SANREMO!

Hooray! Next week is the Festival Musicale della Canzone Italiana: the Sanremo Festival!

Every spring since 1951 the Ligurian resort of Sanremo has hosted THE festival of Italian song. A prize is AWARDED for the best new WORK and the winner is offered the chance to represent Italy in the Eurovision song contest

It is a competition for the writers of the songs, RATHER THAN a ‘talent show’ for performers

Sanremo is a celebration of popular music and spectacle organized by RAI the national radio and television company.

IT IS OPEN-HEARTED FUN! the spirit of POPULAR MUSIC IN Italy

Mahmood

Last year’s winner WAS ‘SOLDI’ BY Mahmood, a singer-songwriter from Milano, who uses a Moroccan pop / RAP style. HE WENT ON TO COME SECOND IN EUROVISION THAT YEAR

SANREMO IS A VERY ITALIAN AFFAIR BUT ITS SONGS HAVE CONQUERED THE WORLD. ‘Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu’ or ‘Volare’ by Domenico Modugno won the prize in 1958. It was the song that EPITOMISED the exhilaration of ‘LA DOLCE VITA’ FOR THE WORLD

Volare!

TEATRO ARISTON THE VENUE SINCE 1977

Gigliola Cinquetti (in the arms of Domenico Modugno) in 1964 when she won the priZe for ‘Non Ho L’Eta’

THE INCOMPARABLE MINA

TONY RENIS HIT THE BIG TIME IN ‘62 WITH ‘QUANDO. QUANDO, QUANDO’

Mina is a regular at Sanremo PERFORMING THE SONGS OF ITALY’S BEST KNOWN AUTHORS. Each song is usually performed twice, once by the author and once by another artist

HERE’S A PREVIEW OF THE GLITZY SET FOR SANREMO 2020 WITH PLENTY OF SPACE FOR THE FULL ORCHESTRA AND A GRAND STAIR DOWN TO THE AUDIENCE

LIKE LARIA, SANREMO IS AN EXAMPLE OF ITALIAN HEART AND ITALIAN STYLE

WHO WILL WIN THIS YEAR? BRING IT ON!