The 2018 Sanremo Song Festival, presented by singer-songwriter Claudio Baglioni, got off to a bumper start on Tuesday with 11.6 million people tuning to RAI to see it on the opening night, 52.1% of the audience share.
That compares to 11.374 viewers, 50.4% of the share, for the first night of the popular festival last year, when it was presented by Carlo Conti and Maria De Filippi.
The show was stolen on the first night by guest star
Fiorello, one of Italy's most popular entertainers.
He had people in stitches with a stand-up routine in which,
among other things, he joked about Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdoğan's visit to Italy this week.
"He's coming to Sanremo because he heard there are 1,300 free
journalists here," he joked.
Fiorello also showed his formidable vocal abilities in a duet
with Baglioni, singing his 1974 hit E Tu, and kept his cool when
a protestor managed to get past security officers and on to the
stage.
"I knew I shouldn't have come here," he said.
Fiorello added that the protestor apologised afterwards.
Baglioni said Fiorello would probably make another appearance
during the week-long festival, which in the past helped launch
the careers of many of Italy's top musicians, such as Eros
Ramazzotti and Laura Pausini.
Ermal Meta and Fabrizio Moro were suspended from the festival
competition due to doubts about whether their song, 'Non mi
avete fatto niente', is 100% original new work.
Rosso Rubino, who were to have perfformed Thursday, took
their place Wednesday night.
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