Sanremo women singers and presenters in the history of the Festival

Sanremo and the women. No one has tried to write one yet history of Sanremo for women. Maybe we should. Perhaps we would discover that there are more than just ritual declarations, obvious emotions, and understandable rivalries. Talk about the length of skirts, about sex in songs, about valets who become co-hosts. Some fragments come from books: scandals that no longer cause a scandalnostalgia and curiosity.

Sanremo and women: who wins, who loses

For example, what happened to the trophies? The famous little lion with the palm tree? Marco Rettani and Nico Dovito ask themselves this in the thirty interviews of I won the Sanremo Festival (The compass). Annalisa Minetti doesn’t know, thieves stole it from Iva Zanicchi very naive thinking it was gold. Gilda has two, as a singer and as an authorlocked in a safe, Alexia in the office. Lola Ponce, who won as a couple with Giò di Tonno, proudly displays it in the living room. He recently got it back (Giò kept it for years, then it passed to their manager), while in the case of Ricchi e Poveri it was Angelo’s turn, according to the old rule “whoever gets there first gets it” . Alessandra Drusian and Fabio Ricci that is The Jalisses, very married, have him at home and look at him with tenderness.

Tiziana Rivale, among the first to refuse playback, she put hers in a bulletin board of memories, and she never returned to Sanremo: «I won in 1983, I was a little girl and I threw myself into it, but I saw things that I don’t think are right. I could have participated the following year, and in the Eurovision Festival which wasn’t even offered to me. Riccardo Fogli went in my placewhich I honestly never understood.” Discrimination?

Meanwhile, once again, women are in a clear minority (a third of the competitors) even if Fantasanremo places four as possible winners: the daughter of art Angelina Mango (Boredom), the “black” voice Alessandra Amoroso (Up to here), the Ariston veteran Annalisa (Sincerely) and the former talent Emma (Apnea) which in 2023 reached two million certified copies since the beginning of his career. A nice patrol. Not much has changed in fifty years.

Make way for young people

Gigliola Cinquetti, first place in 1964, consider I’m not old enough a feminist song: a little girl keeping a much older man at a distance. In the memoir Sometimes you dream (Rizzoli) remembers the rehearsals, the heartbreaking sound of the violins during tuning which reminded her of Dante’s words: «Abandon all hope, you who enter». But that anxiety «gave me incredible energy. At the time I had nothing to lose, I felt young, bold. My goal was to get by, not make a bad impression. There was no awe of the stars. 1964 was the year the young mothballed the old. My mother scolded me: Milva does this, Vanoni does this and you don’t do anything…”.

When we weren’t talking about performance yet, Loredana Bertè dances on stage in ’86 with a fake baby bump: «A crazy costume. For many it was a mistake, but not for me. I wanted to show that a woman when she is pregnant is not sick but even stronger. Only Sting understood me and said to me as he passed: “Wow, that’s amazing!”. Instead the record company even tore up the contract.” This year he’s trying again Crazy (for love).

Anna Oxa’s transformism has set a precedentwe owe it to her: androgynous and vaguely punk in 1978, sensual in a hooded dress in 1986, with the thong untucked in 1999 and two-tone hair, a little Morticia Addams in 2006. Achille Lauro learned from her. And Patty Pravo? Ten editions of Sanremo and none won, but she doesn’t care. In 1970 she presents The sword in the heart, coupled with Little Tony, but he goes in the hit parade. She doesn’t particularly like the song, even though it was written, so it seems, by Lucio Battisti, under a pseudonym. Crumbs of rebellion surface here and there and are quickly lost.

The stainless Orietta Berti in For a bet (1972) protests: «For you, love, do you want to explain to me what it is? Or did you marry me on a bet, to clean the house and always say yes?”. Fiorella Mannoia in What women do not say: «We are like this, it is difficult to explain certain bitter days» (1987). Jo Squillo and Sabrina Salerno in We are womenand: «There are those who pursue a career, then at home they are a waitress» (1991).

1993 is the year of Laura Pausiniwhich imposes itself with Loneliness «I was behind the scenes and I felt a big hand pulling me onto the stage, it was Pippo Baudo announcing my victory. If he hadn’t chosen my song as the competing song that year, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I have been to the Oscars and the Golden Globes, but the most important for me is the Sanremo Festival. I remember asking Amedeo Minghi for his autograph. I had presented myself modestly and he, haughtily, replied “you call me maestro”. Suddenly, I didn’t care anymore.” From then on she would give him the autographs…

Iva Zanicchi, three victories with Do not think about me (1967), Gypsy (1969) e Hello Darling how are you (1974), would have plenty of stories to tell. Tremors and heartbeats, cries and hopes. Gianni Ravera, patron of the Festival, declared: «This girl can’t do it. Too scared, she can’t handle the live broadcast». She was wrong. “That year, ’67, is unforgettable. For the victory, of course, and for the suicide of Luigi Tenco. I met him backstage, agitated, I told him one of those silly phrases that don’t mean anything. When, the next morning, I discovered that he had killed himself, I began to pack my bags, but instead they told me: the show goes on.” And he continues: «My voice ages well, it becomes darker and darker, blues, rock, I don’t do anything to maintain it, I don’t even eat the chili peppers that Orietta Berti gives me, but I stopped smoking».

The secrets of Ariston

The walls of the Ariston Theater would have plenty of secrets to reveal if they had the floor. Walter Vacchino tells something nostalgically Ariston. The magic box of Sanremo (Salani), written with Luca Ammirati, the story of a family that is intertwined with that of the city and its songs. Aristide Vacchino built the theatre, inaugurated in 1963, which today hosts the Festival. His son Walter witnesses the legendary years in which you could see Tina Turner rehearsing ballets, you listened to the chatter about the alleged flirtation between Gianni Morandi and the sexy bomb Serena Grandi, Mick Jagger chased Marianne Faithfull, Fiorello took Bach flowers. And the wonderful Whitney Houston, with a father who was a manager and a mother who was a press officer, “a girl of extraordinary beauty, practically perfect”, had not yet kept her demons at bay.

A special place is reserved for Madonna’s whims: «He wants everything at the table», recalls Vacchino, «fruit, cheeses, bowls of almonds, meat, fish, cold dishes and hot dishes. Okay, let’s answer. She hovers over the dishes, stuff for a regiment, seems to investigate and take mental note of the relationship between taste and calories, cravings to satisfy and actual hunger. She finally dips her finger in a wheel of gorgonzola and sucks it. After that she decides that enough is enough. For the make-up and styling session, she has her own hairdryers brought and doesn’t want to use the Italian ones. We are forced to buy a five kilowatt transformer to allow her to have her hair done. We never used that thing again, we still keep it in stock. I will evaluate whether to display it complete with a sign: “Madonna’s transformer”. It could go to auction, who knows.”

Sanremo and women: the few winners

Again for the hypothetical history of female Sanremo, some numbers: five female presenters in 74 editions. And only 28 winners. To start fromlast twenty years: from 2004 to 2011 always menwith the exception of 2008 (Giò Di Tonno and Lola Ponce with Love at first sight). From 2011 to 2019 only two: Emma Marrone (2012) with It’s not hell And Arisa (2014) with Against the wind. From 2019 to 2023 none. In 2024, there will be thirty men on stage including soloists, duets and bands, and ten women, including Angela, the “brunette of the Rich and Poor”. Equality, even in the world of songs, is still very far away.

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