It’s the iconic music festival that’s older than Eurovision. But the Sanremo Music Festival is also based in Italy, a country that has been hit hard by the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. And that’s led Sanremo producers to postpone the 2021 festival by a few weeks.
Optimagazine reports that Sanremo 2021 is likely to take place in late February or early March 2021 — later than its usual spot in early February. The magazine says the new dates were confirmed by broadcaster RAI, who recently released their schedule of upcoming programmes.
If Italy again uses Sanremo to select its act for Eurovision, it will likely need to have the act selected before the EBU’s deadline in early March. However, if Sanremo 2021 takes place after this deadline, broadcaster RAI could internally select a different act for Eurovision — or given the unique circumstances this season, the EBU may be more flexible with dates.
It remains to be seen what, if any, changes will be made to Sanremo 2021. One possibility is holding the event without an audience or moving to a smaller venue.
The magazine notes that people play a large part in the feel of Sanremo, from the audience in the iconic Ariston Theatre, the Sanremo orchestra, the press, and the thousands of tourists who visit the seaside resort town during the event.
Amadeus is back for Sanremo 2021
One thing confirmed for Sanremo 2021 is that Amedeo “Amadeus” Sebastiani will return as the show host and artistic director.
Amadeus has already been spotted hard at work with the Sanremo 2021 production team. The team members were recently seen wearing face masks and practising social distancing as they planned the 2021 show.
Amadeus had previously said he would have to consider doing Sanremo for a second time. However, as he explained in April, Sanremo 2021 isn’t a regular year. Being the first edition of the show in the era of the coronavirus, in many ways it would be his first time.
Amadeus is expected to again be joined on stage by the comedian and showman Rosario Fiorello. The two entertainers brought their unique comedic stylings to Sanremo 2020, including a 20-minute segment in the grand final where they entertained the audience by improvising with an autotune microphone at one o’clock in the morning.
What do you think? When should Sanremo 2021 be held? Would it feel the same without an audience? Tell us your thoughts below!
Who wants Diodato or Francesca Michielin?
I say send Diodato to Rotterdam as it should had happened this year and hold Sanremo for a little longer, because having it with an empty theater or reduced audience would be quite sad and this next edition need to be a big Italian healing celebration after all the country has suffered.
They will probably just internally select Diodato in 2021 anyway so it won’t really matter when
San Remo starts because it won’t be used to select their entry next year. Probably just reveal Diodato’s song during the show or a first live performance of it or something
Diodato pls !!!
A later Sanremo is better than no Sanremo, I say. Just like Eurovision. Anyway, I gravely apologize for being that guy and plugging a thing again, but our jurors have voted and the Eurovision: A Second Opinion 2020 finalists have been determined! We’ll be having our final next Friday. While they deliberate, I took the liberty of making a playlist with all the songs in some kind of running order. I used a list randomizer to determine which half each song would perform in (save for the Netherlands, already song #23) and then I worked out the best running order… Read more »
Friday show was great, Joe! Seeing you live was a bit surreal, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn’t expect Belgium and Finland to qualify, yet I couldn’t be happier. I’m really looking forward to the final, keep up the good work!
P.S. The suspenseful music was on point.
P.P.S. FB live stream started an hour late, did something happen?
Finland and Albania were the surprises for me, but then again, I didn’t expect Albania to qualify the last two years even when I really liked their songs, so what else is new? And yeah, that was the part I knew I was going to be a little odd (and, depending on my reputation here, risky), but I’d like to think I carried myself well. As for the time, there is a very real chance I meant BST instead of CET (I was thinking five hours ahead instead of six, so 3:30 my time and 8:30 in the UK)
I didn’t mean to be rude with the “surreal” part, it’s just that I’m so used to your Don Music avatar at this point that seeing how you look like in real life was a very refreshing experience for me. You did an excellent job, though, your acting talent really shines through!
I keep forgetting that on at least two sites Don Music is the default image people have in their minds when they think of me. But thank you! I can’t act like it isn’t a dream of mine to someday host Eurovision somehow (or at the very least announce the points for a country – San Marino, hit me up!)
I don’t have a Facebook account, so to answer your questions: I think Google Forms is the most dependable, so if I were you, I would simply post a link to the poll on the project’s page. As for the presentation of the final, I’d say a quick recap at the beginning will do (as by that point the voting will be over and fans know the songs already, so what would be the point of playing them in full?). I would also keep the purple-ish color scheme of the logo, it looks both stylish and professional. I would devote… Read more »
Very helpful, thank you! Yes, I know and love ScoreWiz, so I’m going to try and use it somehow. I’m thinking a bit in terms of how to toggle back and forth between my camera and video clips (like a recap or if I get any of my jurors to announce their twelve points).
I wouldn’t bother with interwining your clips with the recap, just do the introduction stuff (“Good evening Europe, good morning Australia”, etc.) and then cut to the recap. Getting jurors to announce the points might be difficult, so I don’t know about that – for example, if only one of them agreed, and you would present the points of every country but one, that would feel a bit awkward. Plus, the more time you spend on searching for jurors that would agree to do the gig, the less time you have left for the editing. On the other hand, if… Read more »
I am happy with the finalists too. Besides my expected favorites (Switzerland, Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, Azerbaijan), there are also my big favorites Poland, Finland and Armenia. I wasn’t sure they’d make it, but so happy they did!
Where can we watch / vote for this finals?
Poland making it through made me very happy. And it’ll all be on Facebook I believe. I didn’t have a public vote planned, but we shall see. (My initial hope was to have panels of regular people from each country pick their favorites as well as a “televote”, but that never worked out).
Hi Joe, I made a similar thing with my group of friends. Sorting out the songs in the second half was kinda hard because almost all of them were ballads/slow-tempo. I’m really happy with all the finalists, except one (which I won’t mention), that was my 17th in its semi final. This is the running order of the finalists: 1 – Germany 2 – Portugal 3 – Azerbaijan 4 – France 5 – Malta 6 – Finland 7 – Spain 8 – Poland 9 – Iceland 10 – Norway 11 – Lithuania 12 – Romania 13 – United Kingdom 14… Read more »
Yeah, with me there was a lot of slower songs in the first half (and overall) so balancing them out with the uptempo ones was an interesting challenge.
I was checking wich uptempo have qualified and I’m really surprised people didn’t vote for Serbia! I mean, we didn’t, too, but since it’s a fan favourite I would have expected people would have pushed it to the final, at least over Finland, which was a surprise (as well as Belgium).
I will check the final results on friday 🙂
PS: Will you release semi final results, too?
Yeah, I never had a great feeling about Serbia for whatever reason. And I might, if people are interested. I think you’d actually be surprised to see which song finished last in the second semi.
Does this mean Diodato will be internally selected like Emma was? I sure hope so.
If they do an internal selection and Diodato isn’t interested, let Arisa go for chrissake
surely
I really hope Diodato in this case but if he has a strong song
If not, it won’t happen, but Michele Morrone would be a move by Rai
Who?
If Tony gets the free pass, he should collaborate with an American female singer. The song should be about getting back to loving one another after the worst of the pandemic has passed and should be recorded in both Italian and English.