ITALY: SANREMO 2018 STARTS TONIGHT WITH LAURA PAUSINI

The 68th Festival della canzone Italiana aka Sanremo kicks off tonight with the first of its five evenings. There are several changes to the format this year and one of them is no Big artists will be eliminated this year so any of them could end up in Lisbon 2018 Eurovision.
Claudio Baglioni is the new Artistic Director and the Dictator and he will be hosting the show with Michele Hunziker and actor Pieerfrancesco Favino. As always the evenings will be also filled with countless guests from all areas of life: music, movies, comedy, ... even if Baglioni promises it's all about music and less media fuss and television friendly choices.
And guess what? Sanremo gets spider cam!!! Yes, and other technologies like pre-programmed cameras and video effects etc used in Eurovision already for years so expect a bit familiar and not so stiff camera work in Sanremo this time :-) Then we will have living Sanremo legend Pippo Baudo making an appearance (unless he got too angry on Monday night rehearsals where none of the three hosts were there to greet him but went for dinner instead....)
And continuing #metoo Sanremo launches #iosonoqui. Look out for the flowers in the jackets and outfits! (Remember the rainbow ribbons a couple of years ago for LGBT rights?)

Laura Pausini is the super guest of the first night. Her career started in Sanremo 25 years ago and she has went on to sell over 70 million albums worldwide, won Grammys and countless other awards. She has also a very succesful career going on in Spanish in Latin America. She will apparently do a medley of her hits, then her latest hit Non é detto, and then a duet with Baglioni. The same should go for the other superguests Gianna Nannini, Il Volo, Gianni Morandi, Biagio Antonacci and others.

Other guest is showman Fiorello (who many would like to host the show sometime soon), and film director Gabriele Muccini and the cast of his latest movie A casa tutti bene.

Two awards have already been announced. Premio Lunezia for the best lyrics go to Luca Barbarossa among the Big, and Ultimo among the Newcomers.

Milva will be awarded the lifetime award. 15 participations with 17 songs between 1960-2007: once second (1962), four times third. International career, especially in Germany, and many collaborations with Franco Battiato.

As always I will be following and blogging live so please do join me tonight!

Roby Facchinetti e Riccardo Fogli - Il segreto del tempo

Pacifico, R. Facchinetti

Nina Zilli - Senza appartenere

G. Angi, N. Zilli, A. Iammarino

The Kolors - Frida (mai, mai, mai)

D. Petrella, D. Faini, A. Raina, A. Fiordispino

Diodato e Roy Paci - Adesso

A. Diodato

Mario Biondi - Rivederti

M. Biondi, G. Furnari, D. Fisicaro

Luca Barbarossa - Passame er sale

L. Barbarossa

Lo Stato Sociale - Una vita in vacanza

L. Guenzi, A. Cazzola, F. Draicchio, M. Romagnoli, A. Guidetti, E. Roberto

Annalisa - Il mondo prima di te

A. Scarrone, D. Simonetta, A. Raina

Giovanni Caccamo - Eterno

Cheope, G. Caccamo

Enzo Avitabile con Peppe Servillo - Il coraggio di ogni giorno

Pacifico, E. Avitabile, P. Servillo

Ornella Vanoni con Bungaro e Pacifico- Imparare ad amarsi

Bungaro, Pacifico, C. Chiodo, A. Fresa

Renzo Rubino - Custodire

R. Rubino

Noemi - Non smettere mai di cercarmi

D. Calvetti, M. Pelan, V. Scopelliti, F. De Martino

Ermal Meta e Fabrizio Moro - Non mi avete fatto niente

E. Meta, F. Moro, A. Febo

Le Vibrazioni - Così sbagliato

F. Sarcina, A. Bonomo, L. Chiaravalli, D. Simonetta

Ron - Almeno pensami

L. Dalla

Max Gazzè - La leggenda di Cristalda e Pizzomunno

F. Gazzè, M. Gazzè, F. De Benedettis

Decibel - Lettera dal Duca

S. Capeccia, E. Ruggeri, F. Muzio

Red Canzian - Ognuno ha il suo racconto

R. Canzian, M. Porru

Elio e le Storie Tese - Arrivedorci

S. Conforti, S. Belisari, D.L. Civaschi, N. Fasani

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