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Sanremo 2025: Carlo Conti Announced as Host and Artistic Director

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The eagerly awaited announcement has finally arrived: Carlo Conti will be the host and artistic director of Sanremo 2025 and 2026. This decision follows the five successful editions led by Amadeus.

The announcement was made during the Tg1 broadcast at 8 AM on Wednesday, May 22. Carlo Conti, who has signed a two-year contract, will be returning for his fourth and fifth editions after previously hosting three consecutive editions from 2015 to 2017.

Here are Carlo Conti’s first statements:

“I Conti tornano! After seven years, I will try to build on the work done by Baglioni and Amadeus. The first person to message me was Fiorello. I am grateful for all the affection from the people at Rai. Hosting Sanremo for the next two years, 2025 and 2026, will be a wonderful way to celebrate my 40 years at Rai. From today, I will start thinking about the regulations, then I will begin listening to the songs and start planning the team on stage. I don’t think Pieraccioni and Panariello will be regulars, as I always try to mix up the guests.”

The official Rai statement reads:

“A unanimous decision by the company’s top executives, CEO Roberto Sergio and General Director Giampaolo Rossi in agreement with Prime Time Entertainment Director Marcello Ciannamea. For the next two years, Conti will steer the most important national multimedia event organized by Rai and the Municipality of Sanremo. For Conti, this is not just a return to the Festival but a new challenge aimed at continuing to promote and highlight new trends, as he did in his successful editions from 2015 to 2017, which launched artists who are now key figures in Italian music. The Artistic Director is already at work planning a Festival full of surprises and novelties.”

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all the latest updates on Sanremo and Eurovision!

Italy: Media reports “Amadeus at Sanremo 2025 and 2026” while Rai Denies Everything!

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In the past few hours, the news portal ItaliaOggi has launched the rumor that Rai’s CEO, Roberto Sergio, would have made a mega-offer to Amadeus to host and artistically direct the next two editions of the Sanremo Festival, 2025 and 2026.

According to the newspaper, some clauses of the agreement still need to be refined, but “it seems that the signature will arrive shortly”. There is talk of a “mega-offer” from CEO Roberto Sergio, who would have also proposed to the host a show with his friend Rosario Fiorello on Rai 1 and the continuation of pre-evening shows Affari Tuoi and I Soliti Ignoti.

The news bounced around through various portals, but Rai immediately stepped in to deny it:

“The news reported by some news outlets about an agreement reached between the company and Amadeus for the hosting of the 75th edition of the Italian Song Festival in Sanremo is to be considered totally unfounded,” reads the statement. 

Recall that Amadeus, several times, has confirmed his intention to stop after the five editions from 2020 to 2024.

As a reminder, the big winner of this year’s Sanremo Festival was Angelina Mango with the song “La Noia”, who will represent Italy in the 68th Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Malmö in May.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKzWskcTTA8

Stay tuned to EurovisionFun for more news about Italy’s participation in Eurovision 2024!

Source: ItaliaOggi

 

 

Italy: RAI wants Amadeus back to Sanremo!

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Italy’s public broadcaster RAI wants Amadeus back as artistic director of Sanremo.

Not even a month has passed since the end of this year’s Sanremo festival, and it seems that it is not easy for RAI to let go of the previous artistic director of the festival, who for quite some time had announced that 2024 would be the last year that he would be in this position.

According to Italian media, RAI has resumed negotiations with Amadeus in an attempt to convince him to renew his contract for two more years, i.e. until 2026.

However, later Amadeus himself live from the show Viva Rai 2 put an end to the aforementioned scenarios saying that there was indeed a meeting with the director of public television of Italy, however there was no proposal to continue in the future in the position of artistic director of Sanremo.

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for all the updates around the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest!

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Italy: Amadeus won’t host Sanremo 2025| These are the candidates for hosting the Festival!

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We know for quite a while now, that Sanremo 2024, was going to be the last festival that the successful Amadeus would host. Now, after Angelina Mango’s win, the lights in Teatro Ariston went down, and RAI is searching for the new presenter of the Italian music show.

In their first joint interview in a popular Italian magazine, the italian presenter and his wife Giovanna Civitillo, talked about the withdrawal of Amadeus from the festival:

“After five years between Milan and Rome I want to devote myself to my wife and children, they fill up my life and they complete me. Off stage I’m like the sad clown, they’re my glass half full.”

H Giovanna Civitillo added that he is a capable, generous and honest man.

As of Festival di Sanremo 2025, there are already a few names that RAI is targeting. After both Carlo Conti (host and artistic director of the festival from 2015 until 2017) and Paolo Bonolis, (host of the 2005 festival) declined that offer, the public broadcaster has some other names in mind. These are Alessandro Cattelan, host of Eurovision 2022, Antonella Clerici (participant in Sanremo 2005, 2010) but also Alessia Marcuzzi.

