Italy: Details and the guests of Sanremo Festival 2018.
The regular press conference for this year’s Sanremo festival took place yesterday providing the public details concerning the 68th edition of the Sanremo. Festival. The new host and artistic director, Claudio Baglioni, his host partner Michelle Hunizker was present alongside with RAI’s Director and vice director . 
In every year’s edition the guest artist on Teatro Ariston’s stage is a always a notable feature that adds the glitter and brighten’s this significant music event . Claudio Baglioni confirmed that Laura Pausini, Sting and Liam Gallagher will be this year’s central guests alongside with others that will be announced the days coming.
Angelo Teodoli confirmed on behalf of RAI that the Sanremo Festival winner will be Italy’s next representative in the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest. In case the winning artist refuses the nomination then the Italian broadcaster will choose from the rest artists that considers the contest significant. This means that if the winner of Sanremo festival refuses to go to Lisbon RAI can choose the artist that is considered most appropriate and not necessarily the 2nd placed artist.
Claudio Baglioni justified his decision to allow the song duration up to 4 minutes by stating that all songs are like paintings where the painter needs more space to express him self. This year’s objective is to highlight the Italian dimension of the event, so he requested the performances to have an Italian sound and color.
Additionally, he revealed that during the event’s night there will be references to the score’s development but without any details concerning the final outcome.
Referring to the Festival’s cost he estimated it at the amount of 16,4 million euro, while the incoming profits for RAI from advertising have reached already a total of 25 million euro.
The winner of Sanremo will be determined by a combination of public and jury vote alongside with press representatives and a jury of 300 fans from all Italy. The Festival will open on February 6 and will reach its final night on February 10.
Last year Sanremo 2017 winner Francesco Gabbani represented Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev. His song Occidentali’s Karma met huge success around the globe, while its views on Youtube reached the imaginary number of 175.ooo.ooo, breaking all past records among Eurovision entries. He himself though being the bookies’ favorite from Day 1 ended in 6th place in the Grand Final. Let remember last year’s Sanremo winner:
