No, Zelensky won’t be in the final. Not on video at least. On the other hand, in the flesh, for the first evening a president of the Republic will be seated in the audience for the first time. A sign that Sanremo Amadeus quater does not want to divide, on the contrary: it aims to unite the country. The 2023 festival opens with an event in its historic way: Sergio Mattarella has accepted the invitation of the artistic director and, surprisingly, Roberto Benigni will perform in front of him, giving a fifteen-minute monologue on the Constitution. All at the opening of the evening. While Gianni Morandi, co-host, will sing the Mameli anthem. It will be a somewhat unusual way to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Italian Constitution. «It will be a presence similar to that of the premiere of La Scala», announced by the staff of the Quirinale.
The blitz of Lucio Presta
Amadeus announced it directly during the press conference to present the evening. The news overwhelmingly takes the stage, even with respect to the presence in the press room of the highly anticipated Chiara Ferragni who hopes to be “spontaneous” for her debut at the Ariston, while specifying that she is not a showgirl. 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. A decisive role was played in this match by Lucio Presta, manager of Amadeus but also of Roberto Benigni who, according to the director of Rai Entertainment Prime Time “contacted the office of the President of the Republic”.
The festival of inclusiveness
What precedes the first evening of the 2023 Festival is a solemn press conference in its own way. It is no coincidence that it opens with the president of Rai Marinella Soldi who greets: «I would like to remind you that, like last year, whoever wins the edition of this festival will participate in the Eurovision Song Contest», she said. 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». Amadeus also expresses himself on this same concept, sweeping away the controversies on gender fluidity: “Everyone has the right to live their life as they want”.
The share targets for prime time
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 Mattarella-Benigni card in terms of ratings
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). In terms of internationalization, it should be noted that for the entire period of the Festival the streaming of Rai 1 will be visible all over the world. For everything else there is the Mattarella-Benigni pairing: if the two of them don’t put the share wall together…