Perché Sanremo è Sanremo! After uncertain weeks of anxious waiting, on March 2 the Sanremo Music Festival 2021 has finally kicked off.
This year Sanremo is struggling with all the limitations related to Covid-19 and for this reason, for the first time in the history of the festival, there was no audience in the theatre.
Despite that, the endless show was still worth watching and always full of excitement, skits, special effects and a lot of fake applause all from a colourful, high-tech spaceship-shaped stage.
?? @francescacheeks e @Fedez– #ChiamamiPerNome
L’esibizione integrale è su @RaiPlay ?#Sanremo2021 pic.twitter.com/l4rtnewFds— Festival di Sanremo (@SanremoRai) March 2, 2021
The first live show — hosted by Amadeus with the support of Rosario Fiorello, actress Matilda De Angelis and Swedish footballer Zlatan Ibrahimović — started with the performances of half of the Nuove Proposte, the category dedicated to newcomers. These performances were judged by the demoscopic poll (33%), the members of the press centre (33%) and the televote (34%).
And these are the results: Gaudiano with “Polvere da sparo” and Folcast with “Scopriti” will go to the semi-final on Friday night, while Elena Faggi with “Che ne so” and Avincola with “Goal” have been eliminated.
“Che fai rumore qui
e non lo so se mi fa bene
se il tuo rumore mi conviene
ma fai rumore”@DiodatoMusic a #Sanremo2021.
L’esibizione integrale è su RaiPlay ? pic.twitter.com/KcJTa0bzBL— Rai1 (@RaiUno) March 2, 2021
During the first episode, we enjoyed special guest appearances from Sanremo 2020 winner Diodato — who sang “Fai rumore”, the song with which he should have represented Italy at Eurovision last year, “Fino a farci scomparire” and “Che vita meravigliosa” — and Italian rock icon Loredana Bertè.
Loredana performed her brand new single “Figlia di…” and a medley of her hits “Il mare d’inverno”, “Dedicato”, “Non sono una signora” and “Sei bellissima”.
Pop-rock-trap artist Achille Lauro — who surprised the Sanremo 2020 audience with extravagant looks and performances of his entry “Me ne frego” — also took the stage. He is going to sing during each of the five evenings, presenting themed performances defined as “audiovisual paintings”. For the first evening, the songwriter performed his latest single “Solo noi“.
?? @noemiofficial – #Glicine
L’esibizione integrale è su @RaiPlay ?#Sanremo2021 pic.twitter.com/ZSc8HGz9Pb— Festival di Sanremo (@SanremoRai) March 2, 2021
Anyway, all of our attention has been focused on the main event for Eurovision fans: the original numbers. Half of the 26 contestants — the big names from which Italy’s Eurovision 2021 artist will be chosen — performed their entries to the viewers for the first time.
After five hours of songs, the provisional ranking based on the results of the demoscopic poll were revealed.
Sanremo 2021 first night
Demoscopic poll ranking
La classifica della giuria demoscopica per la 1^ serata.
Cosa ne pensate?#Sanremo2021 pic.twitter.com/yPwfz0K2N8— Festival di Sanremo (@SanremoRai) March 3, 2021
Click on song titles to watch the performance.
- Annalisa with “Dieci“
- Noemi with “Glicine“
- Fasma with “Parlami“
- Francesca Michielin & Fedez with “Chiamami per nome“
- Francesco Renga with “Quando trovo te”
- Arisa with “Potevi fare di più“
- Måneskin with “Zitti e buoni“
- Max Gazzè with “Il farmacista“
- Colapesce & Dimartino with “Musica leggerissima“
- Coma_Cose with “Fiamme negli occhi“
- Madame with “Voce“
- Ghemon with “Momento perfetto“
- Aiello with “Ora“
?? @NaliOfficial – #Dieci
L’esibizione integrale è su @RaiPlay ?#Sanremo2021 pic.twitter.com/Lnw5cxNzRi— Festival di Sanremo (@SanremoRai) March 3, 2021
How will the Sanremo winner be picked?
