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ITALY: SANREMO TERZA SERATA/THIRD NIGHT: THE COVER NIGHT - WHILE GABBANI IS IN THE LEAD

Amadeus with Fiorello and Tiziano Ferro broke record last night with best viewing figures in 25 years for the second night despite everyone complaining how long the night was and how many guests there were and how half the Big artists got to perform only after midnight.... 53,3%  share and nearly 9,7 million average viewers, up 6% from last year. 
This said, Francesco Gabbani not only won last night but is also in pole position for this third night.
Tonight's co-hostesses are Albanian presenter Alketa Vejsiu, who we all know from Festivali i Kenges, and Georgina Rodriguez, Cristiano Ronaldo's girlfriend (or wife?). Apparently that qualifies you as a hostess. Anyways, tonight is going to be another very long night I suppose with all 24 Big artists performing a cover song. The members of the orchestra and choir are voting tonight and insanely these votes will be added to the total score of the artists in the final ranking come Saturday....
Tonight's guests stars include MIKA and Lewis Capaldi, as well as Roberto Benigni whose Sanremo monologues are already legendary and only Roberto himself knows how long that will be tonight..... Ad the cast of L'amica geniale and only Amadeus knows who else...

Irene Grandi with Bobo Rondelli -  “La musica è finita”
Solid well sung performance by fitting voices. Not very original but well done. ***
Raphael Gualazzi with Simona Molinari - “E se domani”
Classy and beautiful, perfect song and partner choice. Four minutes of dreaming and relaxing and swinging to the music only. *****
Elettra Lamborghini with Myss Keta - “Non succederà più”
I loved this song that actually never took part in Sanremo competition back in the day and ... well.... Elettra is really ruining it with her vocals and the arrangement is also the simil original without any originality really. Myss Keta's vocals aren't any better. Disastrous *
Elodie with Aeham Ahman - “Adesso tu”
Beautiful and credible. Faithful to the original but a lot of Elodie in it. Great job. And how beautiful she's in the close ups...  *****
Achille Lauro with Annalisa - “Gli uomini non cambiano”
Another Mia Martini song but this time stripped completely from anything Mimi. Achille sports another crazy look and sounds almost unrecognisable as well, and Annalisa sings her bit without imitating Mimi at all. Surprisingly good. ***
Rancore with Dardust and La Rappresentante di Lista - “Luce”
If Anastasio was a prime example how to ruin a song, this is a prime example how to lift it, make it another hit in a way it is still recognizable but yet totally new. Fabulous! *****
Junior Cally with Viito - “Vado al massimo”  *
Totally useless and uninspired, lazy rap by Junior. You wouldn't know he's the star of the show. Yawn. 
Paolo Jannacci with Francesco Mandelli -“Se me lo dicevi prima” 
Son doing his late dad's song. I don't connect. *
Levante  with Francesca Michielin and Maria Antonietta - “Si può dare di più”
Great idea but it just didn't work. The original male version is powerful full of energy, this female one came across shy and timid. Wasted opportunity. But the original has been playing in my head all day since. Not this one. *
Marco Masini with Arisa - “Vacanze romane”
Weird couple on paper doing one of my favorite songs ever but somehow it works. Once again guest star Arisa pretty much steals the show from the main star Masini. Refreshing arrangement yet not being too different from the original. Not bad. ****
Enrico Nigiotti with Simone Cristicchi - “Ti regalerò una rosa”
Cristicchi was the only ex-winner revisiting his song and actually Nigiotti's vocals add to the song and make it better than the original I never really cared for. A winner from my Sanremo years I didn't pay much attention to so I never had any connection to this. Maybe I have now. ***
Rita Pavone with Amedeo Minghi - “1950”
I love this song and Minghi is great. His calm sweetness versus Rita's shouty energy that overruns his vocals makes a weird combo but somehow it works well enough. ****