The Festival di Sanremo 2024 was completed a few days ago, with Angelina Mango, being the first woman winning the festival after ten years. In Eurovision, Italy will take part directly in the Grand Final, as part of the BIG 5 group, in May 11:

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for all the news regarding the Italian participation at the Eurovision Song Contest 2024, in Malmö!

Source: Chi Magazine

RAI: Considerations for Selecting Eurovision Representative from Sanremo via International Committee!

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The lights went out at the Teatro Ariston for the triumphant 74th edition of the Sanremo Festival, with 1.5 million more viewers tuning in compared to last year to watch the grand final on RAI1. Shortly before, the RAI press conference, hosted by Amadeus and three past winners, concluded with the confirmation from Angelina Mango that she would represent Italy at Eurovision 2024. However, there was another significant development regarding Sanremo’s role in selecting Italy’s Eurovision representative.

Separation of Sanremo Winner and Eurovision Representation from 2025?

During the press conference, Amadeus was asked if, during his years as host and artistic director of the festival, he ever considered using an international committee to select the most suitable artist and song to represent Italy at Eurovision.

While Amadeus answered negatively, the response from RAI officials was different, indicating that it is something they will consider for the next year.

The above response was obviously prompted by this year’s events, particularly the near-victory of Geolier with a song widely acknowledged as having no chance at Eurovision, while there were several songs at Sanremo that would have performed much better. Furthermore, Sanremo serves incidentally as Italy’s national final, and the voting criteria of both the audience, journalists, and radio representatives do not necessarily align with Eurovision representation.

So, the question is reasonable, and RAI‘s answer is also sensible, perhaps believing that disconnecting the Sanremo winner from Eurovision representation and selecting the artist who will represent Italy in the competition may yield even better results, especially in a year like this one.

RAI‘s Mammoth Revenues and Viewership

The Sanremo final ended with massive television ratings for RAI, surpassing last year’s by a significant margin. Specifically, an average of 74.1% of viewers, totaling 14,301,000, tuned in, compared to 66% and 12,256,000 viewers last year.

The moment with the highest viewership was during Amadeus‘s humorous sketch with Fiorello, with over 18,000,000 viewers watching RAI1, and the peak share reached 85.26% during the announcement of the top 5 results.

RAI‘s revenue from advertising during the five days of the festival was €60,182,000, far exceeding the expenses incurred by the Italian public broadcaster for Sanremo, proving that creating something so remarkable yields commensurate returns.

Amadeus‘s Future at Sanremo and His Possible Successor

Amadeus revealed that in two weeks, he will meet with RAI for a general assessment of Sanremo 2024. He did not clarify whether there would be any discussion about extending their collaboration into 2025. However, the name of a possible successor to Amadeus as host and artistic director of the festival has already been circulating in the press.

That person is the former politician and long-time popular Italian television host, Gerry Scotti. A few days earlier, Amadeus and Gerry Scotti had dinner, discussing the Sanremo Festival. The only issue for him to take on this significant role is that he belongs to the dynamics of private television and would need to resolve any outstanding issues there.

Of course, all of the above will make sense if Amadeus steps down and does not remain in his position in 2025. In that case, Amadeus will be the longest-serving host and artistic director of Sanremo.

Stay tuned for all the developments!

Italy 2024: Sanremo duets for cover night revealed!

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The “Duets Night” for the 2024 edition of the Sanremo festival will take place on February 09, 2024.  During this serata the audience will watch the competing acts performing a cover, usually in Italian or English although they can perform in other languages.

The competing acts for the 2024 edition will perform in duets with an invited artist for the cover night.  The result of the cover night will be decided by 34% of the public, 33% of the professional jury of journalists, and 33% of the professional jury of radio broadcaster formula.

Amadeus revealed the duets that will join the stage to perform during the cover night.  These are the acts we will see together in February:

