What's left of Sanremo 2024

The 74th edition of the Sanremo Festival has come to an end, closing the holy week of Italian television and leaving us with little to remember (but at least 4 or 5 catchy tunes). The winner was Angelina Mango, and controversies and memorable looks were not lacking, as many as the absurd and unforgettable moments. When something ends, however, it can be looked at in its entirety, trying to identify patterns and recurring themes, strengths and weaknesses, successes and misses. Also, compared to past years, and asking ourselves some questions about the future. It was a rather limp and superficial edition. The only spark of rebellion came from some singers (especially Ghali and Dargen D'Amico) who wanted to express their thoughts on one of the most delicate situations of recent decades, the Palestinian genocide, and in return received an official statement read live by Mara Venier reiterating Rai's (and the Meloni government's) opposition to such expressions. In response to this, the Youth Palestinian Collective of Milan announced a national protest scheduled for February 14 at 6 p.m., in front of various Rai headquarters. In Milan, this initiative, symbolizing solidarity and defense of freedom of expression, will take place at 27 Corso Sempione. A concrete signal of dissent and civic engagement in response to Rai's actions.

Sanremo, a problem of superficiality

If during Sanremo 2023 there was a fundamental ambiguity, a push towards the new and the rebellious which, however, when it slipped out of control, was immediately brought back to the order of the Rai prime time, smelling as stale as the people sitting in the front rows at the Ariston Theater (just think about the exaggerated reactions to Blanco kicking the roses, and the Christian Democracy of the appeals to education and respect from a crowd of whistlers and professional shouters) this year the festival put a cross on any attempt to open up to contemporaneity that went beyond the competitors chosen for the competition, and those weren't even understood. Even though Geolier is the most listened to in Italy, his victory in the cover nights sparked the worst anti-Southern conspiracy theories (among the sensibly placed criticisms), forcing Amadeus to appeal to respect towards the competition and the person. The most discussed themes of the moment didn’t fare any better, as they, rolling around that stage, were emptied of any depth of reflection, transformed into a year-end play, forcibly wedged between one song and another, or worse between one sketch and another, a disorienting whip-lash from which it was difficult to recover, even from the comfort of one's own couch.

Sanremo wants to please everyone

The problem with this Sanremo, the fifth (and theoretically last) one for Amadeus as presenter and artistic director, is that it doesn't settle: it wants to please everyone. And it succeeds, given that the ratings were astronomical and social media participation equally so, but in the process it loses something. It wants to do everything, and in the end does nothing. And while the competition is very felt, discussed, and participated in, it only counts to a certain extent. The festival, always or almost always, is more than a competition: it's a mirror, a flag, a meeting point, a way to take a leap into the infamous Real Country. What did this Sanremo tell us about the Real Country? That it's superficial, that it tackles social issues as if they were items on a checklist to be ticked off, a to-do list of strange inconclusive monologues, recitations of important little words. And there's simply no time for collective and political reflection. We did what we had to do, which is the minimum, and we can go home. The only spark of rebellion we had came from some singers who wanted to express their thoughts on one of the most delicate situations of recent decades, the Palestinian genocide, and in return received an official statement read live by Mara Venier reiterating Rai's (and the Meloni government's) opposition to this type of expression. What's more political than this?

The audience and the influence of social networks

In the end, the audience adapts. Sanremo must and does give to social media, which in return offer insights, ratings, and memes. Amadeus's Sanremo, in fact, was that of virality at all costs, of live tweeting, and of gamifying the festival through FantaSanremo. It's useless (and shortsighted) to say that politics shouldn't be done at Sanremo, a first-rate social theater, a space subject to influences from all sides, that if it really wanted to avoid politics, it should avoid using political themes to gain points in the eyes of young people, a very coveted target pursued by all. Two weights and two measures: if you want to use certain issues, you can't reiterate your apolitical stance. The gap between the young audience and the older or adult audience widens, and Rai is not willing to make a break, getting bogged down in ambiguous and absolutely non-incisive situations. Better than nothing? Perhaps nothing was really better.

And now?

The question arises spontaneously. Rai has changed CEO, Amadeus's cycle is over. What should we expect from Sanremo 2025? There are many options. You can pick from the hat (and from the Rai ranks) a former presenter like Antonella Clerici or Carlo Conti, let's hope not Massimo Giletti or Pino Insegno. You can go back to separating the two figures of the creative director and the presenter, choosing for the former task a pillar of music or television and giving the task of hosting to a new generation, young by our standards (Alessandro Cattelan is 43 years old). The general feeling, however, is that Sanremo has never been so close and yet so far from the reality of young people, and that Amadeus's absence will be felt especially by the audience that has arrived in the last 3 years. The future of Sanremo is a black hole, but we can think about it in a few months.