Sanremo 2024, Amadeus and Mengoni sing 'Bella ciao'. And the door to the tractors remains open

If Sanremo does not go to politics, politca goes to Sanremo. Around the end of the press conference on the first evening of the festival comes a gag that promises to take the whole debate: Enrico Lucci asks Amadeus and co-host Marco Mengoni if they can declare themselves anti-fascists. The answer from both is affirmative. Lucci then reiterates: "Could you sing Bella ciao?" The artistic director recalls that, in his Covid days, he even tried to invite the performers of the Netflix series La casa di carta to sing the famous Italian Resistance song that is its soundtrack. Mengoni instead dwells on the melodic and harmonic beauty of the song. Then they end up singing it together. Who knows the Roman reactions.

But politics at the festival, this year, also takes the form of a tractor: the subject of a possible landing on the Riviera of the protest of the farmers, between openings by Amadeus and the RAI, which continues to put the brakes on, is in the news. There are rumours of a 'mission' by the protesters on 9 February, on the occasion of the evening of covers. The artistic director reiterates: 'If there is a request to participate, we will evaluate it with Rai. It is clear that we will not be able to make rallies, the evenings are already full'. Rai's Prime Time entertainment director Marcello Ciannamea took the floor at this point: 'The company is giving space to this protest in numerous programmes. If we are talking about the Festival, in any case, there is no negotiation underway for the co-hosting of the protesters'.

At the press conference of the first evening of Sanremo 2024, Amadeus in any case distances himself from the hypothesis of his sixth artistic direction: 'I love the festival, you know it well, I'm good at it, but I think you have to close a cycle, also to recharge yourself, to think about new things, other things,' he reiterates. "I love games, quizzes, daily life. I got to prepare Affari Tuoi during the festival and luckily it's going better than we thought. In the past I used to go abroad, to look for new formats, I wish I had time to do other things that could give me other emotions. I'm not tired, I'm fine, but I think it has to close, hopefully with pleasant results. There is no problem, everything is very serene,' he said at the press conference.

As for the competition, all 30 songs will be heard tonight: only the press room will vote. Rain, Bunker 44, Gazzelle, Dargen D'Amico, Rose Villain, Santi Francesi, Fred De Palma, Maninni, Alfa, Il Tre. Closing at 2 o'clock. Or at least we would sign up for it. On the next two evenings, however, the radio jury and the televote will decide. All voting components will then be in play on Friday and Saturday.

No Sinner, we know. But if great tennis doesn't go to Sanremo, Sanremo goes to great skiing: Federica Brignone will in fact be a guest on the first evening of the Italian Song Festival broadcast this evening on Rai 1. In the middle of the competitive season, the first Italian skier to win the overall World Cup and three speciality cups has also said yes to Amadeus' invitation to promote her sport in the run-up to the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics. She is the first Italian skier to win the overall World Cup and three speciality cups in addition to three Olympic medals and three World Championships. Co-host will be Marco Mengoni, winner of the last edition of the Festival.