The Sanremo Music Festival 2011 (), officially the 61st Italian Song Festival (), was the 61st annual Sanremo Music Festival, held at the Teatro Ariston in Sanremo between 15 and 19 February 2011 and broadcast by (RAI). The festival was presented by singer Gianni Morandi with Paolo Kessisoglu, Luca Bizzarri, Belén Rodríguez and Elisabetta Canalis, while artistic director was Gianmarco Mazzi.
The competition was divided in two sections. The Big Artists section, including 14 established Italian artists, was won by Roberto Vecchioni with the song "Chiamami ancora amore", while the Newcomers section was won by Raphael Gualazzi, performing "Follia d'amore".
For the first time since 1997, the festival also served as the Italian national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011, with the country returning to the competition after being absent for 13 editions. The , also "Follia d'amore" by Gualazzi (in a new version titled "Madness of Love"), was chosen among the contestants by a specific jury, composed of Gianni Morandi, Rai 1 director Mauro Mazza, Rai 2 director Massimo Liofredi, the mayor of Sanremo Maurizio Zoccarato, the municipality's promotional board member Giorgio Giuffra and director of international affairs Marco Simeon.
Presenters and personnel
After some rumours emerged in September 2010, it was officially announced that Gianmarco Mazzi was confirmed as the artistic director of the Sanremo Music Festival. It was Mazzi's sixth Sanremo Music Festival as the artistic director. Italian singer Gianni Morandi was chosen as the main presenter of the show. Negotiations for his contract started in June 2010, and on 6 October 2010, RAI's board of directors confirmed his role in the show and announced Elisabetta Canalis, Belén Rodríguez, Luca Bizzarri and Paolo Kessisoglu as co-presenters of the festival.
The authors of the show were Simona Ercolani, Martino Clericetti, Ivano Balduini, Francesco Valitutti, Michele Ferrari, Gianni Morandi and Italian film director and writer Federico Moccia.
The Sanremo Festival Orchestra was conducted by Marco Sabiu, but each contestant chose a different conductor for the competing song. For the first time in the history of the Sanremo Music Festival, two choreographers were involved in the show, Daniel Ezralow and Franco Miseria. Duccio Forzano directed the show, and the scenography was by Gaetano Castelli and Maria Chiara Castelli.
Selections
Newcomers section
AreaSanremo The artists competing in the newcomers section were selected through two different contests. The first one, formerly known as SanremoLab, was called Area Sanremo, and it was organized by the Comune di Sanremo. The contest was divided into two different sections, SanremoLab, featuring Italian-language songs, and SanremoDoc, reserved to songs in an Italian dialect. After some courses and lectures, two different juries chose 8 artists in the SanremoLab section and 2 artists in the SanremoDoc section as the winners. The jury for the SanremoLab section was composed of Mario Lavezzi, Roy Paci, Eleonoire Casalegno and Mariano Dapori, while the jury for the SanremoDoc section included Maurizio Coruzzi, Davide Van De Sfroos, Giordano Sangiorgi and Enrico Giovannini. The winners—Ida Massaro, Lorenzo Vizzini, Roberto Amadé, Erika Mineo, Eleonora Crupi, Ernesto De Luca, Martino Iacchetti and Gabriella Ferrone for the SanremoLab section, Trenincorsa and Ilaria Palmieri with Terre del sole for the SanremoDoc section—were announced on 24 November 2010. On 27 November 2010, a jury presided by Gianni Morandi selected two artists, Roberto Amadè and Gabriella Ferrone, among the ten winners, which became the first confirmed participants in the newcomers section of the Sanremo Music Festival 2011.
