And finally the day has come.

Sanremo, on the first evening, all thirty singers competed including Il Volo.

All songs are heard live for the first time (only journalists and orchestra players first).

The race is very long, Il Volo performs after midnight (the sequence is drawn randomly).

And finally they arrive… they come down the stairs, beautiful, elegantly different, dressed in Armani.

CAPOLAVORO

The final reception from the public was good, although I would have thought better.

The song is beautiful, quite catchy, I liked it .

I’m so excited for them, they’ve been waiting for media exposure like this for a long time and their performance of the beautiful song was the icing on the cake.

The more I listen to it, the more I like it and it gets into my head, it’s a true masterpiece.

I attach to you some comments published by a vocal coach who is really hard on some singers, he classifies them based on how the song is performed.

Il Volo are a cut above ALL!
Tonight less set and managed entries with 10 and praise!

Immediately after performing the song, the boys entered the Radio 2 box.

At Radio 2 there are two hosts, the man is a journalist, his name is Gino Castaldo and he has never had good comments for Il Volo.

The presenter/journalist is EVA STOKOLMA, she saw the video of the BSMT interview and also commented……thanks Eva!!

I translated the video.

EVA= The guys from Il Volo have entered, stand where you want.

GIANLUCA= I’ll stand next to you.

EVA= It seems right to me, because next to Gino he really doesn’t deserve it.

PIERO= Gino stays close to us, so if he makes something wrong (he means his comments) he knows that we are not merciful here.

EVA= Crazy, (in the sense of very good) you were crazy, how did it go? How did you find each other?

PIERO= Well Ariston is always a confirmation, that is, you experience unprecedented emotions when you go on that stage.

EVA= And what is this emotion today?

GIANLUCA= It’s an emotion that is contained in three minutes of song after a year and a half of work, everything fades like this.

EVA= But the song remains.

GIANLUCA= The chorus, in our opinion, is singable and it’s the main thing, regardless of the genre, that we tried to do something more contemporary, but the important thing is to bring songs that people can sing.

EVA= But when can someone sing your song? Secretly, not in front of people (she means their songs have great high notes that few can do)

PIERO= I’ll tell you something, I bet that at least once in his life Gino hums it in the shower.

GINO= (he laughs) but this new one?

PIERO= No, not even the past one.

GIANLUCA= Let’s let Gino do this (Gianluca sings the chorus of Capolavoro….but Gino doesn’t finish it)

GINO= No, no, I would do it but…..

GIANLUCA= Gino would have sung a song from Il Volo!!!

GINO= I would do it right away but I’m as tone deaf.
I have a very strong ear, if you drop half a tone I can hear it immediately, but not on me, because I’m out of tune.

GIANLUCA= Listeners, for those who are watching us on Radio 2, excuse me, let me tell you something……. we promise you that sooner or later we will make Gino sing with us. It’s a promise.

GINO= I have a serious question. You have been international for a long time, you move from one stage to another, crazy performances from New York, the world is your audience.

Is it possible that Sanremo is still so exciting for you who now have the world in front of you as spectators?

IGNAZIO = But you know better than us that around Sanremo there is a whole machine that rotates and it’s crazy, there’s a lot of work this week and if you’re not strong you risk being overwhelmed and sucked in by the anxiety and tension that the week takes its toll on you, after a year and a half of work as Gianluca said.

GIANLUCA= But it’s an emotional factor, we were born here, so we become children again when we go up on that stage, all those childhood anxieties re-emerge as if it were the first time.

EVA= Anyway guys I saw an interview with you where you talk about the crazy things that have happened to you around the world and the VIP folder. (the photo folder)

PIERO= Ah, the VIP folder, you saw the interview (BSMT)

EVA= You have so many stories, I would keep you talking for hours…

GINO= But they will come every evening, do you want….

EVA= We are waiting for you tomorrow too, who knows, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow (because the names of the singers who have to perform are drawn by lot on the very morning of the performance)

PIERO= Fortunately the police didn’t arrive the next day, after having told that (Piero refers to the BSMT interview)

GIANLUCA= We’ll be back. We will return here most evenings.

EVA= Is it a threat?

GIANLUCA= See you tomorrow or the day after.

EVA= True, you will only find out this tomorrow morning after the extraction. We give you a “lipo lip service” and we wait for you here at the microphones of Rai Radio2.

GINO= Good work, have a good week.

IGNAZIO= Thanks, bye everyone.

Then they go out to be interviewed by Fiorello.

Fiorello is waiting for them outside the Ariston Theatre, I think it is at least 03.00 in the morning. Piero, Ignazio and GIanluca haven’t gone to bed yet.

