The Scoop🇮🇹 Italy

🇮🇹 Italy: Festival di Sanremo 2021 pushed to March?

The festival may be pushed back by up to a month due to the pandemic

Last month, it was reported that the Sanremo Music Festival may not be held in February. This is of course due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Now, RAI seemed to have confirmed that the festival will be taking place later than usual in 2021. This is among a number of changes they’re exploring for next year’s festival.

In light of the ongoing pandemic, The municipality of Sanremo and Italian broadcaster Rai have been considering options for the running of the festival. One of these included moving the event to a new venue. Note: The last time that Sanremo was not held in the Teatro Ariston was in 1990.

Now, according to Opti Magazine, it now extremely likely that the festival will be delayed to March, rather than its usual early February slot. We also still do not have confirmation whether Italy will be returning to Eurovision next year. Even if they do return, there is still a possibility of Diodato being internally selected.

Sanremo to be held in March?

As previously reported, discussions are ongoing for how the 2021 edition of the Festival di Sanremo will be held, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to its historical and cultural significance to the Italian people, Rai are determined that the show must go on.

According to their program schedules presented for 2021, the next edition of Festival di Sanremo will either be held in late February or early March. Traditionally, Festival di Sanremo is held in the first week of February.

To date, Rai has not yet confirmed its participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021, nor whether the winner of Sanremo will have first refusal for Rotterdam 2021.

Recently, 2014 Sanremo winner Arisa reiterated her desire to represent Italy at Eurovision.

Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest

Italy were amongst the seven countries that took part in the inaugural Eurovision Song Contest in 1956. Before their first win, Italy scored two third place finishes in 1958 and 1963. Italy’s first win came in 1964 with Gigliola Cinquetti’s “Non ho l’età” in 1964 which won the contest in Copenhagen with 49 points. Their next top three didn’t come until 1974 – again with Gigliola Cinquetti. “Si” finished in 2nd place, behind Sweden’s ABBA.

In 1990, Toto Cutugno became Italy’s second, and most recent, winner with “Insieme: 1992”. It won the contest with 149 points. Italy took part a further 4 times in the 1990s, before taking a 13-year break from the contest from 1998 to 2010. 

They returned to the contest in 2011 and has since finished in the top three on three occasions – 2nd in 2011, 3rd in 2015 and 2nd in 2019. Diodato was selected to represent Italy in 2020 with “Fai rumore” before the contest was cancelled. Currently, the door has not been fully closed for him to return.

Do you hope Sanremo takes place in its normal February slot? Would you like to see Italy use another selection method for 2021? Do you want to see Diadato return? Be sure to stay updated by following @ESCXTRA on Twitter@escxtra on Instagram and liking our Facebook page for the latest updates! Also, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to see our reactions to the over the coming months.

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