Anna Oxa, the italian singer of albanian origin who represented Italy at the 1989 Eurovision Song Contest together with Fausto Leali, is criticizing the organization of the 63rd edition of the Sanremo Italian Song Festival.
During an interview to the Italian Le iene show, broadcast tonight on Italia 1 channel, she declared that she has been kept out of the competition because of political reasons.
She is also being critical about Russia because, in her opinion, as the Italian Song Festival is broadcast in Eurovision, the eastern country allegedly would not have bought the TV rights to cover the event if three of the singers invited to perform on the Sanremo stage had not been Toto Cutugno, Ricchi e Poveri and Al Bano Carrisi. They are very famous in Russia because of their participation in the Eurovision Song Contest: Toto Cutugno, winner in 1990 with the song Insieme:1992, Ricchi e Poveri in 1978 and Al Bano in 1976 and 1984 with Romina Power for Italy and as a backing vocal singer for Switzerland in 2000.
On the other hand, neither Rai, Radio Televisione Italiana, nor Fabio Fazio, host of the 2013 Sanremo Festival with Luciana Littizzetto, nor any of the Russian channels members of the EBU, the European Broadcasting Union, have commented on the claims made by Anna Oxa.
Stay tuned to Esctoday.com for the latest information about the Sanremo Song Festival.