As usual Fiorello is very funny, I’ll translate for you.

Fiorello goes to meet them and hugs them tightly.

FIORELLO= Gentlemen, Il Volo, look at them.

P+I+G= Good evening

FIORELLO= Can I say that you are cooler?

PIERO= Thanks!

IGNAZIO= Well, let’s say handsome, he seems like a godfather (referring to Piero)

FIORELLO= No, no, he’s a guy. But you’re becoming like the Phantom of the Opera.

A curiosity, I followed you tonight, you (Gianluca), because when you sing you look up to the left.

IGNAZIO= I’ll tell you why.

FIORELLO= Why?

IGNAZIO= Because it’s his best side.

FIORELLO= Oh, really?

GIANLUCA= Do you know that I don’t know why? I don’t know, maybe I was looking at the sky.

FIORELLO= Do you feel cold?

GIANLUCA= A little.

FIORELLO= Listen, I challenge you to do something I’ll fly, so without trying, Grande Amore, only the final verse, he makes the chord (the pianist), only the ending.

PIERO= Do you have an F minor?
(sing the final chorus of Grande Amore – applause)

FIORELLO= Gentlemen, we have woken up Bordighera. (city far from Sanremo)

IGNAZIO= But doesn’t anyone sleep here? (because everything happens in the streets of Sanremo and people should sleep)

FIORELLO= Look who’s here, directly from TG2 Manuela Morino (a RAI journalist on the balcony)

GIANLUCA= Hello TG2

FIORELLO= Manuela Morino, if I throw you a ball will you take it? (he throws the ball)

So, now we’ll turn this way, if you give me a microphone, because what we would like to do is one of our strong points.

PIERO= OK

FIORELLO= It’s a song that brings good luck.

PIERO= In French?

FIORELLO = In Sicilian. He is from Abruzzo (Gianluca) but adapts (Piero, Ignazio and Fiorello are Sicilian)

GIANLUCA = I’m Sicilian too (he says it in Sicilian dialect)

FIORELLO= The song is titled……

PIERO= Excuse me.

FIORELLO= Go

PIERO= Don’t do the classic version, good, use bows, go slower.

FIORELLO = The song is titled TIRICHITOLLA

IGNAZIO= I’ll start.
(they start singing Tirichitolla which is a song in Sicilian dialect with double meanings in the words, and which every time they meet Fiorello makes them sing it)

FIORELLO= Gentlemen Il Volo! Thanks guys, good luck.

GIANLUCA= Hello to all the guys inside the box.

FIORELLO= Thanks, thanks to Il Volo. An applause!

Naturally, I had already warned you that on the first evening only the Press Room jury votes and therefore the votes would not have been in favor of Il Volo, in fact only the top 5 classified are communicated, here they are:

This is how the first evening ends, but tomorrow we start again, only 15 singers perform, including Il Volo, here’s how they were drawn. Il Volo will perform fifth, and this time there is 50% vote from home and 50% from the radio jury.

My husband and I will be ready with our cell phones and will vote the maximum allowed, that is, 5 votes per cell phone.

And here we are finally at the second evening, where only 15 singers perform, including IL VOLO.

They arrive in almost casual clothes, different, simple, I like them a lot.

They sing very well, always perfect, but much more relaxed, you can see that they are having fun.

The more you listen to the song, the more it gets into your head.

I really liked them and the audience really appreciated them a lot.

Click Here to view night 2 performance of CAPOLAVORO

What can I say: WONDERFUL, they truly are a MASTERPIECE!! 🎉🎉👏👏👏

At the end of the performance, Gianluca took the bouquet of flowers that they were given and ran into the audience to give it to his mother and he hugged his brother .. how sweet!! ❤️❤️❤️

Immediately afterwards they reached the Rai Radio2 station for the interview, Eva Stokolma and Gino Castaldo were waiting for them.

Greetings and hugs from everyone.

EVA= We can tune your song (you mean they can sing it even if they’re out of tune). Do you give us permission?

IGNAZIO= This song is either sung out of tune or not.

GINO= Then I have some chances.

IGNAZIO= It’s one of those songs you sing in the shower. It’s one of those songs that you have to sing out of tune and I was thinking about it last night, because yesterday you said that you don’t sing because you have a good musical ear, but…..

GINO= I’m out of tune.

IGNAZIO= And I imagined you in the shower singing it out of tune.

GINO= And it works the same!

IGNAZIO= Yes, it’s one of those songs you sing in the shower…

PIERO= Igna, what a bad image….

EVA= But why do you think about Gino singing in the shower, while returning home….

GIANLUCA= He imagines him relaxed in the shower...(because Gino is usually biting with his comments)

GINO= I will tell you, and I was commenting on it, that your song grows with every listen….