Voting during the five evenings will occur through different combinations of four methods:
- Public televoting, carried out via landline, mobile phone, the contest’s official mobile app, and online voting.
- Press jury voting, expressed by accredited journalists that followed the competition from the Roof Hall at the Ariston Theatre.
- A demoscopic poll, composed by 300 music fans who voted from their homes via an electronic voting system managed by global market research and a consulting firm Ipsos.
- Orchestra voting, resulting from points assigned by musicians and singers of the Sanremo Music Festival Orchestra.
The four voting systems will have a percentage weight so distributed:
- First and Second Evening: 100% demoscopic poll
- Third Evening: 100% orchestra voting
- Fourth Evening: 100% press jury voting
- Fifth Evening: 100% public televoting
In the final part of the fifth evening, a new rank indicating the first three acts — determined by the percentage of votes obtained in this evening’s vote and those obtained in previous evenings — will be drawn up.
- Superfinal: 34% public televoting; 33% press jury voting; 33% demoscopic poll
What do you think of the first 13 songs of Sanremo 2021? Who are you most excited for? Share your thoughts below!
Quando trovo te has really good verses. I can’t help but think they should have went with a different chorus and singer.
Extremely shocked to see autotune’s allowed at Sanremo. Is this new? I haven’t been watching the festival in years.
its done for style purposes rather than vocal enhancement reasons i think
Annalisa’s dieci is a masterpiece.
Approve me thank you.
I listened the songs few times today, and I’ll go with:
Maneskin (9/10)
Gazzè (8.5/10)
Colapesce and Dimartino (8/10)
Fedez and Michielin (7/10)
Arisa (6.5/10)
Renga (6/10)
Noemi (6/10 … ways overrated)
Annalisa (6/10 … ways overrated)
Coma_Cose (5/10)
Madame (4/10)
Fasma (3/10 ways ways overrated)
Aiello (1/10)
Ghemon (0/10)
Off topic: Roxen’s song was just released in New Zealand. It’s quite the disappointment.
what? its rly rly good
No, it’s not. It’s really bad, actually.
Where did u listen to it?
I saw it too, It’s not a great entry :/
Insanely strong competition in Sanremo this year! Especially love Annalisa’s, Francesca’ & Fedez’s, Maneskin’s and Madame’s songs. Would be happy if any of them represented Italy.
Noemi with her song glicine is my personal favourite!
I really liked Colapesce and Dimartino; Fasma and Maneskin. Some of the songs need a few listens though
Yes agreed, took me a few goes to warm up to the songs last year, and ended up loving most of them in the end!
Folcast is competing in a different category than the other 5
Fasma is in the main contest as a possible ESC entrant. The first four songs were in the ”newcomers” category – Folcast, Gaudiano, Elena and Avincola. The first two qualified.
I have listened to the studio versions of the songs some minutes ago and my opinion about San Remo has changed. The songs are really good. The live versions of most songs were just bad to me. Idk whether it is a vocal problem or an audio issue, it is one of them. I can see some songs doing really well in Eurovision. Maneskin is still my favorite tho.
Yes, I also agree that the live performances weren’t that impressive. Haven’t listened to the studio versions but I liked nearly every song from last year but yesterday, judging only from the live performances, I only liked like 1-2 songs…
Based of live performance, I only liked Maneskin. Based of studio versions, I like 7 songs, Maneskin is one of them.
Lol people still disliking this while my comment is meant as something positive..
Fedez and Francesca are leading very comfortable Itunes, Apple and YouTube. And Spotify coming.
Their performance is trending on YouTube in my country. We love Italy tho
The only reason for that is Fedez’s huge commercial cache. The song is completely unremarkable and soppy (with rap part thrown in the middle, rofl), they have zero chemistry and on top of that they were both bad live. Check the dislike radio on YT since you like stats.
