For the 34-year-old musician, the main prize “Golden Palm” was already the second in his career – in 2013 he also won the competition. In May, Mengoni will represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool from May 9-13.
This year, the famous festival not only received foreign guests (Depeche Mode and The Black Eyed Peas performed there), but was also not free from political conflicts around Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ‘s video message.
RAI’s intention to invite Zelenskyyy prompted the Italians to launch a petition against “mixing music and military propaganda” signed by around 100,000 public figures.
Within the government coalition, the appearance of the President of Ukraine has also sown discord. Thus, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini deemed it “inappropriate to bring military conflict to the music scene” where famous Italian artists perform. Unlike Salvini, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed regret over the controversy.
“I would prefer Zelenskyyy to participate,” she said at a press conference last Friday.
As a result, Zelenskyyy’s appeal was nevertheless made, but in writing. It was read by presenter Amadeus just before the announcement of the competition results.
On the last day of the festival, far from the musical passions were in full swing in the streets of Sanremo
On the last day of the Festival, the streets of San Remo were also full of non-musical passions. The demonstration, initially announced as an action against the video message of the Ukrainian president, turned into a rally against the sending of arms to Ukraine, the aggressive policy of NATO and the anti-Russian sanctions.
“Above all, we are for peace, and not against anything. We have organized this demonstration so that the population is aware of what is happening and what our government is doing, which continues to involve us more more in the war”, – pointed out the organizers of the demonstration, which was attended by about 1,000 people.