Riki with Ana Mena - “L’edera”
Matched couple in sense both had equally bad vocals. But there's something there that I kinda like, maybe the studio version (if exists) will be nice background music? **
Tosca with Silvia Perez Cruz - “Piazza Grande”
Ok, beautiful and enjoyable with a right dose of exotism and theater. But a winner by orchestra? Oh well, maybe it's an attempt to push Tosca higher in the final outcome. But then again she's great, Silvia added a nice touch and this was good. ****
Alberto Urso with Ornella Vanoni - “La voce del silenzio”
Ornella is a legend and you listen and watch her wondering if she knows where she is and why. And I finally realized why I haven't really warmed to Urso: I don't like his voice. It's not a beautiful one like those of Il Volo guys, or Alessandro Safina for example. It's pretendous and a bit fake I think. And thinking about these things made me forget about the song totally... not a good sign. *
Michele Zarrillo with Fausto Leali - “Deborah” **
Nothing special, their voices match but Fausto steals his own song not making any favors to Zarrillo really. 
Le Vibrazioni with Canova - “Un’emozione da poco”
The song is so strong and great it's hard to ruin, and the arrangement not too different from the original just more rock. Good enough. ***
Anastasio with PFM - “Spalle al muro”
No, juts no. Good example how to ruin a song and adding useless rap that doesn't even fit. *
Bugo e Morgan - “Canzone per te”
Now that was  a great song totally ruined.  No wonder the orchestra voted this worst as they had to suffer Morgan as conductor, too *
Diodato with Nina Zilli - “24 mila baci”
Diodato jjust proved he's ready for Eurovision, and Nina Zilli is always a guarantee. Fun and well sung, thought after performance with dancers. Something so rare still in Sanremo sadly. *****
Francesco Gabbani - “L’italiano”
On paper this sounded perfect and indeed the song fits him and his persona perfectly. He turned the almost Italian national hymn into an anthem against racism underlining the fact even on mooin an Italian is an Italian, as are all those of different races and colors born in Italy, the new emigrant generations. Dressed as an astronaut with flag waving he was a true ex-Euroviison star. *****
Giordana Angi with Solis String Quartet - “La nevicata del ’56”
If I said before Angi's entry sounded like a Mia Martini song, here she's doing a Mia Martini song. She lacks of course all the raspiness and experience in Mimi's voice but maybe in 30 years she will be a new Mimi? Quite nice but the comparison is too evident. **
Piero Pelù - “Cuore matto”
Fitting song for him, the original was mad at the time so this could have been rocked to another dimension in 2020 but no. Solid performance. His guest star was Little Tony himself on video. Nice touch ***
I Pinguini Tattici Nucleari with Settanta volte medley with song from every Sanremo decade “Papaveri e papere”, “Nessuno mi può giudicare”, “Gianna Gianna”, “Sarà perché ti amo”, “Una musica puo’ fare”, “Salirò”, “Sono solo parole”, “Rolls Royce”
Now that was fun. Not sure if a medley fits the idea of a cover song but it was pretty fantasticly put together. ****
In the end they did not give the combined ranking of the first three nights but if we do a simple math it looks like this (of course of official but more or less there) after Gabbani and Elodie dropped quite a lot, and Rancore jumped up:

1. Piero Pelù (3+2) 5
2. Pinguini Tattici Nucleari (4+3) 7
3. Le Vibrazioni (2+6) 8
4. Gabbani (1+8) 9
4. Tosca (8+1) 9
6. Diodato (6+5) 11
7. Anastasio (15+4) 19
8. Irene Grandi (7+14) 21
8. Marco Masini (11+10) 21
10. Paolo Jannacci (16+7) 23
11. Michele Zarrillo (9+15) 24
11. Elodie (5+19) 24
13. Raphael Gualazzi (14+11) 25
14. Levante (10+17) 27
15. Enrico Nigiotti (18+12) 30
16. Giordana Angi (13+18) 31
16. Rancore (22+9) 31
18. Albero Urso (12+20) 32
18. Rita Pavone (19+13) 32
20. Achille Lauro (17+16) 33
21. Riki (20+22) 42
22. Elettra Lamborghini (21+23) 44
23. Junior Cally (21+21) 45
24. Bugo e Morgan (23+24) 47

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