There are three months to go before the 61st edition of the Sanremo Song Festival [15th – 19th February 2011] but there has already been an argument about its contents: it all began when pop legend Gianni Morandi, who will present the Festival, had the idea of including the World War II partisan song “Bella Ciao” in the programme for February 17th, the night when the Festival will celebrate 150 years of Italian unity.
The Festival’s artistic director, Gianmarco Mazzi, then suggested that, for the sake of balance, the fascist anthem “Giovinezza”, which emphasises youth as an arm of the fascist movement, should also be included. The idea was that all the performers present at the Festival that night would sing the two songs.
There was an immediate storm of protest on blogs, newspaper and social networking sites and the cultural organisation “Libertà e giustizia” proposed that television viewers should boycott the Festival for its whole duration. Then the Northern League, which is campaigning for a federal Italy, voiced its objections to unity being celebrated at the Festival at all. ANPI, the Italian Partisans’ Association, called for a picket of the Festival’s venue, the Ariston Theatre at Sanremo.
Just 24 hours after the proposal to feature both songs was announced, Rai decided to withdraw them from the programme, leaving a rather red-faced Gianni Morandi to explain that it had never been his intention to draw the Festival into political controversy.
Do you think Rai were right to withdraw both songs?