Their performance has 29k likes to 1,2k dislikes. I don’t see anything odd or bad in this ratio.
Fedez’ name helps for sure but other artists like Annalisa or Maneskin are also popular in Italy.
I wouldn’t say Francesca was bad on stage, she actually looked confident. Fedez was super nervous though.
An overall good selection, but as for ESC potential, I don’t know… I guess Francesca & Fedez or Maneskin could do decently in Rotterdam. But nothing outstanding so far. Looking forward to watch night 2 🙂
Fasma should have won – passion and power. Annalisa also excellent and Gaudiano definitely a star on the rise. They’re my top 3 of the night
Fasma was the best, i agree.
Remember that Gaudiano is competing in a different category than the others
Yes really liked Fasma, although he has a real issue loud breathing caught by the mic
Why do people keep comparing San Remo to other selections? To me, it makes no sense. The point of San Remo has never been Eurovision — in fact, the winner can choose to go, or decline the opportunity. Comparing Melfest, or MGP to this festival is completely pointless for it is a yearly celebration of Italian music. If you keep seeing everything from the point of view of the Eurovision fan, you will just miss so many things …
I am one of the persons who dislikes this year’s San Remo and I never compare certain national selections. I am in it for good music and so far I haven’t heard any in San Remo.
Well then, I hope you can find something you like at some point, and if you do not… there are still so many countries about to reveal songs! I am sure there will be some “good music” that fits your taste 🙂
I listened to the studio versions just some minutes ago. Those were much much better than the live versions in my opinion. Some songs have a lot of potential for Eurovision.
Yeah some people need to step outside their bubble..
oh wow noemi is killing it ! i met her in 2016 at rihanna’s concert in milan, she’s super nice and down to earth haha
People complaining about how bad ar3 this year’s Melo songs, but Italy come with this bunch of mediocre songs and everyone seems yo be amazed, just because it’s San Remo… kind of snob… an endless show that it’s stuck in the time, with mediocre songs.
Couldn’t have said it better. At least Melfest has 4 good songs among them (In The Middle, Voices, Little Tot and Every Minute). I can’t find any in San Remo. Last year’s San Remo was fantastic with for instance Viceversa, Andromeda and Fai Rumore.
I based that of quality, not on opinions. If I based it of opinions, I would’ve only mentioned Voices and Every Minute.
We still haven’t heard 13 songs so how can you say that
Only one. Every Minute.
People who dislike your comment have alethophobia.
Ahahah! Sanremo Festival is controversial.
Many italians think that any singer who goes to Sanremo in a way or another get Sanremised for the event and the songs are usually bland love songs.
This year is no exception, many young artists, representing the italian new indie, are giving us no more than everage quality. About the old guard I have mixed opinion. I’m biased on Gazzè whom I love and i really like his song. I find Renga’s performance below everage.
Hopefully the second night will be better.
My top 13 national selections so far:
Madame really surprised me!!! Amazing modern and original song. Max Gazze was also quite good. All in all a decent bunch of songs, Sanremo never disappoints!
My personal top:
1. Francesca & Fedez (the song is so tender and nice, I found it really beautiful)
2. Måneskin (Youth, energy, drive)
3. Annalisa (Powerful vocals, strong lyrics but something lacked, maybe too simple)
I have no idea how this demoscopic jury is voting, every year they are total mess. But San Remo is so unpredictable. Leader today can become outsider tomorrow. So nothing is clear at all.
By the way the best were Loredana and Diodato. True masters!
Madame was by far the best in my opinion! Francesca and Fedez were also amazing
Last year’s San Remo was easily better. No good songs in San Remo 2021 so far.
Edit: Zitti e buoni is decent tho.
ur forgetting voce lmao
Voce was mediocre for me.
Dieci would be a strong Eurovision choice. Annalisa is always phenomenal. Hands down.
