2010 Sanremo festival: Italian dialect songs and international artists

New rules for Italy’s famous Sanremo music festival mean that songs in Italian dialect will be allowed, and inclusion of foreign artists’ work will also be inaugurated.
Other rule changes for the 2010 Sanremo music festival have modernised the event, with competitors receiving the least votes having to compete for their place in the final, in an initiative a bit like a reality television contest.

It’s the first time in the history of the Sanremo festival that entire songs in dialect have been permitted, and we should see flag bearers like the Naples dialect come to the fore.

Also, foreign singers and song writers can include works as long as they are performed in the Italian language.
The 2010 Sanremo Festival will be conducted by Antonella Clerici and will also divide contestants into two categories of the big names in Italian music and the “Sanremo nuova generazione” category of aspiring Italian singers.
The festival starts on February 16 and concludes on February 20th at which point the song will be chosen that will dominate Italian radio and be overplayed until you wish you’d never voted for it.

After the jump is last year’s winner Marco Carta with “Forza Mia”, and the new songs winner ‘Sincerita” from Arisa.