ITALY: SANREMO 2018 IS MALE, OLD AND UN-EUROVISIONARY

It's almost 24 hours since the artists for Sanremo festival 2018 were announced and as Italian Eurovision fans are in despair for the passable Eurovision artists among the artist chosen by Claudio Baglioni and his team two things are rather striking at first glance: It's nearly all male cast. And most of them are... err... rather elderly. In fact, with a quick count (excluding the groups) the average age is 51,5 years. Giovanni Caccamo is the youngest at 28 (and the only under 30) while Ornella Vanoni is already 83... She's one of the four female singers among the big with Nina Zilli, Noemi and Annalisa.

The media had most of the acts right beforehand but some like Ron came out of the blue, as well as the artists performing with discussed artists in duets or trio: Diodato, Bungaro, Pacifico and Peppe Servillo. Max Gazzé was mentioned (and I forgot to add him in my previous post below, oops)

Several previous winners are in the list: I Pooh won in 1990 and now as the band is no more Roby Facchinetti, Red Canzian and Riccardo Fogli all are in again. Fogli also left the band ages ago before reuniting for their last chapter, and won Sanremo solo in 1982. Luca Barbarossa won in 1992, Ron in 1996. Enrico Ruggeri reunited with his old band Decibel after decades as solo artist and two Sanremo victories under his belt: 1987 with Tozzi and Morandi, 1993 solo. Peppe Servillo won in 2000 with his Avion Travel. Giovanni Caccamo is the only Newcomer winner (2015) this year.

Elio e le Storie Tese is the big surprise no one saw coming. The band announced the end of their existance earlier this year. The humor band will make a gracious exit in Sanremo instead. Hopefully. If they split up Le Vibrazione reunite for the occasion, and maybe for the future.

Two acts debut in Sanremo and in Italian having sung their entire career in English: Mario Biondi and The Kolors. A crossover that worked wonders before to Ivana Spagna, Alexia and Elisa.

And finally: four Eurovision veterans in the cast: Riccardo Fogli (1983), Luca Barbarossa (1988), Enrico Ruggeri (1993) and Nina Zilli (2012).

And after the dust has settled a little and the fans outrage cooled down a little it seems Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro, Annalisa and Noemi are the ones they are putting their hopes for Lisbon.

Below is the list of artist's age in the end of 2018:

83 Ornella Vanoni

72 Roby Facchinette

71 Riccardo Fogli

67 Red Canzian

65 Ron

63 Enzo Avitabile

61 Enrico Ruggeri

58 Peppe Servillo

57 Luca Barbarossa

54 Bungaro

54 Pacifico

51 Max Gazzè

49 Roy Paci

47 Mario Biondi

43 Fabrizio Moro

38 Nina Zilli

37 Diodato

37 Ermal Meta

36 Noemi

33 Annalisa

30 Renzo Rubino

28 Giovanni Caccamo

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Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

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