«It all adds up»: a joke to announce what has been in the air for some time, Carlo Conti will be the next host and artistic director of the Sanremo Festival. The news is that it will be for two years, 2025 and 2026. Rai has decided on the most logical choice (the other would have been Antonella Clerici) and relies on a top professional in a panorama that is not wide in Viale Mazzini (third wheel Milly Carlucci, Marco Liorni grows up, then there’s the sign of the cross to make), because the names to focus on, those suitable for a large audience, as a national-popular event, are few.
«The tom tom has already started, my phone is ringing. I am very pleased – this is how the host commented on the announcement live on Tg1 at 8am -. I return to Sanremo after seven yearsI will try to resume that work done and carried forward to a great extent by the two editions of Baglioni and to a great extent by the five editions of Amadeus. Music will be at the center as always, the current one, which is popular, we hope to do a good job and continue the wonderful tradition of this event that brings everyone together, the whole family in front of the TV.” The announcement is barely warm, but his head is already set on the next steps: «There are some very specific steps: now there is the most important thing, the regulation; then we will start listening to the songs of the new proposals, then those of the big names and lastly I will try to understand the team with me on stage for the presentation and all the guests and what comes from it”. Two names from the team can already be crossed out, it is difficult to see Pieraccioni and Panariello on stage, the two lifelong friends: «I don’t think so, at least not in permanent presence. We already do too many things together, I can hardly stand those two anymore… The idea is to alternate and propose something different.”
Rai had begun to explore Conti’s availability already last January, before the Amadeus era ended. After all, the conductor of the last five Festivals (a success not only in terms of audience but also in terms of recording) he had hinted that 2024 would be his last Sanremo. Conti thought about it the right way and after Amadeus’ official farewell the accelerated final arrived. A willingness born above all from having heard from the entire company, starting from the two-faced summit (Sergio ad, Rossi dg) cohesive on his name. An attitude that made the difference for Conti. In the past, in fact, he had not hesitated to say no, it was «the one who made the great refusal»: «There was a period in which they had raised the possibility of me hosting Sanremo – he revealed -, but I hadn’t felt the company was united about my name. The need to feel supported is fundamental, I wanted everyone to agree on me and I preferred to decline the invitation. Maybe I wasn’t ready either, I didn’t have the right authority yet».
Then that authority arrived. Conti has already hosted Sanremo for three years from 2015 to 2017 (winners Il Volo, Gli Stadio and Francesco Gabbani) and in 2016 he had chosen four names that would make their way: in the New Proposals category he had chosen Mahmood, Ermal Meta, Irama and Gabbanior three future number ones of the Festival (the only one who hasn’t succeeded so far is Irama).
Enzo Mazza, CEO of Fimi (Italian Music Industry Federation) applauds Rai’s choice: «Carlo Conti is a professional who also paved the way for Amadeus’ great results and we are happy with his return to lead the event. It is a particularly happy moment for the Italian music industry and the artistic director will have before him a wide choice of multi-platinum talents who dominate the charts to bring to the competition.” According to Mazza, however, a key question remains open: «With Rai, all that remains to be finalized the priority issue of the Festival’s costs for companies which is absolutely unsustainable today.”
