The winner of Italy’s top music festival Sanremo is Marco Mengoni with his song ‘L’essenziale’.
Mengoni beat two bands, Modà and Elio e Le Storie Tese, in the final to win Established Artists section. Mengoni rose to fame in 2009, after winning the ‘The X Factor Italia’ talent show. Yesterday, it was also announced that he will represent Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest in a Malmö next May.
Elio e Le Storie Tese won the Premio della Critica Mia Martini (Mia Martini Critics Award); the band’s music is inspired by that of Frank Zappa. Antonio Maggio, who won the first edition of 'The X Factor Italia' with the group Aram Quartet in 2007, beat off seven other contenders to win the newcomers category with his song ‘Mi servirebbe sapere'.
This year was the 63rd edition of the Festival Della Canzone Italiana (Italian Song Festival), commonly referred to as Festival di Sanremo. Held in Sanremo’s Ariston Theatre, it lasted four days, starting on 12 February, when it opened with a performance of ‘Va Pensiero’ (Fly Thought) by the Arena di Verona choir in homage to its composer Giuseppe Verdi as part of the bicentennial anniversary celebrations of his birth. The festival is popular in Italy and some 17 million people watched the opening evening on television.
This year’s festival was co-hosted by TV presenter Fabio Fazio and comedy actress Luciana Littizzetto. A range of personalities joined in the festival including former soccer player Roberto Baggio, who made a guest appearance last Thursday when he made an address to the young people at the event, telling them 'to follow their dreams'. One-time model and wife of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, singer-songwriter Carla Bruni joined in a duet with Littizzetto as well as performing solo. On the last evening, tenor Andrea Bocelli performed ‘Love Me Tender’ with his son Amos. The famous tenor also sang ‘Quizas, quizas, quizas’ (Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps) and ‘La voce del silenzio’ (The Voice of Silence).
The first festival was held in 1951 and has launched the careers of many artists including Laura Pausini, Eros Ramazzotti, Andre Bocelli, Andriano Celentano e Domenico Modugno.