I liked also Maneskin and Madame.
Strong start for Annalisa. Last time she competed she placed 3rd. Dieci is her strongest entry to date. Fingers crossed she’ll place higher this year!
Loredana and Diodato were my winners
Fasma was my favourite ofc but I’ll always be biased when it comes to him as I am a massive fan. I really enjoyed Arisa too! Very high standard as always
I can’t imagine anyone but Maneskin winning this, I think Francesca and Fedez are totally overrated as much as Annalisa. Is it good? Yes, but I think it can get lost on the Eurovision stage. Maneskin on the other hand are special and young, that is the kind of energy we need on Eurovision. All in all, I would love them to win, but kinda can’t see it coming with the juries.
does fedez sing?
Yes
Maneskin’s song is the only decent song, but the singer of that band sadly enough can’t sing. Such a shame, because it would’ve been such a good entry.
I’m sorry but in my opinion, Damiano’s voice was one of the strongest of the night, maybe it’s just the style that doesn’t work for you
It sounded more like talking than actually singing.
Well, then again it’s the style that doesn’t fit you not the song. If you listen to Torna a casa you can clearly hear he can absolutely sing 😉
Italians are choosing the song they like the most and which is close to them. They are not choosing the songs according the principle “it will be perfect for Eurovision”. They don’t care about it, they don’t think about it.
Oh yeah, I know that and it’s exactly what’s sort of worrying me because I feel like this style is not as close to them as Annalisa’s or Francesca’s
After listening to all of them a few times, my favourite has to be Voce by Madame. It’s so so good.
Madame was by far my favourite yesterday, followed by Maneskin and Colapesce Dimartino. Annalisa has a great voice but the song is nothing special, same for Noemi. I don’t understand how Fasma got third, the song is catchy but nothing else.
Once again giuria demoscopica have no idea what they are voting for. Fasma 3rd? Really? Who are these people?
honestly i really liked his song
Annalisa and Noemi was the best the first night, also Maneskin and Arisa are good. I looking forward for 2 night tonight.
Maneskin were my favorite.
The songs by annalisa and Noemi might be good for the Italian market but not for Esc in my opinion.
Annalisa’s the one who’s basically the only one actually using Sanremo as her ticket to Eurovision, right? I’m rooting for her.
I thought Arisa was the one who really wanted to go to ESC, no?
Ah, my mistake. She in the running?
yes
yea she performed first, decent song but its incredibly unlikely she wins
Still don’t get why RAI didn’t send her in 2013. Controvento was such a good song..
wasn’t it 2014?
Out of the studio versions of the songs (I never really watch the live), I enjoy Dieci, Parlami, Momento Perfetto, Voce, and Zitti e Buoni. I also like, to a lesser degree, Ora, Chiamami Per Nome, and Glicine. Quando Trovo Te and Il Farmacista are not bad but I wouldn’t gravitate towards them. The rest are immediately forgettable.
I take it back about Parlami. I thought I found the studio version but apparently is a whole different song. I don’t like Parlami that much.
Arisa, Colapesce e Dimartino, Maneskin & Francesco Renga had the most memorable entries.
Colapesce e Dimartino was brilliant, my winners for the night!! Aside from the dancer :/
Surprisingly, I enjoyed the more relaxed, less-competitive songs more than a lot of of the big hitters. Ghemon’s song is stuck in my head already and Max Gazze’s might be a thing of genius. Not even mentioning the brilliance that is Colapesce and Dimartino!
Out of the entries that appeared to be in it for the win, I think I enjoyed Arisa’s the best. Madame and Maneskin were also pretty strong.
Some very nice entries here. On first listen, I am definitely feeling Fasma (definitely Twenty-One Pilots vibes going on) and Maneskin is such an energetic, authentic rock song which is exactly what we need in Eurovision. I was also drawn towards Francesca and Fedez and there were others which I definitely feel like they will grow on me.
