@repubblica) February 8, 2024
This year, among the competing artists, there are few names familiar to the French public, but Annalisa and Mahmood, real local stars, are in a good position to win.
The French will surely also be familiar with the group Ricchi e Poveri, who released the hit “Sarà perché ti amo” in the 1980s.