  • Alessandra Amoroso with Boomdabash – Medley of their songs
  • Alfa with Roberto Vecchioni – “Sogna, ragazzo, sogna” (Dream, boy, dream)
  • Angelina Mango with the String Quartet of the Orchestra of Rome – “La rondine” (The swallow)
  • Annalisa with La Rappresentante di Lista and Artemia choir – “Sweet dreams (are made of this)”
  • BigMama with Gaia, La Niña and Sissi – “Lady Marmalade”
  • BNKR44 with Pino D’Angiò – “Ma quale idea” (What idea)
  • Clara with Ivana Spagna and the white voices choir of Teatro Regio of Turin – “Il cerchio della vita” (Circle of life)
  • Dargen D’Amico with BabelNova Orchestra – tribute to Ennio Morricone: “Modigliani” to the tune of “The crisis”
  • Diodato with Jack Savoretti – “Amore che vieni, amore che vai” (You, Love, who comes and who goes)
  • Emma with Bresh – Medley of Tiziano Ferro’s songs
  • Fiorella Mannoia with Francesco Gabbani – medley of “Che sia benedetta / Occidentali’s Karma” (Let it be blessed / Westerners’ karma)
  • Fred De Palma with Eiffel 65 – Medley of Eiffel 65’s greatest hits
  • Gazzelle and Fulminacci – “Notte prima degli esami” (Night before exams)
  • Geolier with Guè, Luchè and Gigi D’Alessio – Medley with the title “Strade” (Roads)
  • Ghali with Ratchopper – Medley with the title “Italiano vero” (True Italian)
  • Il Tre with Fabrizio Moro – Medley of Fabrizio Moro’s greatest hits
  • Il Volo with Stef Burns – “Who wants to live forever”
  • Irama with Riccardo Cocciante – “Quando finisce un amore” (When a love ends)
  • La Sad with Donatella Rettore – “Lamette” (Razors)
  • Loredana Bertè with Venerus – “Ragazzo mio” (My boy)
  • Mahmood with I Tenores di Bitti – “Com’è profondo il mare” (How deep is the sea)
  • Maninni with Ermal Meta – “Non mi avete fatto niente” (You haven’t done anything to me)
  • Mr. Rain with Gemelli Diversi – “Mary”
  • Negramaro with Malika Ayane – “La canzone del sole” (The song of the sun)
  • Renga & Nek – Medley of their greatest hits
  • Ricchi e Poveri with Paola & Chiara – medley of “Sarà perché ti amo / Mamma Maria” (It will be because I love you / Mother Maria)
  • Rose Villain with Gianna Nannini – medley
  • Sangiovanni with Aitana – medley of “Farfalle” and “Mariposas” (Butterflies)
  • Santi Francesi with Skin – “Hallelujah”
  • The Kolors with Umberto Tozzi – medley of Umberto Tozzi’s greatest hits

Which acts are you most waiting to watch performing as a duet?

Stay tuned at EurovisionFun for more news about Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 and the Sanremo 2024 Festival !

Source: RAI

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Italy: Amadeus does not rule out staying on as host and artistic director at Sanremo 2025!

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It is possible that Amadeus will remain in the position of presenter and artistic director of the Sanremo Festival in 2025 as well, according to what he stated in an interview with La Republicca.

The fifth festival of Sanremo is this year, in which Amadeus, in addition to the presentation, also has his artistic direction. Under his guidance, Sanremo not only achieved huge ratings, but produced countless hits, a winning song at the Eurovision Song Contest that became a global hit, and positively engaged the media as much as ever.

Italian public opinion unanimously would like Amadeus to remain in his position for many more years. He seems to no longer rule it out, saying that after the end of Sanremo 2024 he will discuss with RAI about the next festival.

As you read in our previous article, rehearsals have already started in Rome with the RAI orchestra and will last until next Friday.

The next important date is Monday, January 15, when part of the press will have the opportunity to listen exclusively to the 30 candidates of this year’s festival and then formulate their reviews. On January 30, the lyrics of the songs will be published.

In the bookies, rapper Goelier widens his lead over the rest of the artists, with Alessandra Amoroso firmly in second place and Annalisa in third place. We remind you that the festival will take place from the 6th to the 10th of February at the Teatro Ariston.

The winner of Sanremo 2024 is automatically considered the Italian entry for Eurovision 2024. In the event that does not accept to go to Eurovision, the Sanremo organizing committee will then choose the artist to represent Italy in Malmö according to its own criteria (meaning from those contestants who have filled in the Eurovision interest form).

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all the updates regarding Sanremo 2024!

Italy: Amadeus and Annalisa welcome the new year and become a meme – 61% viewership!

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With a big concert held in Piazza Pitagora, in the municipality of Crotona in the region of Calabria, the people of Italy welcomed the new year.

The concert was broadcast through the channel of RAI1, with over 10 million viewers with a percentage of 61%, tuning into the public channel of Italian television, at the turn of the new year. Overall, the concert attracted 6.202.000 viewers (40,1%) . Among the artists who appeared at the Piazza Pitagora concert was Sanremo 2024 contender Annalisa, whose career has soared in the last year.

Worth noting, she was the artist with whom the presenter and artistic director of Sanremo, Amadeus, welcomed the new year together with the whole of Italy.