IGNAZIO= Come on!! But this is great news.

GIANLUCA= Coming from Gino Castaldo (who has always been negative against Il Volo)…..thanks, coming from him it’s incredible.

EVA= But it’s the truth.

IGNAZIO= I have to say one thing, I had a lot of fun tonight. It’s something I immediately said to them (Gian and Piero), we hugged each other and I told them: “Thank you because I had fun.”

EVA= How beautiful!

PIERO= It was nice.

IGNAZIO= To die for!

GINO= And when this happens, it gets to the public.

GIANLUCA= But in fact we are pleased to follow our path and to arrive with a new unreleased song, because for us it is very important to build a new repertoire, little by little, we are approaching something that for us anyway is……

GINO= So it will have a sequel.

GIANLUCA= It will have a sequel, so a record will be released where there will be 12 songs, among the most famous Italian producers: Luca Faraone, Michelangelo (Italian producers)…..

GINO= Every song….

IGNAZIO= There is also a duet that we cannot spoil….

GIANLUCA= Wait, we can only say that it’s a duet with one of the artists competing this evening!!

EVA= Wow, tonight….

GINO= So among these fifteen singers….

PIERO= We can’t say….

GIANLUCA= It’s an incredible piece!

GINO= So he’s among the fifteen tomorrow

IGNAZIO= I really don’t know!

PIERO= It’s true, we don’t know…

EVA= They don’t know…. (she laughs)

GIANLUCA= (turning to Gino) But are you coming to the album presentation??

EVA= Guys, why do you invite Gino when I’m your fan….

GIANLUCA= But you are already invited.

IGNAZIO= But it’s a given that you’re coming.

GIANLUCA= Never take Eva Stokolma for granted.

EVA= I’m taken for granted, oh well ok.

GIANLUCA= It is understood that you are invited.

EVA= Thank you, thank you.

What is the experience like being introduced by other singers competing this evening?

PIERO= Nice!

IGNAZIO= It’s beautiful, but thank goodness we weren’t introduced by Negramaro (they are a group of 5) otherwise we would have been a football team.

PIERO= But with Rose (Rose Villain who introduced them) there is a beautiful alchemy.

EVA= So it’s her. (the one from the duet)

PIERO= No, it’s not her.

IGNAZIO= I’ll tell you something nice that perhaps other artists have already told you.

This year there is an alchemy….it’s beautiful….and even with those we didn’t know.

For example, Alfa or Gazzelle (two singers from Sanremo), are wonderful guys.

GIANLUCA= Do you know how we will end this festival?
The final evening is my birthday, we’ll have fun, come on.

EVA= But really? I bring you a gift.

GIANLUCA= Your presence.

EVA= How kind.

GINO= We have to listen to the song during the race.

EVA= We look forward to hearing from you on Friday. (duet evening)

GIANLUCA= Friday?

EVA= You will do something crazy.

GIANLUCA= Castaldo will fall in love with Il Volo on Friday! (Castaldo loves rock)

EVA= But who doesn’t love you guys!

Greetings and Hugs

At least this time Castaldo managed to pay some compliments to the boys who are always very kind.

It’s clear that Eva likes Il Volo!! 🥰

At the end of the race, the ranking of the evening.
Naturally I gave all my possible votes to Il Volo (10), I was hoping a lot for this vote from home but I knew well that the radio jury would have been another cold shower and in fact Il Volo is not included in the evening’s ranking of the top 5 . What can I say, a big disappointment.

These are the top 5 ranked singers from last night.

1) Geolier
2) Irama
3) Annalisa
4) Loredana Bertè
5) Mahmood

And to really make you understand that Il Volo is always boycotted by journalists and radio stations, here is this comment posted by RAI.

I translated for you.

 

Among the uptempos the challenge is open, among the ballads Il Volo wins and has a victory song.

We know that they don’t make inroads into social media and that the press and radio are prejudiced against them, but that’s another matter.

And now a nice roundup of photos of our loved ones during the singers’ parade the day before starting Sanremo.

And at the party before Sanremo

and on the Vanity Fair cover!

This is how the first two evenings of Sanremo ended. This evening (Thursday) Il Volo doesn’t sing, they present a singer, and Friday will be the evening of duets, I can’t wait!!!

See you very soon!!

Daniela 🤗

P.S.

Our boys today at noon (8 February) had great satisfaction, meeting the first fans in an instore in Sanremo for whom they signed autographs on their CDs.

And hearing CAPOLAVORO sung by those people, I think, is their greatest satisfaction.

 

 

 

 

Credit to owners of all photos and videos.