The Sanremo Schlager Festival is a high mass of Italian popular culture.

Since 1951, the nation has gathered in front of the television on five evenings at the beginning of February and listened to popular songs.

Matthias Rub

Political correspondent for Italy, the Vatican, Albania and Malta based in Rome.

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Big and small careers have started in Sanremo - from Adriano Celentano and Zucchero to Al Bano and Romina Power to Eros Ramazzotti and most recently the Egyptian-Italian pop singer Mahmood.

The festival still has incredible ratings, up to 70 percent on the final evening.

Then the winner will be chosen, who will later represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC).

The Ukrainian hip-hop band Kalush won the ESC in May 2022 in Turin with their song "Stefania".

The victory of the Ukrainians was favored by the overwhelming audience vote - a sign of pan-European solidarity with the people who were victims of the Russian attack on February 24, 2022. To ensure that this solidarity does not cool down, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj has told the Italian state broadcaster RAI, which has always been Sanremo broadcasts, offered to broadcast a pre-recorded short message of peace from Kyiv for the closing night of the festival, which is typically viewed by 13-14 million people in Italy.

RAI and festival presenter Amadeus happily accepted the “dear president”.

After all, Selenskyj had already spoken in this way at the Golden Globes and at the film festivals in Cannes and Venice.

Resistance from culture and politics

But now there is resistance, primarily from politics, but also from the cultural sector.

The right-wing populist Matteo Salvini, a self-confessed admirer of Putin, thinks that you can't "end a war" by appearing at a pop music festival.

The left-wing populist Beppe Grillo also sees Selenskyj's planned appearance as "pure war propaganda".

Intellectuals, diplomats and writers have also issued a petition against the "militarization" of Sanremo.

The RAI let it be known that they are sticking to their plan to let Zelenskyj speak.

If it stays that way, opponents of Zelenskyj's performance want to demonstrate in front of the Ariston Theater in Sanremo, where the Schlager Festival takes place.

Against the war propaganda from Kyiv.

Not against the war from Moscow.