Just over a month before the start of the Sanremo Festival, the breakup – announced last December – between Amadeus and his agent Lucio Presta caused a sensation. At the time there was talk of generic “differences on a work and professional level”. But now Presta decides to tell how things would really have gone, after last April 10th he wrote a post on it’s the people and how the facts unfolded. I saw many faces full of masks. It’s time to reveal faces and circumstances! In an interview with The newspaper it portrays an Amadeus who has changed over time: before 2020 he was one person, from 2020 onwards he became another. Or at least this is the perception of his former agent, who describes, between the lines, the Sanremo host as an “ungrateful” person. They faced the first Amadeus Italian Music Festival together. «A masterpiece of complicity», Presta describes it in conversation with Hoara Borselli. Although they managed to work in synergy, the manager lets slip some details about Amadeus’ unpreparedness.
“Loves? She didn’t know who the women we invited to Sanremo were »
«He didn’t even know where one could begin to formulate a regulation and what follows from it, what the rights and duties of the Festival’s Artistic Director were. I spent a few days with him in La Coruna, Spain, to write the entire regulation which he then brought to Rai as his own work…”, reveals Presta. «The choice of women who would support him was born during the repeated dinners that Maria, my cook, prepared for him every evening at my house. Many of the women you saw on the Ariston stage, Amadeus didn’t even know them. For example, Rula Jebreal », he continues. Not to mention that the answers to the journalists’ questions were prepared first by Presta and then given to Amadeus to repeat.
What happened between the two
The relationship between the two began to crack with the work for the fifth (and final) Amadeus Festival. After having drawn up the Regulations, Presta contacted Ama to manage the requests of the artists who wanted to participate in the event singing. «At that point I realized that something was wrong: he always said no and declined every proposal», says the manager. «I asked to have a meeting with him and the answer was that he had a lot to do and that we would certainly meet in December to clarify some things. Not a little surprised, I looked back over the past in search of any errors on my part.” Then a request from Amadeus complicated things further.
Amadeus’ requests
«He asked me and my son for an appointment as a producer for Arena Suzuki. It was June 2023. During this meeting Ama made a request: that the company pay him for the artistic direction and that he be recognized 100 percent of the ownership rights of the format. Request not collectable”, explains Lucio Presta. «Management that was already paid by Rai which had entered into an agreement with Arcobaleno Tre, owner of the format. I remind Amadeus that not only can it not boast those titles, but that the Rai Supervisory Commission has prohibited the possibility that artists can take money from the producers of the programs they host”, he adds. At that point, Presta left the meeting and Amadeus remained with his son. The latter, the manager continues, was unable not to give in to Ama’s “insistence”: “He gave in to his insistence to the point of recognizing him a share as artistic director of the program and for having collaborated in the creation of the program. I repeat: which is not true because if that had been the case he would have been obliged to give the format to Rai as per his contract with the company”, he comments.
The break
In mid-December he had another meeting and Amadeus told him he wanted to break off the relationship with him after Sanremo. Then, however, he thought better of it and asked him to stop the relationship immediately because his presence would have made him uncomfortable in Sanremo. «I said and wrote that for any problem related to the contract I would be available, receiving his thanks. On that occasion he confirmed to me that he would honor the payment of my dues until the end of the contract (August 2024) except that in January he informed me, through his accountant brother-in-law, that he intended to pay only until December. For this reason, the legal office was given instructions to protect my interests”, explains Presta.
What’s behind John Travolta’s hosting?
Ama’s former manager then reveals how things went with John Travolta’s hosting, which later proved controversial, at the last Sanremo Festival. Last October, Travolta’s manager wrote to Presta to ask if they were interested in the artist’s presence at a sum sufficient because the shoe sponsor was willing to pay the rest of his fee. Presta informed Amadeus and advised him against the operation. If at first Ama agreed to decline the offer, then things did not change. «In November, a month later, Travolta’s manager relaunched the offer. I didn’t reply but I shared with Alessio De Stefani, my collaborator and author of the Festival that they had offered again. I’m sure that once we arrived in Sanremo the manager contacted De Stefani and proposed everything again. The fact is that at the Festival, what the manager proposed then came true and the only people who knew of the proposal were Amadeus and De Stefani”, explains Presta. «In the meantime, with De Stefani and Dal Bello the collaborative relationship with Arcobaleno tre and also with me had been interrupted due to incorrect behavior and violation of industrial secrets», he concludes with bitterness.