Sanremo Giovani 2011 The second contest held to select the remaining 6 participants in the newcomers section of the Sanremo Music Festival 2011 was held in two separate steps. During the first step, auditioning artists were asked to uploaded a video including the proposed song on the official website of the festival, or to send a DVD containing it by ordinary mail. The SanremoAcademy technical jury, presided by Gianni Morandi and Gianmarco Mazzi, selected nine artists. The artists chosen in this step were: Anansi, performing "Il sole dentro" Serena Abrami, performing "Lontano da tutto" BTwins, performing "Mi rubi l'amore" Raphael Gualazzi, performing "Follia d'amore" Infranti Muri, performing "Contro i giganti" Marco Menichini, performing "Tra tegole e cielo" Micaela, performing "Fuoco e cenere" Neks, performing "Occhi" Le Strisce, performing "Vieni a vivere a Napoli" During the second step, the selected artists performed a popular Italian song during three different episodes of Domenica in, and a ranking was compiled based on televoting and on the points given by a jury representing Italian radio stations. The top 6 artists were admitted to the newcomers section of the Sanremo Music Festival 2011.
Plot 1 – 9 January 2011 Anansi – "Hey man" Micaela – "Come il sole all'improvviso" Le Strisce – "Un diavolo in me"
Plot 2 – 16 January 2011 BTwins – "Fotoromanza" Neks – "Aria" Infranti Muri – "Profumo"
Plot 3 – 23 January 2011 Marco Menichini – "Se è vero che ci sei" Serena Abrami – "Se io, se lei" Raphael Gualazzi – "Quanto tempo e ancora"
The winners of the contest, Serena Abrami, Anansi, Btwins, Raphael Gualazzi, Marco Menichini and Micaela, were announced on 30 January 2011, during the TV programme Domenica in.
Big Artists section The acts competing in the Big Artists section were chosen through an internal selection. The first confirmed artist was Roberto Vecchioni, announced on 5 November 2010. On 24 November 2010, it was confirmed that Franco Battiato and Luca Madonia were included as a duo in the official list of the participants. The complete list of the fourteen participants in the Big Artists section was revealed on 20 December 2010, together with the titles of the chosen songs. Alongside Vecchioni, and Madonia with Battiato, the list included Anna Oxa, Max Pezzali, Tricarico, Al Bano, Nathalie, Modà with Emma Marrone, Davide Van De Sfroos, Patty Pravo, Giusy Ferreri, Anna Tatangelo, La Crus and Luca Barbarossa with Raquel del Rosario.
Shows
First night
Big Artists section During the first night, each act in the "Big Artists Section" performed a previously unreleased song. Each song was ranked by 300 people between the age of 18 and 65 years, selected by Ipsos among music listeners. At the end of the night, the two songs receiving the lowest points, Anna Tatangelo's "Bastardo" and "La mia anima d'uomo" by Anna Oxa, were eliminated from the competition.
+Performances of the contestants of the Big Artists section on the first night Artist Song Songwriter(s) Place Points 1 Giusy Ferreri "" 22,278 2 Luca Barbarossa & Raquel del Rosario "" Luca Barbarossa52,196 3 Roberto Vecchioni "" 12,488 4 Anna Tatangelo "" 141,540 5 La Crus "" 81,925 6 Max Pezzali "" Max Pezzali71,942 7 Davide Van De Sfroos "" Davide Bernasconi101,779 8 Anna Oxa "" 131,726 9Tricarico "" Fausto Mesolella91,789 10 Modà & Emma Marrone "" 42,222 11 Luca Madonia & Franco Battiato "" Luca Madonia62,188 12 Patty Pravo "" 121,741 13Nathalie "" Nathalie Giannitrapani32,253 14 Al Bano "" 111,775
Guests and other performances Antonella Clerici, who presented the Sanremo Music Festival 2010, opened the show. The Italian presenter told her experience in a dialogue with her three-year-old daughter, Maëlle, who was on the stage with her. Luca Bizzarri and Paolo Kessisoglu sang a satirical version of the song "In amore", originally performed by Gianni Morandi and Barbara Cola during the Sanremo Music Festival 1995. The comic duo's version of the song, "Ti sputtanerò", featured lyrics referring to the clashes between Silvio Berlusconi and Gianfranco Fini. Argentine tango dancer Miguel Ángel Zotto performed La cumparsita with co-presenter Belén Rodríguez, and danced with Daiana Guspero to the song Canaro en Paris.
