Sanremo, Angelina Mango wins. Too many artists and not enough courage

It is the Sanremo of Noia. At least in the sense of Angelina Mango's song winning the 74th edition of the Italian song festival. The two-time child singer and songwriter also won the Lucio Dalla press prize and the Giancarlo Bigazzi prize for best composition. Written with Madame and Dardust, 'la cumbia della noia' - which is not technically a cumbia and is based on a melody evidently influenced by the South American standard Gracias a la vida - you hear it once and remember it forever. There was no Gracias Geolier effect: the Neapolitan rapper had to be content with second place, despite being the most voted contestant in the history of the festival with 60% of the votes. The press and radio jury, however, chose differently and the former Amici contestant won. Annalisa came third ahead of Ghali and Irama.

In the ranking read by Amadeus at the beginning of the evening, the first three positions were occupied by Geolier, Angelina Mango and Annalisa. Again, as had been the case for the pre-amination of the duets, the Ariston audience booed and a pacifying intervention by Amadeus was necessary. Then there was the televote that identified the final five and this was again submitted to the judgement of the press jury (33%), radio jury (33%) and televote (33%) to identify the final winner. During the course of the evening, someone from home had complained of difficulties in voting, apparently due to the huge amount of televoting, but RAI assured the absolute regularity of the procedures that led to the final ranking.

The Mia Martini Critics' Prize goes to Loredana Berté, sister of the great performer after whom it is named, who, on receiving it, looks up at the sky and says: "Mimì, we brought it home!" The Sergio Bardotti prize for best lyrics goes to Fiorella Mannoia. This instead is the definitive ranking from sixth to 30th place: Mahmood, Loredana Bertè, Il Volo, Alessandra Amoroso, Alfa, Gazzelle, Il Tre, Diodato, Emma, Fiorella Mannoia, The Kolors, Mr. Rain, Santi Francesi, Negramaro, Dargen D'Amico, Ricchi e Poveri, BigMama, Rose Villain, Clara, Renga and Nek, Maninni, La Sad, Bnkr 44, Sangiovanni and Fred De Palma.

The festival is over and the sums are being drawn. With the audience numbers it has achieved in these five editions and the record advertising revenue of all time, it is practically impossible to attack Amadeus' artistic direction. If there is an heir to Pippo Baudo, in the ability to re-invent the format in his own image and bring it closer to the 'real' discography, this is undoubtedly Amedeo Umberto Rita Sebastiani from Ravenna. Hats off to the numbers, in short. There's one thing, though. There is always a though, as they used to sing at the Zecchino d'Oro a few years ago.

The ratings and advertising sales reward him, but intellectual honesty obliges us to say that this 2024 festival was the least interesting of Amadeus' five festivals, the one that was the worst written in terms of television and the least courageous in terms of musical offerings. Let's start with the TV: apart from Fiorello's ramblings, the classic star who can change the result at any moment of the match (and in the final as co-host he showed), the feeling is that more work should have been done on the lyrics. Construction of the show too scholastic. Take note: the gags were limited and not very original (Marco Mengoni in Luca Laurenti version cries out for vengeance, Teresa Mannino was irrelevant), then around 10pm the drama moment arrived punctually, the unassailable pause for reflection, because the substance (the story of Giogiò, the testimony of Giovanni Allevi) is a delicate matter, about which discussing the form may seem blasphemous. But form is substance, and it should be debated: it could and should have been done better. We wonder whether the divorce between Amadeus and the historic manager Lucio Presta, on the eve of the Festival, has in any way affected the quality of the writing.