Belen Rodriguez, Elisabetta Canalis and Italian celebrities: what is the Sanremo festival?

The Sanremo Festival is traditionally considered Italy’s premiere music festival – a forum to discover new Italian musical talent and a classic show-biz event that Italians like so very much.
Obviously with a new era in media and television, the Sanremo Festival has become one of Italy’s biggest television events.

The opening night of the 2011 Sanremo Festival saw the Belen Rodriguez and Elisabetta Canalis fashion duel finally broadcast, and the usual slew of Italian celebrities, old and new, who are dusted off for the annual event.

The songs have almost taken backstage in recent times, and we’re treated to a series of second-rate celebrities, gaffes and silly jokes.
But that’s not to take away from the scale of this event.
While the Sanremo Festival could hardly be considered a show of high class culture, it still tops the Italian television ratings every year.
The opening night for 2011 held an average of over 10 million Italian viewers, which is near 50 percent of the overall television viewing for the evening.

And it was a Monday night.
But what can the personalities and subtleties of this year’s opening night tell us?Gianni Morandi is the host for the evening in a sparkly jacket.

An old, well loved face in the circles of famous Italians, he played the boyish host role very well.
Insisting on calling his supporting hosts “the team” he probably endeared himself to most Italian viewers.
He is the classic choice for this role – unlikely to produce unpleasant surprises or controversy.
Flanked by Italy’s two famous comedians, Paolo and Luca, they managed to give the rosy evening some spice by performing a song that referred to Italy’s current political scandals and crisis.
It’s not something that will be appreciated by everyone – after all swearing doesn’t really have a place at the festival – but for those of us a little bored tuning in, they also played their ‘agitators’ role very well.
They only more cynical thing that can be said is that theirs is now a commercialised comedy, suitable for the masses and hardly anything that will ironise the country into revolution.
And of course we had the grand entrance of the two Italian showgirls, Belen Rodriguez and Elisabetta Canalis.
Tactfully described as prima donnas for the evening, the lead up to the festival has worked very well.
A rivalry between the two has been beaten up such that many tuned in just to see them on the stage.
Unfortunately, though, they would have been treated to a very wooden performance, especially from Rodriguez.
Despite this, the Argentinian-born showgirl might very well steal the hearts of Italians away from the currently beloved Canalis.
This would seem against all odds, given that Elisabetta Canalis is very popular at the moment for having snared the affection of Italy’s favourite adopted celebrity, George Clooney.
But it seems even the great Clooney may not help Canalis to win the fickle approvation of the Italian public, who might very well turn to Belen for something more exotic and…well…nice, as she apparently is.
The 2011 Sanremo Festival displayed many of the stereotypes you’d expect from such an event – much like an Italian Oscars in flavour, there probably won’t be any surprises this year.
The formula will likely be repeated and another mediocre song will be played endlessly on Italian radio for weeks to come.
But it’s kind of an old favourite, despite many wishing that there will be torn dresses and hair pulling between the two girls.
After all, only the first night has passed….
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