Pop: Sanremo Music Festival ends with favorites winning

pop
Sanremo Music Festival ends with favorites winning

Marco Mengoni wins the Sanremo Music Festival. photo

© Matteo Rasero/LaPresse via ZUMA Press/dpa

An institution: the Italians sit in droves in front of the TV sets during the multi-day spectacle. This year the event is more political than ever before. President Selenskyj also plays a role in this.

The traditional music festival of Sanremo ended with a victory of the favorites and a final political Ukraine message. Early on Sunday morning, Italian TV viewers and a jury chose singer Marco Mengoni as the winner. The 34-year-old is allowed to represent Italy with his winning song “Due Vite” – a typical pop ballad – at the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool.

Marco Mengoni goes to Liverpool to the ESC

Mengoni had also won in Sanremo in 2013. The singer had been the favorite to win for days. As star guests, the synth-pop band Depeche Mode performed their new song “Ghosts Again” and the world hit “Personal Jesus” for the first time.

Aside from the music, politics were the focus of the festival’s five evenings in the northern Italian coastal city. Shortly before the winner was announced on Sunday night, moderator Amadeus read a letter from Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “Ukraine will surely win this war. It will win the war together with the free world,” it said. Zelenskyj underlined the value of music in the world. “I am sure that one day we will all hear the song of our victory together.”

For weeks, Selenskyj has been causing a stir in connection with Sanremo in Italy. It was actually planned that a video message from the Ukrainian would be shown at one of the shows. However, some politicians protested, above all Minister of Transport Matteo Salvini. The head of the right-wing populist League – known for years as a big fan of Russian President Vladimir Putin – said the music festival should remain non-political.

High ratings

Of course, it didn’t stay that way: on the various evenings, the moderators and guests often came up with political and social messages. Italy’s best-known influencer Chiara Ferragni, for example, spoke out in favor of women’s right to abortion and against body shaming. World-class volleyball player Paola Egonu criticized that Italy was still a racist country in 2023. President Sergio Mattarella was a guest on the opening night, and comedian Roberto Benigni sang a song of praise for the constitution.

The Sanremo Festival took place for the 73rd time and continues to set record numbers in the Mediterranean country. This time, too, it attracted the Italians in droves in front of the TV sets and gave the public broadcaster Rai a rating of around 66 percent in the first half of the show on the final evening. After midnight, the market share was even higher at almost 74 percent, as was announced.

dpa

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