What it means to bring Y2K to Sanremo Festival 2023

We had stopped with the camp, the fight against homophobia, racism, sexism and cyberbullying continued, with successes and failures, during the 72nd edition of the Sanremo Festival. Issues that audiences, especially younger ones, are now used to discussing and that have found a key to a contemporary interpretation in the lyrics and faces of Mahmood and Blanco. Meanwhile, a few days ago, Amadeus announced the names of the bigs applying for the 2023 Sanremo Festival, and the hashtag #Sanremo2023 became trending. The 73rd edition of the festival, which will take place from 7to 11 February, will be hosted by Amadeus and Gianni Morandi - Chiara Ferragni, on the other hand, will probably be on the Ariston stage on the first and last night - and is preparing to reshuffle the cards on the table by (re)bringing key figures from the Italian Y2K aesthetic and scene.

«The Sanremo Festival must focus on the inescapable tradition, but also, if not above all, on young people. And in a very concrete way: by giving them a real chance. By putting them on the field and letting them play in the front row», Amadeus said about this edition. «It was a difficult choice, but I am overjoyed with these 22 singers. I thank everyone who played me one of their songs, or more than one song, the discography, the singers, everyone. It was a wonderful job. Imagine, I received at least 300 songs», the presenter continued. However, what has determined the 'hype around the 73rd edition of the festival is the fact that it has chosen to give voice to artists who shaped the aesthetic imagination of the 1990s and early 2000s. Among the names of the participating singers whose merit is to have immediately attracted the attention of the media are those of Paola and Chiara, Giorgia, Anna Oxa and the beginnings of Articolo 31 and Cugini di Campagna. But what does it mean to transpose a colourful and provocative aesthetic language - which fashion has been grappling with for the past two years - to a format like Sanremo TV? Last year's edition reached an audience during the first episode, and for the first time ever, made up of the 20-24 age group with an average share of 72.65 per cent, as reported by Wired, and the 15-19 age group (71.54 per cent share).

A target group made up of Gen Z, which, let it be said again, is on everyone's lips and in the database. But apart from the aim of creating an interesting story for a younger generation, there is perhaps an aspect that has more to do with the mechanics of the fashion system. «When Elodie asked me to accompany her to Sanremo, it was natural for me to imagine her walking down the stairs as if it were the stairs of the MTV Europe Music Awards! The problem, however, was to convey this concept to the maisons, who are always prejudiced against Italian singers, but above all snub TV and rarely dress the singers in competition, preferring to focus on the servants' wardrobe», celebrity stylist Ramona Tabita told Marie Claire Italia. In this way, on the one hand, professionals can offer brands the opportunity to present themselves in a format that was previously unexplored due to prejudices of a different kind, and on the other hand, artists have the chance to establish and benefit from new types of artistic relationships. In such a context, the Y2K revival could prove to be a potentially successful strategic choice from the entertainment industry's point of view, offering a generation that has only vague memories of it or is simply keen to immerse itself in its heritage the opportunity to revive cult moments in Italian history and aesthetics. Competing artists, on the other hand, could return to the limelight and be tied to fashion brands for the first time and be involved in new creative projects. The doubt remains, however: how is such a revival full of contradictions to be managed communicatively? After all, «Because Sanremo is Sanremo» is more than just a slogan.