Italy: Il Volo respond to offensive press criticism during Sanremo Festival 2019
Who said that Sanremo Festival doesn’t have a little piece of its own drama. Maybe the previous years the reactions on the final outcome of the festival weren’t so intense, but this year the reactions are ongoing in many ways.
Following Ultimo’s statement that he considers not acceptable to be judged as an artist by journalists and the Minister of Financial Development asking the voting system to be based only on televoting, came Il Volo’s response on hard offensive criticism by a part of the press.
The operatic trio posted on their official social media Facebook and Instagram account the following announcement:
We needed some days to get lucid in order to say our story of what happened. Some journalists (and it is good to say only a few) have attacked us badly. They used words like “shit,” “f …,” “in jail,” which we see as a result of a real form of intimidation, and attempt to drive us out of the stadium. These people do not honor the profession they represent, their attitude was an insult to us, and to all their fellow journalists working in a serious and professional manner. In 10 years, we have received a lot of criticism about our music, on the kind of music we sing, we have been accused of being arrogant and affectionate.
And their announcement continues:
We have never cared about all of this, also because, fortunately, we have fans who support us daily and love what we do. But when we see the videos that bear witness to the evil and the lack of humanity by people who could be our parents (many of them our grandparents), it bothers us a lot. It bothers us cause every artist must have his own space to express himself musically. To call “shit” or to see someone shout “go to jail” simply because we do what we want to do in life is great disrespect for us, but above all for freedom of expression. Music must be freedom, not a reason to offend!
Piero Barone, ο Ignazio Boschetto, ο Gianluca Ginoble of Il Volo.
Meanwhile the popular trio mad a photo for a cover of a magazine alongside this year’s winner, Mahmood, showing this way that they repsect and accepted the festival’s outcome.
We remind you that Il Volo participated in this year’s Sanremo festival with their song Musica che resta, which was placed 2nd in the televoting while it received a very low score by the juries (11%) making them finish third in the overall results in the superfinal round . Lets remember their entry in Sanremo 2019:
IL VOLO WAS THE BEST BY FAR! AND THEY HAVE REAL TALENT!
THESE JUDGES ARE IDIOTS WHO DON’T KNOW ANYTHING!
THE LOSER JOURNALISTS ARE JUST JEALOUS THAT THEY’RE LOSERS AND IL VOLO ARE WINNERS!
I agry, great music , bravo!
I was really shocked with the whole event of Sanremo. The program had lost its attraction. Being a little girl I was waiting for Sanremo just to enjoy beautiful songs and voices. The participation of Il Volo in 2015 brought my memories back! If you watch American Idol and similar programs in Britain, etc., then you can say that today’s Sanremo is a failure. Where are those beautiful famous Italian voices, songs and an extraordinary taste of performance? – there are only the so-called whisperers on the stage! How dare those so-called journalists behave like wild animals? If the trio was awarded with standing ovation in all the countries they had performed – it means that there is something in it. I was twice on their performance. I can say. Italy should be proud of the trio for the revival and keeping the traditions of beautiful Italian music.