"Sanremo is Sanremo because it is a great popular festival that satisfies everyone, adults and children and every social class. Italians are captivated by the same event as when the national team plays: all artistic directors or all technical commissioners. Sanremo was commented on in the bar on the day later, today in real time on social media": words of Carlo Conti, at the helm of the Festival in 2015, 2016 and 2017, who was one of the pioneers of the change brought about by Claudio Baglioni and Amadeus.
In particular, the victory of 'Occidentali's Karma' in the last of its three editions, conducted together with Maria De Filippi, "was a small revolution because it undermined the cliché of the Sanremo song and the sacredness of the Ariston, with the people dancing and he went wild in the theater", recalls Conti.
Francesco Gabbani's song, brought on stage with the dancing monkey, took first place, beating two classic songs such as 'Che sia benedetta' by Fiorella Mannoia and 'Vietato mori' by Ermal Meta.
An unpredictable podium that led Gabbani to almost apologise, kneeling in front of the second place.
Mindful of that gesture, Mannoia, competing this year, invited Gabbani as a guest on Friday's cover evening.
The first step of the podium at the first two Carlo Conti Festivals was more classic, with Il Volo winning in 2015 and Stadio in 2016.
"A great fortune and perhaps the thing I'm most proud of - Carlo Conti tells ANSA - is having had so many New Value Proposals. In addition to Gabbani (who with 'Amen' had established himself among the Youth) also Ermal Meta, Mahmood, Giovanni Caccamo, Irama, Enrico Nigiotti. The intuition was probably not to relegate the competition of New proposals but putting it in the head, giving prestige to the emerging ones. A great job also done by the technical commissions who helped me in choosing the songs", he adds.
Among the most exciting memories is the Spandau Ballet reunion.
"In '84, '85, '86 or perhaps even before, when I went in my orange 127 desperately looking for interviews in the hotels of Sanremo, I would never have imagined - says Conti - that I would host the Festival and have them as guests for the reunion".
Another difficult moment to imagine as a boy except in dreams was sharing the Ariston stage with Giorgio Panariello and Leonardo Pieraccioni, "two brotherly friends with whom I trained a lot", he adds.
And then Ezio Bosso, "talented and extraordinary man" who it was nice to be able to make known to all of Italy with "an unprepared, real and strong chat, born spontaneously, as if it were me and him in color and the rest in black and white ", remember.
After the five consecutive Festivals of Amadeus, which declared that it does not want to do the sixth, some are thinking of a return of Carlo Conti.
Would you do Sanremo again?
"I have never chased anything in life, let alone Sanremo. I have always let everything - he replies - come naturally, step by step. The three editions I led were on the rise, with someone talking about relaunching the Festival. There it was a new music scene which was also enhanced by Claudio Baglioni's Festivals and masterfully by Amadeus. If Rai asked me if I would be willing to remake Sanremo in one, two, three, ten years, I will sit down and try to understand, beyond of ideas, if I still have the energy and ear to do it. The most important thing about the role of artistic director is the choice of songs. There's no certainty about tomorrow. I've done three Festivals, I'm not chasing the fourth and fifth."
An affectionate thought goes to Fabrizio Frizzi.
Are you sorry that he never hosted Sanremo, a point of arrival for all hosts?
"He would have deserved to host the Festival on a thousand occasions in his career - replies Carlo Conti - but it was never proposed to him. The affection, the true and pure love, the warmth that the public showed towards Fabrizio during his illness, when he died and at his funeral, however, they are worth much more - he concludes - than one, two, three, ten Sanremo Festivals".
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