Italy's popular Sanremo Music
Festival, boosted on its opening night by a performance by Elton
John, captured nearly half of the TV audience share for State
broadcaster RAI on Tuesday, with an average number of 11.135
million viewers.
The British singer took the stage in dark glasses at the
Ariston Theatre for just over 15 minutes.
After performing his classic "Your Song", John reflected
back on his career in response to questions from the festival's
host Carlo Conti.
"I still like to play, above all live, more than ever,"
John said.
"I never thought the journey would have lasted so long. And
I never would have thought I'd become a father, to have the life
that I've had, it has all been very positive," he said.
John was referring to his sons with husband David Furnish,
who wasn't in attendance.
He finished his set with the single "Blue Wonderful" from
his new album "Wonderful Crazy Night".
The performance came amidst an impending vote in the
Italian Senate on a civil unions bill, which prompted artists
Noemi, Arisa, and Enrico Ruggeri to take the stage waving
rainbow flags in support of the measure.
Second-time host Conti on Wednesday said he was "very
happy" with the viewership for the festival's opening night.
In his debut last year, the first-night broadcast garnered
nearly the same number of viewers, taking in a 49.34% audience
share.
"We should have put the soundtrack from Mission Impossible,
because repeating it wasn't easy," Conti said.
"I'm particularly happy, but we have to get to Saturday,"
he said of the five-evening festival.
Italian actress Virginia Raffaele, one of Conti's three
co-hosts along with Italian actor Gabriel Garko and Romanian
actress Madalina Ghenea, had success on stage in a comic send-up
of Roman actress Sabrina Ferilli, who hosted the festival 20
years ago in 1996 with presenter Pippo Baudo.
Ferilli herself lauded Raffaele's performance, calling her
"intelligent, sharp, and beautiful".
"I thought I was at home and instead I turned on the TV and
I discovered that I was at Sanremo," Ferilli said jokingly.
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