Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
will not appear on a video link on the last night of this week's
Sanremo Song Festival Saturday, as previously announced, but
will only send a written message to the annual music
extravaganza after protests against his appearance at the fest,
prime time entertainment chief at Rai TV, Stefano Coletta, said
Monday.
The message will be read out by host and organizer Amadeus,
Coletta said.
Coletta said Rai had been in constant touch with Ukrainian
Deputy Foreign Minister Andriy Melnyk over the controversial
appearance, which many Italian politicians said was
inappropriate for a light entertainment event.
Other commentators said it risked trivializing the war against
the Russian invasion.
But many others said they had no problem with giving the
Ukrainian leader a platform to voice his gratitude to Italy for
its aid.
Coletta said it would have been "complicated to censor the
president", who has appeared in other entertainment events on
video link, such as last year's Grammys.
"We are in daily contact with Ambassador Melnyk. We arrived at
the definition of the Ukrainian president's speech yesterday: he
will not send a video, but a text that will be read on stage by
Amadeus," said Coletta.
The highly anticipated Sanremo fest, perhaps Italy's biggest
entertainment show of the year, runs from Tuesday through
Saturday.
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