Majorly excited for what Italy is bringing this year!
Annalisa is good but Madame’s my favourite.
COME ON ITALY! (1) I think you’re long overdue a Eurovision victory considering you’ve brought nothing but your A game over the last 10 years, and (2) I have big expectations from you this year since the other countries haven’t delivered much so far.
and we can`t wait for 13 more tomorrow!
You sound kinda pressed, sis.
thanx for pointing that! 😀
You have to respect Sanremo. It’s the 61st contest this year. Without it there would be no Melodifestivalen, no Festival I Kenges, no national finals non-stop. I don’t know where you live but in the U.K. and I DREAM of a world where our national final is the musical TV highlight of the year so give the old girl a break :p
Italy literally told all other national selections this year “hold my beer” and dropped the best grouping of songs of any country so far this season…
As always, San Remo is quality. Often too good for Eurovision.
Yes, San Remo says “Hold my beer”, but not in the way you interpret it. The hold my beer is like this:
Denmark: “We have this year’s worst national selection”
Italy: “Hold my beer”
No surprise here. Dieci was the best of the night, but I am not sure if it will win on Saturday. Colapesce and Dimartino were severely underrated, the oddsmakers think they are into win it (which I disagree, nevertheless they will do better on Saturday). If Fasma improves his vocals, he will be a contender.
The odds havent changed since before the night started (atm its only one betting site with odds up)
There zero doubt thats come wednesday itll all be flipped.
Annalisa was definitely the best tonight I was disappointed in Francesca and Fedez though it was nothing special
Annalisa the best this night, amazing voice, interpretation and look. Many of the others singers sang poorly or the autotune completely “covered” the song (Madame, Fedez, Fasma).
how tf did the autotune cover madames song. Like sure it was obviously there but it was still a complete masterpiece and 100% could be gotten rid of for eurovision without too much notable difference
First thoughts, interesting night, good performers, some good songs, weird ranking. Hope for tomorrow because this night I don’t really find a song that could do very well in esc, of course according to me, no offense. Annalisa is so talented, she has such a good voice, but I’m doubtful about the song in esc but first place deserved tonight, Noemi same, Fasma ok good ballad, but Italy why so much autotune this year! Francesca and Fedez good too nothing special and autotune too, and Madame seems to have success among the fans but for me it’s kind of déjà… Read more »
I am still surprised about Francesco Renga being in the TOP5…
Anyway, Maneskin, Annalisa and Madame were my favourites tonight! <3
Same favourites!
Parlami is really good, but what’s with the autotune?
Fasma always performs with heavy autotune, its his thing and he’s the one who really blew up the sanremo autotune thing last year in the newcomers section with his masterpiece per sentirmi vivo.
You have to keep in mind when watching these that the artists arent writing songs for eurovision and most of them dont really care. They want to win sanremo and will abide by those rules, if they go to eurovision thats just an added bonus that they’ll worry about later.
his autotune allowed at eurovision?
is*
no it isnt, at least not in the form that its used in sanremo which can be better referred to as voice distortion as they are putting an effect on the mic. In the actual eurovision now that backing vocals can be pre recorded there certainly can be work arounds found. But again, voice distortion itself is out of the picture.
The Olsens did it back in 2000, though.
some very strong entries in this group
Apparently, the mysterious giuria demoscopica love redheads! My highlights tonight (in no particular order) were Maneskin, Madame, Arisa and Annalisa. The first 2 brought tons of energy and personality. Arisa gave probably the best and most emotional performance. And Annalisa always does the trick for me, even if “Il Mondo Prima di Te” had a stronger initial impact. Francesca and Fedez have another hit on their pockets, but I think the fact he was singing and not rapping may hurt their chances. I’m surprised to see Noemi and Fasma doing so well. She was effective as usual, but I don’t… Read more »
Dieci is so good and deserved first place tonight