The curtain is about to go up on Italy's best-loved pop music event, the Sanremo songfest, which this year will have Penelope Cruz and Nelly Furtado on hand to provide the international glamour.
The glitzy festival, which each year garners acres of space in the national media, starts on Tuesday. It will end five evenings later after over 15 hours of live TV watched avidly by millions of Italians.
Polemics are part of the recipe and a first controversy was already under way on Friday in the wake of a government directive allowing the festival's two presenters to be paid much more than new rules would normally allow.
Veteran compere Pippo Baudo and popular TV star Michelle Hunziker are now entitled to earn more than 270,000 euros for their efforts. Rumours in the media have it that Baudo's cheque will approach a million.
"It's scandalous!" said one union leader, adding that the government would have done better to remove a recent tax on health services.
As always, RAI state television will be watching viewing figures closely to see whether its big investment is actually paying dividends. Anything less than 12-13 million is considered a failure.
International show-biz stars are one of the tricks organisers routinely use to boost interest and this year the biggest name on the list is Spanish-born actress Penelope Cruz, the 36-year-old muse of director Pedro Almodovar.
It is not clear what Cruz will do on the Sanremo stage although a straightforward interview seems most probable.
In the past actor stars such as John Travolta, Hugh Grant, Will Smith and Sharon Stone have been given half-hour slots to be interviewed live on stage between sections of the song contest.
Canadian pop star Nelly Furtado, 28, who has recently scored massive hits with songs such as Promiscuous and Maneater, is also due to take the stage to sing a duet with Italian combo Zero Assoluto.
It remains to be seen whether Furtado and Cruz will work enough magic on viewing figures. A survey carried out by a women's magazine showed that many female Italians would prefer to see some male eye-candy on stage in the shape of actors like Raoul Bova and Riccardo Scamarcio.
Other foreign musical guests booked in include a trio of soul music stars: young British singer Joss Stone, sophisticated American songstress Norah Jones and fellow American John Legend.
New York glam-pop band The Scissor Sisters will also provide a foreign musical interlude between the Italian songs competing for the top prize.
But Baudo, organising his 12th Sanremo festival, has vowed that this year foreign guests and other glamorous frills would not be allowed to hog the limelight.
"We have to get back to the festival of Italian songs. Recently the non-essentials have dominated, at the expense of the singers," he said.
Baudo has also recruited a collection of top Italian comedians to keep audience spirits high during the five evenings.
