The Festival is coming…!

From 12th to 16th February, the unmissable appointment with the festival of the Italian song comes back: the 63rd edition of San Remo Festival.

The song contest began in 1951 and has been held in Sanremo every year since. Well beloved in Italy and beyond, the Sanremo Music Festival even served as the inspiration for the Eurovision Song Contest.

The festival has launched the careers of incredibly famous Italian singers, including Andrea Bocelli, Zucchero, Eros Ramazzotti, Laura Pausini and Massimo Ranieri. But Sanremo is almost as much about the host as the talented performances. Every year, eager audiences tune in to see who will present the show.

This year, the singing competition at Ariston Theatre will be hosted by Fabio Fazio and Luciana Littizzetto, the TV presenter couple of the show “Che tempo che fa”. This is expected to be an edition where humour and biting jokes will be the big protagonists (after the music, of course).
Fabio Fazio will come back on the stage of the Festival, 14 years after the first time, the edition of 1999, when Anna Oxa won the competition with the song “Senza Pietà”.

As the art director, Fazio selected the 14 “Big” competitors who will participate in 2013 edition: Almamegretta, Annalisa Scarrone, Chiara Galiazzo, Daniele Silvestri, Elio e le Storie Tese, Malika Ayane, Marco Mengoni, Maria Nazionale, Marta sui tubi, Max Gazzè, Modà, Raphael Gualazzi, Simona Molinari with Peter Cincotti and Simone Cristicchi. They will play 2 unpublished songs.

For the category of “Giovani” (young cometitors), who will sing just one song, we’ll see on the Ariston stage Andrea Nardinocchi, Antonio Maggio, Blastema, Ilaria Porceddu, Il Cile, Irene Ghiotto, Paolo Simoni and Renzo Rubino.

The competition will see the challenge of the 14 “Campioni” (champions), 7 in the first night and 7 in the second night, each one singing two songs, and the best song will be proclaimed by telephone voting and the Festival Press Jury.
During 3rd night, the “Campioni” will perform their 14 songs, of the 28 remining in the competition. During 4th night, entitled Sanremo Story, the “Big” will sing the Festival’s historic songs with italian or international artists. In addition, the winning song of the category “Giovani” will be decreed.

In the final night, we’ll listen to the songs of Campioni category, which will be voted by the Quality Jury that includes the actor Carlo Verdone, Serena Dandini, Stefano Bartezzaghi, Nicola Piovani, Eleonora Abbagnato, Claudio Coccoluto, Nicoletta Mantovani, Cecilia Chailly, Rita Marcotulli, Paolo Giordano and the audience through the vote by phone. Finally, it will be proclaimed the winning song of 63rd Sanremo Festival.

The Italian and international guest stars who will climb on Sanremo’s stage with Fazio and Littizzetto will be: the Israeli top model Bar Rafaeli, Pippo Baudo and Raffaella Carrà in the “amarcord” night, Andrea Bocelli, Bianca Balti, Carla Bruni, Beppe Fiorello, Neri Marcorè, Claudio Bisio, Asaf Avidan, Caetano Veloso, Antony, Roberto Baggio and Flavia Pennetta.

This year, for the first time, celebrities will proclaim the winner of each category. Among the others, we find the tennis champion Flavia Pennetta, the sisters and presenters Benedetta and Cristina Parodi, Filippa Lagerback, Ilaria D’Amico, Vincenzo Montella, the water polo champion Stefano Tempesti, the archery champion Jessica Rossi.

The Festival will be on air on Rai 1, Rai HD, Eurovision and Radio 1, Radio 2. You can also watch it on the web, at www.rai.it, where it’s possible to watch the commercial created by the Academy award-winning director Gabriele Salvatores.
In the City of Flowers everything is ready to get this famous musical kermesse started, an event that every year for one week makes Sanremo the capital of music.