Second night
Big Artists section On 16 February 2011, each song was performed for a second time by the singers still in competition in the Big Artists Section. As in the first night, the songs were rated by 300 people chosen by Ipsos, and the songs receiving the lowest points, "Amanda è libera" by Al Bano and "Il vento e le rose" by Patty Pravo, were eliminated.
+Performances of the contestants of the Big Artists section on the second night Artist Song Place Points 1 NathalieVivo sospesa42,187 2 Al Bano"Amanda è libera"111,654 3 Modà & Emma Marrone"Arriverà"22,336 4 Patty Pravo"Il vento e le rose"121,535 5 Tricarico"Tre colori"101,736 6 Luca Madonia & Franco Battiato"L'alieno"52,177 7 Max Pezzali"Il mio secondo tempo"62,012 8 La Crus"Io confesso"72,004 9 Luca Barbarossa & Raquel del Rosario"Fino in fondo"32,213 10 Davide Van De Sfross"Yanez"91,796 11 Roberto Vecchioni"Chiamami ancora amore"12,713 12 Giusy Ferreri"Il mare immenso"81,917
Newcomers section At the end of the night, four artists in the newcomers section performed their entries for the first time. A ranking was obtained combining televoting with the points given by the Sanremo Festival Orchestra technical jury, and the artists in the bottom two slots, Anansi with "Il sole dentro" and Gabriella Ferrone singing "Un pezzo d'estate", were eliminated.
+Performances of the newcomers on the second night Artist Song Songwriter(s) Place Points(Orchestra) Televotes 1 Serena Abrami "" Niccolò Fabi1266,339 2 Anansi "" 3134,786 3 Gabriella Ferrone "" Giuliano Boursier4152,864 4 Raphael Gualazzi "" Raphael Gualazzi2384,773
Guests and other performances During the show, Cuban American actor Andy García was interviewed by Gianni Morandi. He also played piano while Morandi sang "Cuba Libre" and co-presenters Belén Rodríguez and Elisabetta Canalis danced to the song. Luca Bizzarri and Paolo Kessisoglu performed a satirical piece, talking about Roberto Saviano, Michele Santoro and Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, among the others. British singer–songwriter Eliza Doolittle sang her hit single "Skinny Genes". After her performance, she was briefly interviewed by Gianni Morandi and Elisabetta Canalis.
Third night
Celebration of the anniversary of the Italian unification On 17 February 2011, all the acts competing in the Big Artists section, including the eliminated ones, performed a cover of a popular Italian song, in order to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Italian unification. During the night, the public's vote determined the winner of the prize "Nata per unire" (English: Born to unify), which was completely unrelated to the outcome of the contest. The song receiving the most votes was "Va, pensiero", performed by Al Bano.
+Performances of the contestants of the Big Artists section on the third night Artist Song 1 Davide Van De Sfroos"Viva l'Italia" 2 Anna Tatangelo"Mamma" 3 Anna Oxa"'O sole mio" 4 Al Bano with Iannis Plutarchos & Theodossiou Dimitra"Va, pensiero" 5 Patty Pravo"Mille lire al mese" 6 Luca Madonia & Franco Battiato"La notte dell'addio" 7 Giusy Ferreri"Il cielo in una stanza" 8 Nathalie"Il mio canto libero" 9 Luca Barbarossa & Raquel Del Rosario"Addio mia bella addio" 10 Modà & Emma Marrone"Here's to You" 11 Max Pezzali with Arisa"Mamma mia dammi cento lire" 12 Roberto Vecchioni"'O Surdato 'Nnamurato" 13 La Crus with Gnu Quartet"Parlami d'amore Mariù" 14 Tricarico with Toto Cutugno"L'italiano"
Newcomers section After all the Big Artists' performances, the four newcomers which didn't sing on the second night performed their entries for the first time. As in the previous night, the two artists receiving the lowest rating obtained combining the points given by the Sanremo Festival Orchestra technical jury and by the public's vote were eliminated.