Sanremo’s third soiree was all about covers and duets. On this night, the contestants covered a song from the rich repertoire of Italian classics. They could invite a guest singer to perform with them. Their performances were being judged by the Sanremo orchestra, and the scores for the night were factored into the general chart.
Unlike Eurovision, where the show runs on a tightly choreographed schedule, Sanremo runs on a seemingly infinite schedule. There is no sense of rush, and apparently no time constraints either. As always, each of the five nights went on for over five hours, well past 1 AM. The lineup of competing acts was diluted by various guest appearances, comedy skits, and commercial breaks. Tonight’s guests included Vittoria Ceretti, a successful Italian fashion model, and the Swedish soccer player Zlatan Ibrahimovic, widely regarded as one of the best strikers of all time.
By this third night, the two hosts, Amadeus and Fiorello, seemed more at ease on stage – they must have gotten past the initial shock of speaking into an empty theatre with no live audience. Let’s remember that during the planning stages of the contest, Amadeus even threatened to quit if the show went ahead without a live audience – he stayed on, but that goes to show how important having an audience was to the organizers.
Some colorful, funny-looking balloons with smiley faces on them were attached to all the seats in the theater, in place of a real audience – apparently the idea came from the mayor of Sanremo, who felt bad for the hosts. Fiorello made a joke of the situation by suggesting that there is a phallus-shaped balloon hidden among the rest. He spent a great part of night roaming around rows of seats looking for this special balloon, to no avail.
One of the most visually striking performances of the night was by the musical guest Achille Lauro, known his extravagant fashion style, together with Emma Marrone. Covered in golden spray paint from head to toe, Achille embodied an ancient Greek statue, performing his song Penelope in an ode to Greek mythology. White ionic columns and golden palm trees decorated the stage complemented this over-the-top visual masterpiece. If you are curious, you can watch Achille’s performance here: https://bit.ly/2OfanDt
Later in the night, Fiorello made a joking remark that Amadeus had forgotten about him, because he hasn’t been called on stage for several hours. Then, in a bizarre twist, Fiorello handed Amadeus an electric razon, asking him for help shaving his mustache, as he got fed up looking like Massimo D’Alema, Italy’s former prime minister who also wears a mustache. Amadeus kindly obliged and shaved Fiorello’s mustache.
At the end of the show (and closer to 2am local time), the scoring chart for the covers night was revealed: Ermal Meta came in 1st place, followed by Orietta Berti, and Extraliscio feat Davide Toffolo.
Take a look at some of my favorite performances of the night:
Maneskin with Manuel Agnelli - Amandoti
https://bit.ly/3rGo0tB
Gaia with Lous and the Yakuza – Mi sono innamorato di te
https://bit.ly/30wJ360
Extraliscio feat Davide Toffolo – Medley Rosamunda
https://bit.ly/2ONVVlq