L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2026 www.italoamericano.org 14 L'Italo-Americano LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE J ust last weekend, the 2026 edition of the Sanremo Music Festival wrapped up, once again drawing millions of Italians to their televisions and filling social media and newspaper pages with the usual debates about songs, performances, and winners. For a few days every Febru- ary, the country seems to pause and watch the same s t a g e : t h e s p e c t a c l e m a y change from year to year, but the event itself is a real symbol of our popular cul- ture. To understand why it s t i l l c a r r i e s t h a t k i n d o f weight, it helps to go back to its earliest decades, when the festival was young, and Italy itself was undergoing a dramatic transformation. The Sanremo Music Fes- tival was born in 1951, at a moment when the country was still rebuilding after the devastation of the Second World War. The idea came from a combination of local a m b i t i o n a n d n a t i o n a l broadcasting strategy: orga- nizers in the seaside city of S a n r e m o h o p e d t h a t a musical competition could attract visitors during the w i n t e r s e a s o n , w h i l e t h e n a t i o n a l b r o a d c a s t e r RAI saw the opportunity to promote a new repertoire of Italian songs. The first edi- tion took place in the ball- room of the Sanremo Casi- n o a t t h e e n d o f J a n u a r y 1951 and was broadcast on the radio. By today's stan- dards, it was a modest event with only a handful of per- formers and an audience consisting largely of guests seated at small tables in the casino hall. Yet the winning s o n g , G r a z i e d e i f i o r i , performed by Nilla Pizzi, immediately captured the mood of the moment and became associated with the country's postwar rebirth. In those early years, the festival was not yet the tele- vision extravaganza it would later become; it was, in fact, much closer to a musical s h o w c a s e w h e r e a r t i s t s could present their newly w r i t t e n s o n g s , o f t e n inspired by the traditions of the Italian romantic ballad and the Neapolitan song. Performers such as Nilla Pizzi, Claudio Villa, and Achille Togliani became familiar voices across the country as radio broadcasts carried their performances into homes and cafés. But besides the idea of listening t o n e w m u s i c , i t w a s t h e structure of the competition that kept people glued to the radio: each song was typi- cally performed twice, often b y t w o d i f f e r e n t s i n g e r s , which put a clear emphasis on the composition itself rather than the individual performer. The focus was on melody and lyrics, or to put it simply, on what Italians back then simply called la canzone italiana. As the 1950s progressed, Sanremo gradually grew in importance, especially after i t m o v e d f r o m t h e r a d i o onto television, which trans- f o r m e d i t i n t o a s h a r e d n a t i o n a l e x p e r i e n c e . I n those years, Italy was enter- ing the period that histori- a n s w o u l d l a t e r c a l l t h e b o o m e c o n o m i c o , a moment of rapid economic g r o w t h , e x p a n d i n g c o n - sumer culture, and growing confidence in the country's place in the world: music reflected that atmosphere of possibility. The moment many peo- ple still identify as the turn- i n g p o i n t c a m e i n 1 9 5 8 , when a relatively unknown s i n g e r - s o n g w r i t e r f r o m southern Italy, Domenico M o d u g n o , s t e p p e d o n t o the Sanremo stage and per- formed a song no one really expected. The title was Nel b l u , d i p i n t o d i b l u , though most listeners would soon know it simply by the f i r s t w o r d o f i t s c h o r u s : Volare. Modugno's perfor- m a n c e b r o k e w i t h t h e r e s t r a i n e d s t y l e t h a t h a d dominated the festival until then. Instead of standing still at the microphone, he opened his arms wide as he sang, projecting a sense of f r e e d o m a n d e m o t i o n a l intensity that electrified the audience. The song won the c o m p e t i t i o n a n d q u i c k l y traveled far, even reaching t h e t o p o f t h e A m e r i c a n c h a r t s , a n d w i n n i n g t h e first-ever Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. That success showed that S a n r e m o c o u l d p r o d u c e songs capable of crossing borders, and modify in a positive way the interna- t i o n a l i m a g e o f I t a l i a n music. In fact, the festival became so iconic that its very format helped inspire another event that would soon become famous across Europe: the Eurovision Song Contest. The years that followed Modugno's victory are often described as the festival's golden age; this is when t h e s t a g e o f S a n r e m o became a meeting point for a r t i s t s w h o w o u l d l a t e r d e f i n e I t a l i a n p o p u l a r music. Domenico Modugno, f o r i n s t a n c e , r e t u r n e d repeatedly and won several more times, while singers such as Adriano Celentano, Gino Paoli, Mina, Caterina Caselli, Bobby Solo, and Lit- tle Tony passed through the f e s t i v a l d u r i n g t h e l a t e 1 9 5 0 s a n d e a r l y 1 9 6 0 s , b r i n g i n g w i t h t h e m n e w m u s i c a l i n f l u e n c e s t h a t ranged from traditional bal- lads to early hints of rock and modern pop. In those y e a r s , i t i s r i g h t t o s a y , Sanremo was actively influ- encing the country's culture. I f w e l o o k b a c k a t t h e golden age of the festival, we notice that it coincided with a moment when music, media, and national identity were closely connected with one another. Italy was dis- covering the power of televi- s i o n , e x p e r i e n c i n g r a p i d e c o n o m i c g r o w t h , a n d redefining its cultural voice after the hardships of war, and the festival provided a stage where those transfor- mations could be heard in t h e f o r m o f s o n g s t h a t quickly became hits across the peninsula. Sanremo in the 1950s and 1960s: the Festival's golden age LUCA SIGNORINI Advancing our Legacy: Italian Community Services CASA FUGAZI If you know of any senior of Italian descent in San Francisco needing assistance, please contact: ItalianCS.org | (415) 362-6423 | info@italiancs.com Italian Community Services continues to assist Bay Area Italian-American seniors and their families navigate and manage the resources needed to live healthy, independent and productive lives. Since Shelter-in-Place began in San Francisco, Italian Community Services has delivered over 240 meals, over 900 care packages and made over 2000 phone wellness checks for our seniors.

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