It will be a politically correct Sanremo. Word of Carlo Conti, who even before announcing the big names for the next edition of the Festival, had already assured that the songs will not talk about war, much less immigration or other social issues, but about family and personal relationships. Intimate songs to avoid risking a ‘Ghali encore’ and ideological controversies ready to devour the race, undermine the Rai top management, but also – if not above all – to threaten one of the most Christian democratic channels of Italian TV.

In short, Conti prefers to prevent rather than possibly take action when the bandwagon is in full swing, or at least tries to. Smart decision, but there’s more. The real cunning of the artistic director lies in the choice of some names who took center stage even before going on stage at the Ariston, promising sparks which in fact satisfy the ‘belligerence pact’ which is secretly signed every year between the event and the public. Because they can and we can tell it in any way, but it is undeniable that what makes Sanremo is not so much the songs as the criticisms, the intrigues, the arguments – from the 2020 edition we remember the Bugo-Morgan case more than the victory of Diodato – the blows of scene, obviously the gossip. And there is no shortage of gossip in the list read by Carlo Conti yesterday on Tg1.

Fedez and Tony Effe, weapons of mass distraction

Of the thirty singers who will participate in Sanremo, two are already on everyone’s lips. Fedez and Tony Effe, who in September massacred each other with poisonous bars, bringing up their respective exes – Chiara Ferragni and Taylor Mega – like great lords – in February they will find themselves on the same stage, but above all behind the same scenes in the narrow corridors of the Ariston Theatre. Let’s hope not in the same hotel, although this could offer almost as unforgettable moments as Orietta Berti being chased by the police while she went to collect her clothes from the hotel during the curfew, in 2021. The presence of the two rappers, who everyone is talking about, managed to obscure even just on paper names like Massimo Ranieri and Giorgia, sacred monsters who return to the competition with great generosity, but also the first time of a great artist like Brunori Sas or the highly appreciated return of Simone Cristicchi. With these premises, their participation promises to be a catalyst of plots and morbidity capable of keeping the entire media circus of the Sanremo week going, satisfying the ‘poison quota’ without getting their hands dirty with delicate and decidedly more dangerous topics to manage for five premieres evenings on Rai 1.

Paradoxical, considering the musical genre they represent and the nature they have always shown, but in Sanremo Fedez and Tony Effe will be responsible for guaranteeing political correctness, bringing to the table personal disputes and events that have filled social media, websites and magazines in the last year and which Italians are so passionate about. They are the real weapons of mass distraction of this Festival, with the special participation of Guè, another historic rival of Fedez.

Bread and dissing, the controversy is saved. A true masterstroke by Carlo Conti.