In particular, while Annalisa, was singing her big hit, Belissima, Amadeus quickly ran to interrupt her, as the new year was entering, causing moments of laughter to all Italians, while the scene immediately went viral throughout Italy, with users  of Social Media, show me with the two protagonists.

https://twitter.com/fpoibasta/status/1741857158738715019

 

In fact, there was no shortage of comments that considered the event a harbinger of Annalisa’s victory in this year’s Sanremo, but also of the Italian representation in Malmö.

https://twitter.com/eiriiina/status/1741821269878723037

 

We remind you that the festival will take place from the 6th to the 10th of February at the Teatro Ariston in Sanremo.

Italy: Sanremo Giovani: First female victory in 14 years | A sign of things to come at Sanremo 2024? – Eurovision News | Music | Fun (eurovisionfun.com)

Would you like to see Annalisa at Eurovision 2024? Check us out in the comments below!

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all the latest news!

Italy: Alessandra Amoroso new favourite to win Sanremo 2024!

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The bookmakers have reformulated their odds and we have a clearer situation as to the favourites at the upcoming Sanremo festival, which is already attracting not only domestic music interest, but also from abroad. New big favorite for the victory is now the pop superstar Alessandra Amoroso, who in her first participation in the festival is of course aiming for the victory, which will give her not only the Golden Lion, but also the ticket to Malmö!

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Italy: The artists’ initial reactions upon their participation announcement at Sanremo 2024!

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Amadeus revealed the lineup for the 74th edition of the Sanremo Festival just a few hours ago. Many previous winners, successful artists of the Italian music scene as well as Italian superstars make up the lineup, who will compete for the Golden Lion from February 6 to 10 at Sanremo’s Teatro Ariston.

Italy: Amadeus reveals the participants of Sanremo 2024!

The artists were extremely anxious until Amadeus’ announcement of the competing acts. The chosen artists had no idea whether they’d be on the Amadeus shortlist, as shown on their social media posts, with some of their reactions being literally epic!

Bigmama

Bigmama, despite being only 24 years old, was able to accomplish one of her greatest dreams, to participate at the Sanremo Festival. She is a symbol for many plus-sized women, but she is also an activist for the rights of the LGBTQ+ community in Italy, which adores her.

Bigmama is unable to control her joy and excitement when she hears her name from Amadeus and falls down sobbing in the video posted on Twitter.

Renga and Nek

The classic Italian pop-music enthusiasts just found their favorites on Renga and Nek. It will not be their first time on the stage of Sanremo. Renga took first place at Sanremo in 2005, while Nek finished in second place in 2015. Nek has also given us the now-iconic “Laura non c’e” during his 1997 debut at the festival, which, although it did not win, went on to become a worldwide hit.

When Amadeus announced their participation, they were in the kitchen getting ready for lunch as their faces lit up.

Mr. Rain

Mr Rain’s participation in this year’s Sanremo festival gave him the necessary boost in his career, in addition to a third place finish. Mr Rain returns to the Festival in 2024 following a successful season with sold out shows all over Italy. Mr Rain’s intentions are revealed in the laconic video he uploaded.

Alessandra Amoroso

Sanremo’s biggest surprise was definitely Alessandra Amoroso. Not only Amadeus, but also his predecessors, have been begging her to perform at the Sanremo Festival for many years. Everyone’s pleas were heard this time, and Alessandra will participate at this huge musical celebration.

Along with a photo showing her back, a small text accompanied her post on X following the announcement of her participation, mentioning:

With an eye on everything that will happen from now on. As if it were the first time on stage. On that stage for the first time.

Il Volo

Following their extremely successful world tour, Il Volo will return once again to Sanremo aiming to win. The Amadeus’ announcement found them in flight, but that did not stop them from watching the artists’ announcement live.

Negramaro

Negramaro is one of Italy’s most well-known pop bands and they are also the big favorites to win, according to the early betting. The group appears to be taking their participation in Sanremo 2024 very seriously, as evidenced by a special video for their participation.

Mahmood

Having already won the festival twice in just four years, Mahmood will claim the the victory once again, while he’s a favorite of the press. With a quite humorous post, Mahmood reacted to his participation at the Sanremo 2024.

The winner of the 2023 edition of the Sanremo Festival was Marco Mengoni with his song “Due Vite“. Mengoni accepted the RAI invitation and represented his home country at the Eurovision stage for the second time, finishing 4th overall. His single “Due Vite” went to become a major success in Italy and was recently awarded as a five-times platinum record.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4HBDAbdXUg

Stay tuned to EurovisionFun for all news regarding the 2024 edition of the Sanremo Festival!