Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Federica Gentile, the Italian commentator for the semifinal ( read more here ) will have a job to do in the final as well: She will announce the Italian votes! She will follow the footsteps of Raffaella Carrá and Ivan Bacchi. San Marino hasn't yet confirmed its spokesperson but it is rumored to be Gianmarco Morosini.  Meanwhile for the final the Italian commentator become three when Swiss born Natasha Lusenti will join the duo Ardemagni-Solibello....

Italian RAI has confirmed that it will broadcast the first semifinal on Rai5 channel just like last year, and the final itself stays on Rai2 where it will be broadcasted on HD this time. Fan favorite Federica Gentile will again comment the semifinal and in the final we have the duo Marco Ardemagni and Filippo Solibello again. This time they have time to prepaire themselves unlike last year when they replaced the kicked out commentators only a week before the event.  SMTV will broadcast as always both semifinals and the grand final with the commentary of Lia Fiorio and Gigi Restivo again. Both broadcasters don't send their commentators on the spot but will comment from the studios in San Marino and in Rome instead of Malmö Arena's tiny little boxes... Now only one question remains about both teams: Who will the spokespersons beand follow the foorsteps of Raffaella Carrá, Ivan Bacchi, Roberto Moretti, Nico Della Valle and Monica Fabbri?

Namely who will be the commentators and the spokesperson, a rather crucial choice in a country where the host or the hostess can make a show "worth watching" or leave it to total ignorance: Put there someone unknown or unpopular and no one is interested to watch, put there someone famous and popular and Italians will tune in and watch no matter what the show is. And it seems RAI has done a rather decent work. The final will be commented off screen, like every other country does unlike the last year's experience with studio talk show with Raffaella Carrá, by Gialappa's Band, a trio of comics with a great following and household name and string of successes since mid-80's on radio, TV and movies. They should at least in theory attract people watching. On the other hand there's always a risk they will make it a comedy and freak show and have a laugh about the whole thing ... But at least the viewing figures might be decent! The Italian spokesperson who will ...