![]() ![]() The Festival belongs to the culture of the Bel Paese, it portrays its social evolution, and mirrors its recent history. It was an invitation to the audience to feel part of a common Italian tradition, in any place and any moment. The first “historical” host, Nunzio Filogamo, knew it very well: every night he started the show with his famous “My dear friends near and far, good evening, wherever you are”. Very soon the Festival crossed space and time boundaries. Colour was a privilege given to TV audience only from 1977 on, the same year when the show was hosted for the first time at the Ariston theatre. In the ‘80s the Festival's set design was very dark, blue and green were the dominant colours. ![]() And then there was “Etienne” by the French artist Guesh Patti, filled with explicit sexual references…ĭo you believe that when I was a child Anna Oxa's bony face, her funny hairstyle and her skinny body, were enough to scare me easily? I used to listen to her songs covering my eyes with my hands. It was nothing compared to the scandal provoked a few years later by a shoulder pad flipping out of a dress and the naked breast of the international guest star Patsy Kensit, leader of the Eight Wonder music group. In a tight short black dress, high heels and studded jacket, Bertè was a real provoker: she performed with the song "Re", pretending to be pregnant. I remember it well because of the rough voice of Loredana Bertè. That was also the first time that the Festival was broadcast in the United States, thanks to a radio network in New York: the INC.įrom 1986 on, singers were asked to play live again. The newly weds Romina and Albano won with the song "Ci sarà". More than anything else, I was fascinated by the luminous set, the long stairways on the sides of the stage and the colourful flowers on the front. Although the artists sang in playback, I- just a kid at the time - couldn’t care the list. My first memories of the Festival trace back to 1984. At that time, an admission ticket for the Festival Room of the Casino would cost 500 Italian lire, and allowed them to listen to the twenty songs in competition sung by three and only three singers: Nilla Pizzi, Achille Togliani and the Fasano duette. In fact the very first edition of the Festival in 1951 went on air on the radio, on Rete Rossa, as a form of entertainment for the gamblers playing in the casino of the city of Sanremo. On January 28 1955, 10:45 pm, eight million people were waiting for the first edition of the Festival to be broadcast on TV right after the end of the variety show "Un, Due, Tre" with Tognazzi and Vianello. Enchanted by the lights of the screen, all of them stared at that one channel in black and white. Just like in the ‘50s when there were very few TVs in Italy and members of different families gathered in the living room of the few that could afford to buy one. ![]() All of us watched the same program in religious silence for that one only night. We were in the 1980's and my family and I would gather in front of the TV to watch the Sanremo Festival. That evening, the usual dinner call from my mom had a special meaning. SANREMO - "Come to the table everybody, dinner's ready!". ![]()
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