Details of the 2007 Sanremo festival in Italy have been released by Italian broadcaster RAI. Fans of the Eurovision Song Contest have been looking for clues as to whether the festival could be used to select an Italian entry for the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest, should Italy elect to return to the competition after a nine year absence. In 2007 the Festival di Sanremo will be counting its 57th edition, which will take place between the 27th February and the 3rd March, an ideal time to select an entry for the Eurovision Song Contest!
The only clues available are that the songs have to be unheard prior to the event, fitting the Eurovision Song Contest criteria that a song cannot be published prior to October 1st 2006. However, the time limit for entrants is 3 minutes and 40 seconds, 40 seconds longer than the Eurovision Song Contest limit. This means that it is unlikely, although not impossible, that a song from Sanremo Festival 2007 could become an Italian Eurovision Song Contest entry.
History of Sanremo
The first Festival di Sanremo took place in January 1951, five years before the Eurovision Song Contest. The first editions were broadcasted by radio, until RAI started the television coverage of the event in 1955. Even if nowadays the Italian event is hardly followed abroad, it still is one of the most attended and watched cultural events in its country. Both well known artists as well as newcomers participate in this musical marathon during 5 days, which also present some international guests. In order to value the work of the composers of the entries, some of the international guest stars sing a specially arranged version of the contestant songs. The voting is a mixture of televoting, an expert jury and a popular jury spread all over the country.
During the 50’s and 60’s, many winners of the Festival di Sanremo became famous all over Europe and even in the US, among others, Domenico Modugno (1958, Nel blu dipinto di blu) and Gigliola Cinquetti (1964, Non ho l’età). These names surely ring a bell to every Eurovision Song Contest fan. As a matter of fact, the winners of the Sanremo Festival used to be offered the possibility to represent RAI in that year’s edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. Until 1997, when Italy participated for the last time, some of them did, like Domenicco Modugno, Gigliola Cinquetti, Al Bano & Romina Power, Anna Oxa & Fausto Leali, Enrico Ruggeri, Jalisse and many others. In case the winner of the Festival di Sanremo was not interested in participating in the Eurovision Song Contest, the offer would pass to the second best, like what happened in 1990 with Toto Cotugno, second in Sanremo and winner in the Eurovision Song Contest (Zagreb)
