The Sanremo Song Festival, with its rich history spanning more than half a century, has become a kind of symbol of Italy. His stage was the first serious step for dozens of young and talented performers, who subsequently received recognition not only in Italy, but also far beyond its borders. Blogoitaliano has already talked about the history of the San Remo Festival, its dates and venue here. Today we will touch upon the traditions and interesting events associated with the Festival.
Like other famous events, the San Remo Festival has its own traditions that have developed over the years.
Traditions of the San Remo Festival
• Perhaps The main tradition of the San Remo Festival - his concert venue. Since 1977, the annual song contest in Italy has been held in theater "Ariston". Over the years, more than 1,500 songs have been performed on his stage by hundreds of participants.
The main tradition of the San Remo Festival is the stage of the Ariston Theater
• Traditionally, on the opening day of the Festival, a red carpet spreads along the Ariston main staircase along which the honored guests of the Festival enter the Theater.
• Only new songs that until now have never been performed by anyone anywhere can participate in the competition program.
• Each participant of the competitive program performs no more than 2 songs - this rule has become a tradition of the Song Festival in San Remo for many years of trial and error.
• Along with budding singers and singers taking their first steps on the big stage, their eminent colleagues also take part in the competition for the best performance of Italian songs. Moreover, some of the celebrities managed to be in the list of participants of the Festival 8 or even 14 times.
Eros Ramazotti repeatedly became the winner of the Festival
• A rare festival in San Remo is without participation of honored guests, including movie stars and pop stars, athletes, Olympic champions, and sometimes even royal blood. So, for example, in 2010, the Italian prince Emmanuel Filiberto of Savoy became a participant in the Festival. He sang along with Pupo and Luca Canonizi and took second place, which caused a lot of controversy in Italy.
Winners of the festival
The name of the winner of the San Remo Festival is traditionally determined by viewers by voting on the air of the First Channel of State Italian Television RAI.
• The first winner of the Festival, or rather its winner, in 1951 was Nilla Pizza with the song "Thank you for the flowers."
• At the XIV Festival in 1964, the first prize was awarded to 16-year-old Gigolola Cinquetti for the song "It Is Still Early To Love Me". In the same year she became the winner of another prestigious song contest - Eurovision.
• Over the more than half a century history of the San Remo Festival, it was on its stage that many famous Italian performers made their debut, who later became pop stars and idols of several generations. Among his winners in different years were Adriano Celentano, Toto Cutugno, Eros Ramazotti, Ricardo Fogli, Matia Bazar, a group of Ricchi e Poveri (Italian: Ricchi e Poveri), Albano and Ramina Power and many others.
• Adriano Celentano has repeatedly participated in the Festival. His first performance in 1961 went unnoticed by both the public and the jury. And although his subsequent songs more than once became hits, Celentano could win the victory in San Remo only once - in 1970, in a duet with his wife, actress Claudia Mori.
• Toto Cutugno was listed four times in the list of contestants, but only one won - in 1980 with the song "Solonoi". In 1983, after the execution of the future hit “Italyano”, the audience exploded with applause and armfuls of flowers flew onto the stage, but this time Cutugno did not officially take first place. He was awarded for the song "Whatever happens" to singer Titian Rival.
Star guests
The organizers are trying very hard to maintain the audience’s attention to the competition. In order to warm up the interest of the public and increase the audience rating, world celebrities are invited to the Festival. Thanks to this and other creative discoveries of the organizers, 10-15 million viewers annually gather at the TV screens during the San Remo Song Festival during the Song Festival.
Dita von Teese introduced her crown strip number
Over the years, stellar guests such as John Travolta, Jennifer Lopez, Tina Turner, Luciano Pavarotti, Bono, Sting, Hugh Grant, Duran Duran, and dozens of other celebrities have visited the Ariston Theater.
Madonna was the star of the Festival twice: in 1995 with the song "Take a bow" and in 1998 with the song "Frozen".
The star guests of 2010 were the dancers of the French cabaret Moulin Rouge, the star of Avatar Michelle Rodriguez and Dita von Teese, who presented a stunning striptease. American erotic dancer, model, actress and ex-wife of Marilyn Manson presented to the public her crown strip number in a huge martini glass.
In 2011 star guests of the San Remo Festival were the British band Take That, led by Robbie Williams, actors Robert de Niro, Monica Bellucci and Canadian singer Avril Lavigne.
