Sanremo 2024, Lorella Cuccarini: Manuel Franjo, theme tunes, clothes

«VI wanted to do something different. I don’t like the idea of ​​self-aggrandizing, but this gentleman here told me that: it’s not possible, if you come you have to do an act that tells a slice of your story.” As Lorella Cuccarini, co-host of the fourth evening of Sanremo 2024, announced at a press conference that he would dance to the tune of his hits.

Sanremo 2024, Lorella Cuccarini

And indeed he made his entrance with a self-celebratory medley. «I am eager to introduce you to my traveling companion, I have done many trips with her. In over 30 years of knowing me I can say she is a friend. She can do everything: she is a dancer, singer, radio presenter, presenter… she is a great showgirl. He asked not to start by going down the stairs, but… like this!

The shot moves outside, to Corso Matteotti. In the foreground, a television broadcasting black and white images of Pippo Baudo. Next to, a little girl in a white tutu and warmer practices at the barre. Dreaming, one day, of dancing inside that little magic box.

Part I bI’ll alleviatesingle from 1987. It moves in front of the entrance to the Aristonnext to her there is the little girl who plays her alter ego and the dance troupe of Long live Rai2!. The time of a few steps and makes her triumphal entrance into the theater welcomed by the dancers who in the choreography – signed by Luca Tommassini – and in the costumes remember the glories of Fantastic and variety shows of the past. The shows of a TV in which the word showgirl encompassed a multitude of talents.

And party with Grease and the acronyms The night flies And Sugar Sugar

The theater curtains open, you enter the audience and immerse yourself in the atmosphere Grease. Dance We are together and Amadeus joins herhis partner in the musical based on the film which he staged from 1997 to 1999. It doesn’t end here, because the medley continues on stage.

It’s time for a new foundation: What do you do between dreams and TV, afternoons that never pass. An unmistakable incipit, her most famous hit, the one that will always and forever be identified with Lorella Cuccarini: The night flies. It was December 1988 and it was broadcast on Canale 5 with Odiens. The night flies was the theme songbut the song soon became a success, entering the memory of Italian entertainment.

Continue with Sugar Sugar. The choreography, however, sees the presence not only of its performer and the dance troupe, but also of lead dancer: Manuel Franjo. Could it have been missing? Of course not! In reality, it is not the real Manuel Franjo, but rather a stunt double: that’s it Fiorello enters the scene!

Lorella Cuccarini and the dancer Manuel Franjo alias Fiorello

They dance, they let loose and when the music stops, Lorella Cuccarini concludes the medley in the arms of the dancers. The show continues with the jokes of Ciuri, dressed up by Manuel. Black trousers, white shirt and a splendid wig that exclaims: “I’m not giving you a release!”. The reference is to the Travolta-gate which animated the entire Sanremo 2024 Festival. Then he takes his leave by saying: «The evening is all about what Italians love most»taking up a famous commercial in which Cuccarini was the protagonist for years.

Before turning the page, he says a few words to his pygmalion. «Pippo was also with us. I wanted to say hello to him because he is definitely watching us from home. Bye Pippo, we love you.” The medley is a truly spectacular moment. 5 minutes in which Lorella Cuccarini remembers – if ever there was a need – what it means to be a showgirl.

It is the mirror of talent. At 58, he dances like he did when he was thirty younger. He is a melting pot of skill, technique, experience and that quid that only professionals possess. And in the blocks in which he presents with Amadeus the mastery, experience and fluency of a true presenter capable of holding any stage emerge.

At Sanremo 2024 she chooses vintage clothes

As per tradition, the spotlight is focused not only on the show and on the skills of an experienced presenter, but also on the clothes. For Sanremo 2024 Lorella chose 4 vintage dresses to pay homage to Italian fashionin particular «four extraordinary stylists who have brought our country to the top of the world», he explains.

The first, the one in the medley, is a Dolce & Gabbana from 2000. It is a corset dress in powder-coloured silk with laces from the Spring-Summer 2003 collection. «For the opening number I chose to pay homage to two great personalities: Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce», she writes on Instagram, who have «changed crystallized stereotypes, leaving us with a new vision and hope in the panorama of our Made in Italy”.

We continue with a black Gianfranco Ferrè from the early 2000s to remember “the architect of fashion” with a “reserved and romantic” personality. Precisely with this dress on he remembers his mother Maria, a seamstress, who «worked in high fashionshe sewed day and night and had a great passion,” he says.

The third dress is designed by «a genius and a champion. An estimable and certainly immortal person.” Talk about Gianni Versace and wears a piece from the Bondage collection, Autumn-Winter 1992. Last change of dress with which he returns “at the beginning of the new millennium”. A Cavalli dress from 2003 in silk «full of stars like all the stars who have performed on this stage», he adds. Then I was born on the night of San Lorenzo (10 August, ed) and it seemed perfect to me.”

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