A stand up comedienne on Italian television recently joked about how if somebody had fallen into a coma in Italy fifty years ago and woke up today they’d find that nothing had changed at all! More specifically, the jibe was aimed at the annual Sanremo Music Festival and its septuagenarian presenter Pippo Baudo, who with the latest edition of the show has justed clocked up his thirteenth appearance as its host. The Festival di Sanremo, which was first broadcast on the state run radio RAI in 1951 and has been televised by the RAI since 1955, has seen some of the most famous Italian pop songs sung there for the first time, like Domenico Mudugno’s Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu (better known as Volare) which took first prize in 1958. Name any Italian pop star, in fact, and they’ve probably appeared at Sanremo at some point – Eros Ramazzotti, Zucchero, Vasco Rossi, Patti Pravo, not to mention the mighty Mina and probably the greatest talent Italy has ever produced, Lucio Battisti, who presented the song Un’avventura.
The festival has seen ups and downs in popularity and the odd scandal or two. In 1967 singer-songwriter Luigi Tenco committed suicide in his hotel room after losing the competition to what he deemed an inferior song. His extreme gesture has always been the subject of controversy and last year there was a hurried reinvestigation of the case although the verdict remained the same. And in case you’re wondering, yes, the showdid go on that year…
The festival has sound historical credentials, but what about Sanremo today? Viewing figures for the 58th edition in 2008 hit an all time low, with the veteran Baudo swearing that this really will be his last show. For the uninitiated it could at best be described as a kind of Eurovision Song Contest in which only Italy fields any contestants. Frightening as that may sound and barring the majority of truly terrible bland pop songs which inevitably surface every year, it does exact a strange hold on the viewer. I set out every February determined that THIS year I WON’T allow myself to get sucked into the marathon event but find my resolve weakened after a few days; it goes on for hours and endless hours over five days and will be playing on every television in every bar and restaurant too so don’t think you can escape! The best idea is to simply give yourself up to its intoxicating kitsch appeal…you may even find yourself rooting for a favourite artist or song! If you can manage to sift through the dross there are always a few gems hiding there somewhere so watch and listen without prejudice if you happen to be in Italy during the festival.
