Italy's much-loved Sanremo Song
Festival gets under way on Tuesday night.
The week-long festival helped launch the careers of many of
Italy's top musicians, such as Domenico Modugno, Eros
Ramazzotti and Laura Pausini.
Singer Irene Grandi will kick off the competition on Tuesday.
She is one of the 12 'big name' artists who will debut on
Tuesday night, with the remaining 12 performing on Wednesday.
They will each sing twice before the winner is announced on
Saturday night.
Unveiling the line-up, host Amadeus said he had put two
pre-festival rows behind him.
The first was over an allegedly sexist remark he made about
motor-racing legend Valentino Rossi's girlfriend, one of the
heavily female line up of his assistants at this year's Sanremo
song fest.
Presenting Francesca Sofia Novello along with another 10
women at the fest he is hosting again, Amadeus praised her for
"taking a step backwards" and not trying to share the limelight
with her "great man".
He was slammed by feminists, many other entertainers and
several politicians.
The second row was over Amadeus's inclusion of controversial
rapper Junior Cally among the contestants.
In lyrics from his 2017 song "Strega Lyrics", the Roman
rapper, 29, whose real name is Antonio Signore, uses vulgar and
sexual language and describes killing a woman.
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