Sanremo’s semifinal revealed 16 finalists – Lara Fabian eliminated

Adrenaline climbed in Teatron Ariston as this evening, the 4th night of the 65th Sanremo Music Festival began. The candidates in the category Campioni (Acclaimed performers) faced the challenge of a semifinal and the risk of exclusion as 20 were cut down to 16 finalists.

The show: 

The fourth night of the 65th San Remo song festival started tonight at 20.20 CET. Host of the night was as in the previous shows Carlo Conti with co-hostess Emma Marrone (Italy 2013), Arisa (last year’s Sanremo winner) and Rocio Muñoz Morales. Tonight’s guests were The Avener, Giovanni Allievi, Virginia Raffaele and Antonio Conte.

Sanremo’s TV rates shows a big sucess. The third night with Italian classic covers was watched by nearly 10,6 million people and a share of 49,51% That’s about 3 million and 15% more than in 2014. With the semi-final tonight and the final Saturday, these numbers might increase even more.

The songs:

After the initial presentation of their entries on the first two nights of the festival, the 20 Campioni will appear once again tonight claiming voting from the jury, audience and the public in order to quallify for tomorrow’s final. The 20 acts competing in the semifinal were: 

  • Annalisa – Una finestra tra le stelle QUALLIFIED
  • Malika Ayane – Adesso è qui (Nostalgico presente) QUALLIFIED
  • Marco Masini – Che giorno è QUALLIFIED
  • Chiara – Straordinario QUALLIFIED
  • Gianluca Grignani – Sogni infranti QUALLIFIED
  • Nek – Fatti avanti amore QUALLIFIED
  • Nina Zilli – Sola QUALLIFIED
  • Dear Jack – Il mondo esplode QUALLIFIED
  • Alex Britti – Un attimo importante QUALLIFIED
  • Biggio e Mandelli – Vita d’inferno DISQUALLIFIED
  • Moreno – Oggi ti parlo così QUALLIFIED
  • Bianca Atzei – Il solo al mondo QUALLIFIED
  • Raf – Come una favola DISQUALLIFIED
  • Lara Fabian – Voce DISQUALLIFIED
  • Grazia dI Michele e Mauro Coruzzi / Platinette – Io sono una finestra QUALLIFIED
  • Il Volo – Grande amore QUALLIFIED
  • Anna Tatangelo – Libera DISQUALLIFIED
  • Nesli – Buona fortuna amore QUALLIFIED
  • Irene Grandi – Un vento senza nome QUALLIFIED
  • Lorenzo Fragola – Siamo uguali QUALLIFIED

As we can see a huge surprise happened as Eurovision veteran Lara Fabian were eliminated from the final. Nek and Il Volo gained the biggest applause in the audience and it seems that they will fight for the win in Sanremo and the ticket to Vienna. 

In the semifinal and the final, the concept of the vote is different than the first two nights of the festival. More specifically, the results would be based on a combination of 40% televoting, 30% expert panel rating and 30% demographic public vote-voting based on demographic criteria such as geographical area, age range etc. The share taken by each one of the 20 contestants tonight counted 50% and was combined with the results of the first phase of voting – also by 50% – as already shown by the first and the second night of the event. The 16 participants with the highest rates quallified to the final phase, while for the other four their appearance in the festival ended today. The same voting method will be used in the final as well.

As it was known from the beginning of the competition, tomorrow’s winner will have the right to represent Italy in the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest. But if the winner does not wish to do Eurovision then RAI choose another contestant according to its own criteria to represent the country in Europe’s favourite music contest.

The bettings: 

Nek has emerged as a betting odds favorite after his win in cover’s night and is at top with Il Volo. Nek is also the most played Sanremo song in the Italian radios the past three days with 507 plays, followed by Chiara (321), Malika (314), Annalisa (311) and Britti (290). Il Volo’s flight haven’t quite taken off yet, with only 102.

You can watch the final of 65th music festival of Sanremo on Saturday 14/2/2015 at 20.20 CET here and find out who will be the next candidate of Italy in the 60th Eurovision Song Contest.

Source: EuroVisionary, rai.it, wikipedia
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