All fans of the Sanremo Festival, an ever-increasing number that makes the singing event on Rai 1 a special case among Italians’ television habits, are preparing for new long marathons from February 24th to 28th. Also this year, with a change in force and as a result of the regulation, there will be 30 singers competing.
After Carlo Conti’s announcement yesterday, preceded by rumors of all kinds (this too is a spectacle), it’s time for a first evaluation on the choice of finishers.
Carlo Conti assures us that it was an arduous undertaking, as there were 300 applications, including old glories and young artists: therefore 270 were excluded. The official criterion is the quality of the songs presented, and we cannot give an evaluation on this before the usual pre-listening of the songs reserved for journalists a month before the event. But reading the names selected, the impression is that there are other logics behind certain choices. An artfully created mix of names that are most unknown but already favorites of all that audience of very young people who prefer rap and trap dividing equally the geographical origin (rap is very rooted in the territory in which the singer was born and took his first steps in music), and therefore the seasoned Luké and the new face Samurai Jay of the Neapolitan scene, the Italian-Tunisian Sayf from Genoa.
It is perhaps no coincidence that many of the protagonists of last year’s cover evening return to the Ariston in the competition: the most sensational case is the Fedez-Masini couple, created extemporaneously for the duet on Nice bitch (any reference to the Fedez-Ferragni affair is not purely coincidental). And how could we miss the possibility of a Fedez-J-Ax challenge: and here is also the seasoned Milanese rapper among the 30 big names. If on the singing and artistic talents of several voices who already have many festivals behind them, such as Malika Ayane, Arisa, Francesco Renga, there is no doubt, the presence of the busty Elettra Lamborghini may raise some doubts. Among the newcomers on the Ariston stage, perhaps the most unusual and interesting choice is that of the female punk group Rag dolls, on the scene for 20 years with their loyal audience.
Two sons of art, Tredici Pietro (the father is Gianni Morandi), and Leo Gassmann, already winner among the Youth in 2020, former students of Friends the unreleased duo LDA & Aka. Among all those excluded, a prize for tenacity went to Jalisse, who after their surprise victory in 2019 tried to return 29 times, always failing. Surely the show will be guaranteed, if this will go hand in hand with the best of Italian music, we still have to wait to find out.
