Sanremo 2023 at the start. This is the provisional rankingbased on the vote of the press room (one third for the printed paper, one third for the web and one third for the radio) at the end of the opening night of the Sanremo festival, during which the first fourteen singers performed in competition: Marco Mengoni, Elodie, Coma_Cose, Ultimo, Leo Gassmann, Mara Sattei, Colla Zio, Cugini di Campagna, Mr. Rain, Gianluca Grignani, Ariete, gIANMARIA, Olly, Anna Oxa.
The Festival opened with a minute of silence for the victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria. Audience of the Ariston standing for the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, who took a seat together with his daughter Laura in one of the side boxes of the theater accompanied by a long applause from the hall.
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Amadeus: ‘Thank you for being close to music’
“I wish we could all sing together.” Gianni Morandi invited all of Ariston to sing the Mameli anthem with him, in honor of the presence in the Ariston room of President Mattarella. The occasion is the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Constitution. Morandi and Amadeus sing with their hands on their hearts. Final standing ovation, also for the orchestra, and applause from Mattarella from his place of honor.
“Mr. President, having you here with us testifies to your closeness to the world of entertainment and music. A closeness also to the world of song of which Sanremo is the maximum popular expression. Your presence reminds us then that it is the 75th anniversary of the Constitution of which you are our beloved guarantor”: thus Amadeus thanking the President of the Republic, Mattarella, present for the first time at the opening night of the festival.
“I’m glad you’re here, chairman, but let me point out one thing – Roberto Benigni enters the Sanremo stage and makes fun of Amadeus’ excessive power, addressing President Mattarella -: you are in your second term, Amadeus in your fourth and you have already booked a fifth, you are thinking of doing a sixth or seventh. I wonder: is it constitutional? President, we need to stop him, it’s a coup d’état, he’s gotten over his head, he wants full powers, he’s organizing the march on Sanremo, they want to take everything, it’s a dictatorship”. On the stage of the Ariston Roberto Benigni celebrates the Constitution and pays tribute to the founding fathers, “among these – he says – was Bernardo Mattarella, the father of the president, to whom our applause goes. She and the Constitution have had the same father – says the Oscar winner addressing the head of state – we can say that she is his sister “. Standing ovation at Ariston for Roberto Benigni and his hymn to the Constitution. At the end of the speech, which lasted about fifteen minutes, all of Ariston – including president Mattarella and his daughter Laura – applauded the Oscar winner.
Long black low-cut dress, a long white stole and the writing on the shoulders ‘think free’which shows before descending – with confidence – the dreaded Ariston staircase. Chiara Ferragni enters the stage of Sanremo, compliments Amadeus, “it’s too welcoming, he knows I’m terrified”, and a declaration of love for Morandi: “I love Gianni, I’ve always been a fan of his songs”. The businesswoman jokes to herself, “I’ve been climbing the stairs of my apartment building for months and practicing presenting”, she says it all in one breath, and then introduces Mr Rain.
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On Instagram, ‘a social message also through fashion’
After an excursus on the edge of irony on his “rather ugly” early songs, Gianni Morandi drags the Ariston to the notes of ‘Bella Belinda’.
Six years after the farewell of 2016 and after the death of Stefano D’Orazio, the Poohs are back together for the Sanremo festival, in training with Riccardo Fogli. Nostalgia guaranteed and the Ariston public delirious, including the orchestral players. Medley lasting almost a quarter of an hour with a rundown on the successes of the group. From Friends forever to Just give me a minute, Stay with me, So much desire for her, Thought, Little Katy, Who will stop the music.
During the Pooh performance, Amadeus invited the whole audience to sing with the drummer who died in November 2020. And he, Stefano, appeared on a transparent curtain in the archive images of the 1990 victory right at the festival with lonely men. Lifelong companions Roby Facchinetti, Dodi Battaglia and Red Canzian were moved and the audience stood up for the tribute to the musician.
For the monologue, his most awaited performance at the Ariston, Clare Ferragni she appears on stage in a naked dress with a trompe l’oeil embroidery of her body: “I’m not naked – she explains – it’s a drawing of my body”. She is still a dress-manifesto, for a motivational speech addressed to all women, an invitation to overcome insecurities, to celebrate successes, to “fight together every day to change things”. The starting point is an imaginary letter to Chiara as a child: “Every time I think of you I feel like crying and I don’t know why – Ferragni begins, excited to the point of final emotion – perhaps because I miss you, I would like to let you out a little more, show you how is my life now. People know me, they ask me for selfies, it’s nice to be appreciated by millions of people, but the important thing is to like myself. I want to make you a promise, I’ve always tried to make you proud, all that I do, I do it for you, for the little girl I was.”
Unscheduled at the festival. Blanco, guest of the first evening, halfway through the performance begins to destroy the flower arrangements on stage. “I couldn’t hear myself in the headphones”, he justified himself in the end, while the hall started booing him, “But I had fun anyway”. Massacre of roses all over the proscenium and stage assistants at work. Even Gianni Morandi takes the broom to remove the destroyed flowers. “It’s been since Bugo and Morgan that something like this hasn’t happened”, commented Amadeus. After the sound problems, Blanco didn’t sing The Isle of Roses again. “There are no conditions,” explained Amadeus.
Chiara Ferragni returns to the stage and brings the fight against violence against women to the Ariston stage: with her Antonella, Anna, Cristina and Ambra, president and activists of Dire, an association that brings together anti-violence centers. “We need a revolution, 20,000 women turn to us every year”, says one of them. On her peplum dress, Ferragni bears written some of the criticisms that have been leveled at her appearance, on her body and above all on her freedom to feel like a woman as well as a mother. “The sentences of contempt embroidered in black pearls are the real offenses that haters address every day to her photos posted on Instagram. Maria Grazia Chiuri – explains the entrepreneur on Instagram – had the idea of embroidering these BLACK words on a peplum WHITE like the page of a book that tells that fruitless contempt against which to fight every single day. By bringing these sexist phrases to @sanremorai we want to encourage everyone to not care and remind women not to let hateers put them down because they are only the opinions of those who loves us to really count”.
‘My free song’: Gianni Morandi leads the tribute to Lucio Battisti, who would have turned 80 on March 5 and passed away 25 years ago. Everyone sings, the audience, the gallery, Amadeus and Chiara Ferragni from the front rows. Final standing ovation.
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THE ARTISTS IN THE COMPETITION – ALL THE PHOTOS
SANREMO 2023, THE SPECIAL
