Sanremo Festival: Final Chapter

After five intense nights and the special appearance of guests from all over the World, from Jennifer López to Mary J. Blige, Michael Jackson's choreographer and a dozen songs... Sanremo Festival ended in a complete scandal!

And everything because of the televoting!

Let me tell it to you: in the past, music specialists, singers, composers and producers were part of the Jury. But for some time now, it's the people voting from home who decide who wins... They even have the power to put back in contest those who were previously eliminated. This is what happened with the trio of Prince Emanuele Philiberto de Savoia, who's a really nice, distinguished guy, but he sings like a dog... even worst, he's not even singing at all and he's just starting at this. I appreciate his effort... but there were a lot of really talented professionals in contest, such as Enrico Ruggeri or my favourite Malika Ayane, who have been doing music since childhood!

So, huge scandal at the Ariston Theatre, with the orchestra tossing to the air the pages of the scores while the audience was booing loudly... Never-before-seen here!!!

Malika was eliminated and the three final contenders were the Prince's trio and two other young singers, known here for having participated in other TV contests.

Back to televoting... and the winner is...?
Valerio Scanu, an almost twenty years boy with a romantic ballad... 

Valerio Scanu, the winner.

The runner-ups?

The trio!!! Can you believe it?

This morning people were already talking about some kind of cheating, involving the purchase of hundreds of telephone votes... By who? It's a mystery now...

Anyway, Malika Ayane won the Critics Award, which she totally deserved.

For next year's Festival, I would avoid the televoting or at least, put it under surveillance. 

As for the hostess, Antonella Clerici, she brought the highest ratings in the history of the broadcast of the Festival. However...
How can I put it...?

... I've never seen anyone worst dressed on stage than her...!! Poor Gai Mattiolo, who was in charge of her costume design... All those dresses had nothing to do with a slightly overweighted woman... in fact, they made her look fatter!

However, she seems to be what the Italian people want... apparently...

Audience and orchestra protesting...