Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

The 76th Festival della Canzone Italiana di Sanremo kicks off tonight. A total of 30 Big artists and four Newcomers will battle out the victory in two categories and a string of other awards, and of course the ticket to Eurovision song contest in Vienna as a bonus -  if they wish so.  Carlo Conti, the artistic director, will be hosting all nights with Laura Pausini, already the hostess of Eurovision song contest in Turin, with other co-hosts for the various nights: Can Yuman, Pilar Fogliati, Achille Lauro, Lillo, Irina Shayk and Gianluca Gazzoli among others. Carlo is doing it for the 5yh time (2015-17, 2025-26) and according himself for the very last time. It is already rumored next year's host would be Stefano de Martino with someone else being the artistic director.  Among the Big artists debuting are Bambole di pezza, Chiello, Eddio Brock, Luchè, Maria Antonietta & Colombre, Nayt, Samurai Jay, Sayf, Tommaso Paradiso and Tredici Pietro. All the others have already ...

It's a success! 12.600.000 viewers in media for the first night of the 75th Sanremo festival, 2 million more than last year! The share was 65,3%.. The first part (until 23.30) was watched by 16,2 million and the rest by 8,3 million in media.  The most watched moment was when Giorgia performed her entry: 17.331.000.  I was kinda expecting Jovanotti have this peak but no.  It was an enjoyable night and went by very fast compared to the usual rhythms of Sanremo so Carlo Conti was true to his word, the night even finished in advance a good 15 minutes instead of the usual delay of half an hour or more. The stage works, graphics are good. Also the lighting and camerawork is much better than previous years, or simply they have decided to apply some Eurovision like camera tricks and actually program the camerawork instead of going with the flow.  If you missed the show or didn't bother to stay up all night watch it here

The 75th festival della canzone italiana di Sanremo kicks of its five night long adventure tonight. Carlo Conti returns as the main host and the artistic director after five years of Amadeus. Conti did the job already back in 2015, 2016 and 2017 and is set to return also for 2026. This year he will have a string of co-hosts during the five nights and tonight they are Antonella Clerici and Gerry Scotti - both popular household names and Rai's veteran tv-hosts and presenters and media personalities for decades already.  The voting for the first night is by the media jury or the jury of Press room, TV and web. A total of 1.487 of them. The Top-5 will be announced by the end of the night in random order. How the betting odds were after the media heard the songs you can check here . The songs are in Italian of course or not quite as we will have some Napoletan and Roman dialects thrown in as well.  The guest acts are Jovanotti, Raf (Eurovision 1987) and Mira Awad & Noa (Eurovis...