Sanremo starts today with Mattarella and Benigni. Objective: beat 55% of prime time 2022

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Sanremo 2023 opens with an event in its historic way: for the first time in history, the President of the Republic will be in the audience at the Ariston. Sergio Mattarella has accepted the invitation of the artistic director and, surprisingly, Roberto Benigni will perform in front of him. Amadeus announced it directly during the press conference to present the evening. The news forcefully takes the stage, even with respect to the presence in the press room of Chiara Ferragni who hopes to be “spontaneous”. Applause from the recording world. “The presence of Mattarella is a strong recognition for music as a cultural industry and heritage of the country”, comments Enzo Mazza, CEO of Fimi.

Year after year the bar gets higher and higher. What starts tonight is the fourth festival for the artistic direction of Amadeus. In terms of advertising investments, the objective has apparently already been achieved: the threshold of 50 million in sales is very close. This year, next to him on stage are Gianni Morandi (to speak to those a few years older) and Chiara Ferragni (to speak to the world of social media). And the numbers to beat are those of the first evening of the 2022 Festival which set the record, for the first evenings, for 17 years.

The first part of the show had a 54.5% share with 13 million 805 thousand spectators, the second 55.4% with 6 million 412 thousand spectators. In 2021 the first part of the first evening of the festival had scored 11 million 176 thousand spectators with 46.4%, the second 4 million 212 thousand with 47.8 percent. During Mahmood and Blanco’s performance, 85% of the audience tuned in: an important sign with respect to the audience that followed the event (largely made up of young people) and with respect to what would have happened in terms of competition (Chills by Blanco and Mahmood won Sanremo 2022). The controversy surrounding Volodymyr Zelensky’s speech that Amadeus will read on the occasion of the final could be the driving force.

Rai president Marinella Soldi also intervenes at the presentation press conference to say hello: “I would like to remind you that, like last year, whoever wins this edition of the festival will participate in the Eurovision Song Contest,” she said. For the entire period of the Festival the streaming of Rai 1 will be visible all over the world. Prime Time Rai Entertainment Director Stefano Coletta announces «28 different artists, by history, by background, by musical genres. I want to start from this image because the fourth Amadeus festival wanted to represent the real world that admits differences, admits different feelings, admits the singularity of each artist. This festival is an expression of inclusiveness, not only musical, but artistic».